Meades unmasked

Spirited debates and entertaining masterclasses were the order of the day at the 1998 Chef Conference, which took place at London's May Fair Inter-Continental last week. More than 270 delegates attended the conference, and in the evening 300 people sat down to a gourmet dinner, making this year's event the most successful in its 16-year history.

One of the most thought-provoking elements of the day was an address by The Times restaurant critic Jonathan Meades. In a question-and-answer session hosted by Caterer's editor Forbes Mutch, Meades spoke candidly about the restaurant industry in Britain.

Any suggestion that London is the gastronomic capital of the world was "ludicrous", Meades told delegates. "To suggest that London is a gastronomic mecca looks silly when you consider outlying areas like Romford and Sydenham," he explained. While Meades recognised the staggering improvement in central London restaurants over the past 10 or so years - concurrent, he felt, with the stagnation of those in Paris - he was critical that the capital was susceptible to the latest food craze of fusion cooking. "There seems to be a flock mentality," he explained. "One person does a particular kind of cooking and it trickles down. But by the time it gets to the fifth person, it has become rather debased."

Although he described the "gastronomic revolution" as being extremely "patchy and inconsistent" in Britain, he said that it was not something that could be blamed on the restaurant industry. "It has a lot to do with the punters," he said. "No one goes out to eat on Tuesdays and Wednesdays - except in London - and yet restaurants get triple booked at weekends. Social habits in London have been changed by the sheer range of restaurants now available. The types of grand-scale restaurant now operating in London are identifiable with the Parisian brasseries which opened 100 years ago and which still exist today. I hope places like Mezzo will equally be around for as long."

When asked how he selected restaurants for review, Meades revealed that it was a random process. "I follow recommendations from readers and friends," he said. "In another life I make TV programmes, and find myself stuck in hotels around the country, enabling me to get a wider picture of British restauration."

But that wider picture is not a very pleasant one, as far as Meades is concerned. In particular, he was dismissive of restaurants and food in Wales and Scotland. He said that the worst meal he could remember was in Aberystwyth and, while filming for a week in Scotland, he and his crew were "forced to live off whisky and crisps".

While he recognised that good food could be found in certain cities and towns and in some country house hotels, his major gripe was against the standard of cooking generally in the industry. "Trying to find simple, well-prepared food in somewhere like Boston, Lincolnshire, is almost impossible," he said.

Meades is particularly disappointed that Gary Rhodes's example of cooking British food has not been widely taken on board. "It has only been marginally followed," he said, "but was generally lost when pizza and curry became the vernacular food."

Opening the conference earlier in the day, Sir Terence Conran commented on national restaurant critics and described Meades as being "usually informed". However, he said that it was sad that some of the leading food journalists were "more interested in creative writing rather than well-balanced criticism.

"They write beautifully and can be incredibly amusing, unless you happen to be the subject of their vileness orbile," said Conran. "Over the years, I have developed an armadillo-type skin so that the barbs of Gill don't penetrate or that I'm not fazed by Maschler. But it can be decimating for the restaurant staff, who have pride and passion for their work."

Conran was particularly critical of AA Gill, restaurant critic of the Sunday Times. "He is always rude about the people who go to restaurants," he said. "When he was a waiter he, famously, once spat in the soup, yet the Sunday Times now employs him as a restaurant critic - and he is still spitting in the soup." n