meemalee

I first heard of Rene Redzepi and his restaurant Noma early last year, as the gentleman who had won MasterChef in 2009 had undertaken one of his final challenges at Noma in Denmark. At the time, I thought Redzepi seemed a breath of fresh air, simply because he seemed kind and understated, yet at the same time joyful about food (and his looked incredible). What was even more incredible was that Noma uses only food from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland, and employs a network of foragers to achieve as comprehensive a culinary canvas as possible. Right then, I decided that at the earliest opportunity I would save some pennies and visit Denmark to see for myself. And then Redzepi's Noma was awarded first place in the World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards this year, toppling Ferran Adria's El Bulli, and I wistfully thought, "Oh, I'm never going to get to eat there now - it'll be booked up for ever". But both Noma and Rene Redzepi became a little bit ...

The finalists and the key talent So last night was the Masterchef final. I’ve been a fan since Loyd Grossman ’s tenure, but it took Gregg Wallace and John Torode (aka the Egg and the Toad) to elevate this humble show to a true art form known as “ SHOUTING ABOUT FOOD ”. This year’s been an emotional roller-coaster . Having been glued to BBC2 every night since forever, I’m still mildly upset that Call Centre Chris (a strangely pleasing cross between Nasty Nick Cotton and Mark Thomas ) was turfed out last week. Anyway, our three finalists are Andy, Christopher and Mat. L-R: Mat, Andy and Christopher I’ve been rooting for Mat since the day I saw him fashion an ugly bread bowl for some monkfish chowder, Mat with his one T to make up for Gregg’s two G’s. He was a train engineer for goodness sake and he cried like an angel, looked like Ming the Merciless , foraged for his own food and had an accent you couldn’t pin down. Plus in the last episode, voiceover lady got a mite too personal, ...