Kimchee
“Kimchee is a mysterious dish that lies at the very heart of Korean cuisine. Korean cuisine itself is a bit of a mystery to most Londoners and indeed the English in general – unless you happen to live in New Malden.”
Author Noah May
Southbridge and The Restaurant at Meadowood
“I never learnt to drive. I remember living in some extravagant world of fantasy at seventeen and informing family, that by the time I needed a car, I’d be in a position to employ a driver…” Noah’s life lessons bite back as he ventures into the Napa Valley…
Beside the Seaside
“Brighton is in a league of its own. As soon as the train pulls into the beautifully maintained station you know that this is not Margate, or Blackpool or Scunthorpe.”
Mayfair’s Finest at The Refinery
Lancashire Court was as busy as you’d expect at 7pm on a warm spring evening, but for some reason, I knew the comment was directed at me: “Smart hair, good suit…look like a Peterhouse man – are you?”
CUT at 45 Park Lane
Steak is a powerful and composite entity – a steak is never just a piece of meat. I can think of few other foodstuffs that carry so much baggage, that have so much emotion and meaning coiled around them.
Le Gavroche
“If I concentrate, I can see it all in my mind’s eye. It’s the early eighties – 1982 perhaps – that apocryphal year for the finest Clarets. I’d say it’s November and wintry, cold and grey outside…”
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2012
It is not usual to see men sporting horn-rimmed glasses and unruly beards in the…
Frantzén/Lindeberg
‘A gastronomic journey led by the needs of each ingredient and with the freedom of our creativity’. Noah May experiences one of the best meals of his life at Restaurant Frantzén Lindeberg in Stockholm.
The Lydmar, Stockholm
“The cold wind hits hard as we descend the steps from one of Ryanair’s winged beasts. This is bitter. We’ve left a London where every paper carries the headline ‘The Big Chill is here’…”
Pizarro
“He’s standing at the ham, slicing and sweating and we’re standing at the bar, waiting and salivating – there’s only a thin line between us…my god, I am desperate for that ham.”
Simply the ‘Best’
I’m not interested in the best restaurant on a budget or the world’s coolest or most democratic. I’m looking at the idea of the ‘best’, something that pulls at the heart strings, shocks, delights and nurtures in equal measure.
