Kitchen Rat: Making a meal of it

Making a meal of it

When you’ve only changed head chef twice in the last 30 years, why not show off on social media? That’s clearly what Danny Meyer thought when he decided the best way to introduce Union Square Café in NYC’s new executive chef Lena Ciardullo was over a filmed meal in the restaurant.

In a short video on Twitter, Meyer explained that the role is “as big as it gets”, adding that he was “serving people whose diapers I changed in the basement when their parents first came here”. It’s the kind of talk that’s enough to put some people off the restaurant’s trademark ricotta gnocchi, but who is the Rat to question the man who literally wrote the book on great hospitality?

Can sustainability stop at squirrel?

The Gladwin brothers unveiled new restaurant Sussex, in Soho’s Frith Street last week, showcasing produce from their family farm and vineyard in the county that gives the restaurant its name.

A lavish preview dinner hit a crescendo in the presentation of venison and fig Wellingtons, but it was an earlier dish of squirrel tortellini that led this rat to raise his eyebrows. While colleagues have reported that the tortellini was delicious and praised its sustainable credentials, I hope restaurateurs don’t continue the trend by eyeing up curious visitors searching for titbits of news.

Wedding tackle

The Wild Boar Inn, Grill and Smokehouse near Windermere has broadened its list of wedding activities to include axe-throwing, dagger throwing, archery and clay pigeon shooting. Because nothing spells happily ever after like your loved one perfecting the art of launching a dagger at a small target from 50 yards.