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Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an e-mail that goes directly to the corporate offices, and no human being is monitoring this in box, so I don't know how to direct those of you who wish to have their voices heard. I wish I could respond to each of the more than 500 upset readers who've e-mailed in the last 36 hours and to all of you who've written since our doors were locked, but I can't do it. Needless to say, we couldn't have done this magazine without you, our readers, and we thought about you every day. We will miss you, too. Thanks for all of us for your interest, for your criticisms, and most of all for your support.

Could this be? I had caught a whiff of a rumour that Condé Nast had closed several of their magazines, including Gourmet. Now I know it to be true. The lack of advertising interest has left the gourmet magazine market the poorer. Which famous names will follow? Rumour also has it that some European restaurant guides are slowing the cycle down to bi-annual publication (and testing) and Pudlo themselves have said that they will not be producing a guide for the whole of France, for the time being at least.

When we come to updating the rankings we will know the extent of the downsizing taking place.

And in its turn the animal is one of Japan’s big imports from the US of A where in southern California former surfers lift them to higher things. The quality of the animals, of which the roe is the preferred part, is most consistent on the west coast of California and here demand, harvest and prices rise in December. The Maoris also fish for them and eat them, though they would prefer to export to Japan. But the quality is seldom high enough to meet Japanese standards. This applies to many other areas where there are plentiful sea urchins but at a lower price than that which can be realised in Japan where one particular form, the uni, can sell for as much as $450/kg.

There it is served raw as sashimi or in sushi, with soy sauce and wasabi. Around the Med the roe is often eaten raw with a squeeze of lemon juice or served on very hot linguine which slightly cooks the roe. They are used in omelettes, fish soups, sauces, tartlets. Cooked and uncooked they prove an unusual experience with a texture a bit like thick custard and a fresh marine flavour.

So the next time you step on a sea urchin just think of the way you could have cooked it rather than just being upset at the pain.

Written by J.K. Clouston, gourmet-portal.com, 2009

We are a dwindling company: those who watched Whisky Galore on its first tour of the cinemas, with or without a dram in our hands. Not at all like Pilcher romanticism but probably just as good a tourist puller in its day. I was brought up in a society that visited each other ‘for drinks’. Once there one indulged in sherry, g and t, horse’s necks and similar driving limiters. Wine was barely known and then often called plonk in later years. So how could you expect me to become a consumer of wine let alone a connoisseur?

But I love to smell what everyone else is drinking and was doing this even before I watched French Kiss. The scene where Meg Ryan (Kate) describes the flavour, taste and feeling of the local red to Kevin Kline’s Luc has long impressed me and I try to find these notes in the wines I am allowed to smell. But I don’t drink it.

In spite of being a teetotaller I can still appreciate the draw of wines. The work, the luck, the geography, the business. And it is lovely to be able to combine wine with going to the cinema, a simple pastime I do indulge in.

The films listed here are the best known though not necessarily most accurate in their presentation of the wine world. There is rarely a film which manages to be absolutely 100% accurate and compromise or lack of insider knowledge of the consulting experts can lead to unfortunate blunders, another cinematic pastime and one which does not combine successfully with wine. And so the job of continuity girl will live on and be knocked: freshly shaven soldiers in battle, disappearing trousers in Love Actually. But she is not to be blamed for getting years, names, labels and provenances mixed up. But not to worry. Films are also entertainment. And when combined with a little taste bud amusement an evening of relaxation and enjoyment can be guaranteed. So get out the crystal and a favourite bottle and let yourself be carried away:

French Kiss: wonderful Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline played off the screen by the French scenery.

Sideways: you didn’t know what hit you till it was over.

A Walk in the Clouds: OK, I admit it. I think Reeves is good, a bit like Mitchum.

A Good Year: amusing, warm, oh yes I think Russel Crowe was in it. But then so was the French scenery again.

Bottle Shock: the Judgement of Paris in 1976 and the background story with Rickman and Pulman.

Others have suggested J’ai epouse une ombre and The Secret of Santa Vittoria as films with a story to tell whilst Merlove has been mentioned as a very informative and entertaining documentary.

JK Clouston for GourmetPortal, 2009

From an informal seafood restaurant in Ayrshire to a luxury hotel situated on its own island and a restaurant with rooms accessible only by foot or by boat, these are this year's finalists for the 2009 Taste of Scotland Thistle Award - sponsored by Scotland Food & Drink – and were chosen for clearly demonstrating their passion for sourcing, using and promoting local Scottish produce.

The shortlisted candidate, The Isle of Eriska Hotel and Spa, cooks in the top league in spite of being situated almost off the edge of the known world. It is currently ranked 200 out of 497 internationally recognised UK gourmet restaurants. The hotel has set up a wide network of local suppliers chosen for their high quality and all visited personally by the kitchen team.

Eriska has recently developed its own kitchen garden to provide the freshest herbs and vegetables. They also co-operate with a local farmer. The hotel has also started to rear its own pork, which is slaughtered and butchered locally for use in the hotel's kitchen.

Sourcing a wide variety of locally landed seafood allows the hotel to concentrate on using sustainable stocks and changing the menu frequently allows the hotel to use small quantities of more unusual kinds of fish in place of species from less sustainable stocks.

The Scottish Thistle Awards, which are among the most coveted accolades in the industry, celebrate quality and innovation across a range of categories.

Source: VisitScotland: 17 August 2009

Our new feature is now online. We would like to wish you lots of fun with our BETA “user review”

The restaurant portraits have been expanded to include a new ‘guide’. Along with the classic professional critics, guests and users can now offer their ‘amateur’ assessments.

However the user must be logged in before a +/- feedback and comment can be posted. You simply choose the restaurant from our ranking list or registers and fill out the form. The data will be collected, an average established and, with any luck, will be included in the rankings as from autumn.

In addition threads from the foodie forum and reports by bloggers can be viewed using a direct link. We believe that this will greatly improve and augment the rankings and the restaurant information as it is the guests that all restaurateurs consider to be their strictest critics.

And the really ingenious aspect is that you can create reports not just for Germany but for the whole of Europe. If you feel that an important restaurant is still missing from our lists you are welcome to tell us about it. If it satisfies our criteria then the data bank will be expanded.

We look forward to a lot of reviews and feedback.

Best regards: Hannes Buchner & Christian Stromann

Unlike ´normal’ rankings which merely add the points together as given by the guides the complete European ranking is calculated using averages thereby allowing leeway when taking the varying national and guide philosophies into account.

Obviously this list should only be considered as a suggestion and in no way claims to be complete or definitive or even the only true and correct Best List! You still have to visit the restaurants yourself and do the menu comparisons personally.

And so we wish you all the best and bon appetit.

www.restaurant-ranglisten.de/de/ranglisten/europa_ranking/index.html

“Germany’s 2008s are like the perfect sorbet,” says Helmut Dönnhoff. “They are so refreshing.” No spin doctor could cast the notably high acidities of the 2008s in a more favourable light than this acclaimed Nahe winemaker, who is not prone to hyperbole.

Wilhelm Haag, a leading light of the Mosel wine growers, had a more pragmatic view of the latest vintage’s very distinctive character: “The 2008 is very good for our economy at the moment because the wines are mostly in the lower price range.”

One bonus of the very cold 2008/2009 winter is a reasonable crop of Eiswein, made from frozen grapes, typically picked on December 30 but some picked in the 2009 calendar year (although, as is usual, they will carry the year of their growing season on the label).

One thing I noticed when tasting from the vast range shown to German wine professionals in Mainz at the end of April is that the difference in profile between dry (trocken), half dry (halbtrocken and feinherb) and fruity wines is being eroded. It seems eminently sensible that there should be a greater emphasis on producing well-balanced wines rather than making a political statement about dry v sweet. Indeed, some serious producers seem to be abandoning the traditional Prädikat classifications (Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, BA and TBA) on their labels altogether.

 Those UK merchants currently making offers of the particularly useful 2008 vintage (Justerini & Brooks, Montrachet, Howard Ripley and Seckford, to be followed by Tanners and The Wine Society) seem to be offering more dry wines than they have in the past, although they tend to be relatively modest examples.

I also noticed that screwcaps are on the ascendant in Germany. Willi Haag will put more than half of the 2008 crop under screwcaps for the first time, because so much of the harvest is at relatively modest sugar levels.

The weather may have presented challenges but Germany’s best producers are more skilled and more determined than they have ever been. The best are lovely, expressive, truly refreshing wines that will mature relatively early and will make delicious aperitifs – so much better value than most champagne.

As totemic, fourth-generation Saar winemaker Egon Müller put it: “2008 is a step back from 2005, 2006 and 2007. 2008 is more normal. We’re not used to that.”

(www.jancisrobinson.com/FT.com)

For Paul it’s the culmination of his dream to set up 21212 and run it in his own inimitable style. Facilities include three luxury bedrooms, a 38 seater restaurant, drawing room, reception area and private dining. In terms of contrasts it’s night and day in comparison to their previous restaurant Juniper. The listed Georgian townhouse over four floors is light, spacious and airy whereas Juniper was an onstreet property which was a former an estate agents. The couple and their business partners have invested £4.5m into the project and have been heavily involved in restoring the elegant townhouse to its former glory since inception and although they have retained many period features they primarily wanted to transform the restaurant into a 21st century environmentally friendly restaurant.

A glance at the menu carefully constructed and considered by Paul shows that he is staying true to his modern French style of cookery which he championed at Juniper but with a more grown up approach to his menu combinations. For £60 per person the dinner menu consists of an exciting combination of dishes prepared by Paul and his team of eight chefs, which includes his sous chef from Juniper Kate Johnston. The five course gourmet menu consists of a choice of two dishes on the starter, main course and dessert courses, hence the restaurant’s name. The lunch menu priced from £20 per person offers diners the flexibility to choose from a 2, 3, 4 or 5 course menu. It’s also a marked departure from other restaurants as there won’t be a separate a la carte or taster menu – just a well thought out combination of exciting flavours for each course.

When asked about the vibe of his new establishment and his hopes for the future he advised. ‘When we left Juniper we were looking for a new challenge. Edinburgh where we had spent some considerable time in the past was the ideal place for us and Katie who is originally from Scotland has been a delightful tour guide and we have been enjoying exploring the city and the rest of Scotland together in what little spare time we have had over the past couple of months. To new diners coming to the restaurant that are unfamiliar with my style of food I don’t have a uniform style of presentation on the plate and my dishes are a composition of flavours that make the whole dining experience. In the past I have been called experimental but I would say that my dishes are intricate, feminine, interesting and vibrant in colour and they are delicately assembled with a build up of flavours. Each course is made up of a variety of components that could be represented in isolation but I think that new diners will find the food interesting and seasoned Juniper regulars will find our new venture a refreshing take on his original style and one that they will enjoy. For us as well as the food – it’s always been about the whole dining experience so from the décor to the added extras in terms of to the service it’s about our style and attention to detail and we think that will shine through’.

Bookings are now being taken on reservations@21212restaurant.co.uk reservations can also be made for the restaurant and bedrooms – on 0845 22 21212 02 or 0131 523 1030. 21212 will open five days a week –Tuesday through to Saturday for lunch and dinner with meals served between 12.00 -1.45pm and 7.00-9.30pm.

Gemma Nicholson of www.crimsonedge.co.uk

Michelin also recently announced that they were pulling out of Austria after four years of testing and publishing the Austrian guide.

The value added tax, which is applied on a range of items in restaurants, will be reduced to 5.5 percent from 19.6 percent, beginning July 1, the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday.

The change, presented as a “contract for the future” between the government and the hospitality industry, includes a commitment by restaurateurs to pass along the tax savings in the form of lower menu prices.

…

The tax-cut agreement also includes a commitment by restaurant and hotel owners to work with the government to improve pay, training, and working conditions for staff.

…

Wine lovers will not be raising their glasses in celebration because the agreement does not cover alcohol.

Gérard Jourdain, the director of Les Fontaines Saint Honoré, a bistro near the Louvre Museum in Paris, said that in anticipation of the decision, he cut the price of set meals and à la carte dishes by about 10 percent a month ago.

Mr. Jourdain said he had already hired a staff member — he now employs 15 — and would add another in the summer if business kept picking up. Many restaurants in France are chronically understaffed because high social welfare costs, which amount to between 50 percent and 59 percent of the total salary for each employee, discourage hiring.

By Matthew Saltmarsh

April 29, 2009 Read more @ www.nytimes.com