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Bray is famous for being home to two of the UK's three, three-Michelin-starred restaurants, but on Tuesday night it was literally crawling with starred chefs from across Britain. The chefs had been invited by Michel and Alain Roux to celebrate achieving three-Michelin-stars for the 25th consecutive year at The Waterside Inn (the only restaurant to achieve this accolade outside France).

The night began with champagne and canapés (chefs could be seen making bee-line for the potatoes and caviar) and progressed into finger plates of dishes from the restaurant's 25 years, including classics like snail flan and foie gras.

It would take up to much space to list all of the chefs who attended here, but Pierre Koffmann could be seen chatting to his former protégés Tom Aikens and Tom Kitchin, while Phil Howard, Gary Rhodes and Angela Hartnett shared a giggle. Raymond Blanc was there sporting a rather fetching beard, and, despite his broken leg, was, as usual, the life of the party. By the end of the night he was spotted sharing a plate of cheese with old friend Michel.

After a good couple of years in the planning; Chris and Jeff Galvin's new French restaurant La Chapelle is complete and open for business.

Yes Chef! was lucky enough to nab an invite to the launch party, where the great and good of the food and restaurant industry did what they do best (eat, drink and schmooze) alongside friends and family of the brothers.



Chris Galvin had the twinkle of an excitable schoolboy, which was quite fitting given that the stunning 19th century, grade II listed St Botolph's Hall site was formerly a girls' school; and some of the ex head girls also made an appearance to see how the building in Spital Square has been converted from school to restaurant.

As well as fine dining restaurant La Chapelle (which takes its name from the Rhone wine of Hermitage) and some rather breath-taking private dining up on the mezzanine level (pictured above); the brothers have created Café de Luxe, a contemporary all-day cafe which will serve more informal, affordable fare including wood-fired pizzas; and an interconnecting aperitivo bar, which will serve light dishes and oysters - some of which we got a taste of at the launch.



The site is visually arresting - its main fine dining area enclosed by smooth shining stone arches and the restored, wooden-beamed roof giving it a majestic grandeur that is softened by the warmth of glinting chadeliers.

Yes Chef! also managed to get a sneaky-peak at the open kitchen, which sits in pride of place in the main hall, surrounded by a bar, and take a closer look at the wood-fired oven which the brothers have installed, along with an expert Italian wood-fired specialist chef to create dishes for it.

Nearer the end of the evening, we managed to grab a few minutes with Chris' wife Sara, who will be the hostess of the restaurant and was telling YC about how she first met Chris when they were both working at the Lanesborough hotel. A nicer culinary family you couldn't hope to meet, and YC wouldn't be surprised, given the location, family-run set-up and skilled cooking of Jeff Galvin, who's at the helm in the kitchen, if the Michelin inspectors don't come a-knocking rather soon... 

Andre Garrett and Fred Sirieix are usually more at home taking requests from customers at their restaurant on the fifth floor of the Park Lane Hilton than they are answering questions put to them by flippant four year olds.

But for one morning earlier this month the chef and general manager of Galvin at Windows swapped the perils of the kitchen and the restaurant floor for the classroom when they went to the Edmund Waller school in Nunhead to teach the children about food.

"I believe that we need to get to the root of the problem with food in this country," Garrett tells Yes Chef! in the car on the way over to the school. "Of course it's good fun but I also believe in the message - there's no way we're going to improve things unless we get young people to understand about food and nutrition. They're the key and we need to teach them about flavour and taste."

Garrett has an MCA, one of the most respected accolades in the industry and one of the toughest practical examinations there is, yet YC detects a hint of nervousness as he carries his culinary accoutrements into the classroom. And it's understandable - children of this particular age (4-6) can be an unforgiving and somewhat irreverant audience, with little time for things that do not interest them - but from the moment Garrett begins the class it's obvious he has them captivated.

He starts with a general chat about the four different senses of taste: salt, sweet, bitter and sour (no doubt he'll save umami for a bit further on in the curriculum) and gives the tables of children small samples of salt, lemon juice, bitter chocolate and honey to demonstrate his point, which they devour with cries of "I like it!" and "I hate it!"

Then it's onto the jellies. Garrett has brought with him an assortment of differently coloured and flavoured jellies with which to test the children's understanding of taste. As a rule, kids love jelly - so this goes down a storm - chunks of the wibbling, colourful substance are picked up and squished into mouths, faces of pulled, laughter emanates and the chef is a bit stomped for words when asked "why is it wobbly?" by a particularly prudent little girl.

Garrett had ensured that the colours of the jellies didn't necessarily correspond to the flavour, and coffee jelly that had been assumed to be chocolate divides opinion within the class.

Now it's the children's turn to try their hand at making some food, and they are provided with little pastry cases, an array of berries and pots of crème anglais with which to make some tasty little desserts. As he circulates the room, it's clear that the chef has spotted a few potential pastry chefs in the making - and the kids are given the all-clear to tuck into their creations, which are impressive given the age of the group.

Once the devouring is over, the children are instructed to wash their hands, and there's a clear consensus that the lesson has been a success. Will Garrett continue this sideline in educating school children? "Perhaps, we'll have to wait and see."

Galvin at Windows is currently running an AA competition which gives chefs the chance to cook with Chris Galvin. You can enter it here.

Yes Chef! had a jolly old time at this year's inaugural London Restaurant Festival, which got some of the capital's best chefs on-board for a week of food-related debauchery.

Organised by dream team Fay Maschler and Simon Davis, the festival, which was designed to celebrate London's sheer wealth of top-notch restaurants, got off to a glamorously flying start with the Vanity Fair launch party at Quaglino's, but the main draw for the gastro it-crowd was the coup that was, and still is Pierre Koffmann at Selfridges.

News of Koffmann's hotly -anticipated return to the stove at a pop-up restaurant on the roof of Selfridges was enough to have anyone with a culinary bent breaking out in excitable meat sweats, let alone the announcement that the Gascon chef, who once held three-Michelin stars at London's revered La Tante Claire, had enlisted the help of his former protégés.



YC was lucky enough to eat at the restaurant (which is running for a month due to the huge uptake) twice during the festival, savouring our chance to sample the revisited pig's trotter - an unctuously delightful affair - and the cloud-like pistachio soufflé as well as rose veal and a rather superb red-wine poached pear pudding from Tom Aikens.

Food-royalty swarmed up on the fifth floor (we spotted Tom Parker Bowles, Angela Hartnett, Xanthe Clay, Lulu Grimes and Amber Nuttall on our visits) sipping Mumm rose and aperitifs, while backstage Koffmann's assembly of now-Michelin-starred-in-their-own-right chefs cooked up a storm of Koffmann classics and their own specials.

The Capital's recently departed Eric Chavot was running the show the busy lunchtime we visited, and we managed to grab a quick glimpse of the chef working the pass along with Tom Aikens, both of them deeply ensconced in their Koffmann kitchen moment, just as they'd been years earlier.

Other highlights included the Big Roast, which saw chefs like Mark Hix and Fergus Henderson pitching in to create an array of roast dinners for hoards of hungry eaters at Leadenhall Market. At the Eat Film event festival-goers were treated to a screening of a food-related film (we went for the ever-so-saccharin but nevertheless likeable Julie and Julia) followed by a meal with food from the film.

One of the London Eye's capsules was transformed into a ferris wheel restaurant with chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, L'Amina's Francesco Mazzei and Richard Corrigan all cooking up a storm for a select number of private diners. Sadly press weren't able to sit in on the meals - though we did get to speak to the chefs before and after the dinner rotations.

The whole thing finished on a high with the pop of corks bursting from magnums of Mumm as the winners of the festival awards were presented with prizes by the likes of Giles Coren and Maschler at the Tea building in oh-so-trendy east London. Refreshing categories like Bravery, Discovery and Warmth and Welcome saw Wapping Food, Wahaca and Angelus pick up awards, while Quo Vadis, L'Anima and Helen Darroze at The Connaught were recognised for their festival menus.

The final moments of the festival were played out next door in the ultra-slick, brand new premises of Pizza East, the brainchild of Soho House group founder Nick Jones, where plates of delectable Italian fare came thick and fast, giving the cream of the culinary crop a sneak preview of one of the most exciting openings London will see this year. Phew. What a week. It will be very interesting to see how the organisers plan on topping this one next year...

Well, the AA Hospitality Awards at the Park Lane Hilton earlier this week were a hoot. After a champagne reception and general schmoozing among the big-hitters in our industry (Yes Chef! spotted Jason Atherton, Benoit Blinn from Le Manoir and Helene Darroze on entering the room) we all moved through to the dining room for the main event.

This year the AA had gone all out with the catering - enlisting the help of three of London's most well-respected chefs, with Eric Chavot (recently departed from The Capital) doing the salmon starter, Chris Galvin (who's in the throws of opening a major new restaurant) providing the main beef course and Gary Rhodes crafting a lemon chiboust cream dessert.

Each course was incredibly impressive given the chefs were catering for much bigger numbers than they're all used to - 800-odd industry professionals, each with very high standards. We certainly wouldn't fancy having a go at that. But they took it in their stride and later in the evening, after the frantic service was over, Yes Chef! caught up with a very relaxed-looking Chris Galvin, who was enjoying a glass of champagne up on the 28th floor in his Galvin at Windows restaurant.

We also bumped into Eric Chavot, who was looking tanned and chilled out after his holiday in hometown Archachon. He didn't let us into what his plans are now he's a free agent, but we'll be keeping a very close eye on him from now on...

And what of the main draw - the awards? It was a particularly triumphant night for table 29 (which some were dubbing 'the naughty table'), which saw three of its chefs stand up to receive awards - Glynn Purnell winning Restaurant of the Year (England) for his Purnell's restaurant in Birmingham, Sat Baines being the only 5-star rosette achiever for his Nottingham restaurant with rooms, and Claude Bosi achieving four rosettes for Hibiscus in London.

Raymond Blanc (who recently graced the cover of Yes Chef!) was recognised for his years in the industry with the Lifetime Achievement Award - giving a passionate and self-deprecating speech, while last issue's cover star Marcus Wareing picked up the Chef's Chef award. It was also a happy night for Richard Corrigan, who won Best Restaurant (London) for his venture in Mayfair, while the lovely Helene Darroze got up on stage to pick up the Connaught's award for won Hotel of the Year for London.

All the excitement made for some tired chefs by the end of the night, and, according to Yes Chef! writer Emma Sturgess, some of them were finding it difficult to keep their eyes open. Of course, Yes Chef! partied the night away with the best of them...

Yes Chef! has just been on a two day whistle-stop trip to the Channel Islands, where we spoke to Michelin-starred chef Mark Jordan from Jersey's Atlantic Hotel and Christophe Vincent, formely of the Michelin-starred Christophe's, now executive chef of the Fermain Valley Hotel in Guernsey. 

Somewhat serendipitously, during the seperate interviews with each chef, it emerged that both had spent significant and formative years in the kitchen of the late Keith Floyd's pub-restaurant, the Malster's Arms.  

Both worked at the flamboyant cook's ill-fated Malster's Arms (the failure of which eventually contributed to Floyd's bankruptcy) in the 80s, Vincent as his head chef, and Jordan as a young sous.

Vincent recalled how different the Keith Floyd he knew was from the grey, frail, confused man portrayed in the Keith Allen 'Keith meets Keith' documentary which was aired the night he died. "He was so full of life, and always running around like a mad-man, keeping us all entertained," said the chef, who described the Malsters Arms as "the best pub I've ever been in."

For Jordan, Floyd was perhaps his stongest career influence. "I was only about 15 when I started working for him," he recalled. "He had had a big rift with his son at that stage, and I was about the same age - so he treated me a bit like I was his own.

"He used to drive me around in his Bentley to meet these legendary chefs like Marco and taught me an incredible amount about ingredients and the joys of working with local producers."

Yes Chef! jumped at the chance to go down to the launch of the Good Food channel, which, after one of the biggest rebrands of its kind, is the last of the UKTV channels to be completed. The birth of the new channel, which is now partnered with Good Food magazine was celebrated in style with a massive cook off, subsequent lunch and free flowing bubbles.

The great and good of the food industry - luminaries like Antonio Carluccio, Richard Corrigan, Gary Rhodes and Allegra McEvedy gathered alongside freelance journalists, food bloggers and TV personalities to compete against each other in a three stage cook off, hosted by a very excitable Biggins and of course, engage in some mutual appreciation of what had brought us all together in the first place: food.

After instruction from cookbook author Tiffany Goodall, it was time for each table to have a crack at their cook-off courses, YC bravely going up for round one of the first course: prawn cocktail. Along with a lovely lady from the Sunday Times, we managed to create something resembling that classic British starter in under three minutes - including making our own mayonnaise from scratch!

If you think that sounds tough, we later had to take part in the 'pimp my trifle' round, during which we had to choose a bowl, all the ingredients and assemble something resembling a trifle in 90 seconds. Suffice to say it wasn't the greatest culinary feat, but we did remember, unlike many of the other teams, to soak the sponge in sherry.

After the excitement of the cook off had died down, YC managed to catch a few quiet moments with Antonio Carluccio, who it was good to see was on sparkling form - relaxed and warm. He advised us about the secrets of good gnocchi (make sure your imprint the raw pieces with a fork so it absorbs the sauce ) and spoke about his pet hate of people misusing the term antipasto.

Once onto the subject of Italian food - YC mentioned our love of Elizabeth David's Italian Food book, and Carluccio recalled the time he was called on to cook for David, who he described as an "intellectual" when she was in hospital in London near the end of her life. "I made her truffle tagliatelle in the hospital kitchen," he told YC. "I knew that she loved truffles so I wanted to make it for her when she was ill. She was delighted."

Yes Chef! would certainly have loved to be a fly on the wall for that meal.

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