Silverbrow on Food

Kalendar redux

I take it back, Kalendar, the Cheers of Highgate is no longer a joy to behold.

I have had growing concerns on recent visits, but tonight took the biscuit. There was a random blond hair in our olives. Three items I wanted to order weren't availalbe and this from a menu that has barely changed in the past two years - yet another gripe. The food is lazy and pretty bland. Silverbrowess' cod - who serves cod these days? - stunk of fish, never a good sign, although the chips were hand cut and well cooked. My mozzarella salad was fridge-cold, with some sad looking greens, thankfully lifted by a punchy vinaigrette. We'll overlook that it didn't really pay much homage to Italy.

This is a restaurant that reeks of complacency. There are a lot of regulars who I think are blinded slightly by nostalgia. They remember the great food and they're suckered by the nice decor and pretty location. It's a shame because Cafe Mozart, Kalendar's sister restaurant and next-door neighbour, still hits the mark as one of London's finest cafes - in the Viennese sense of the word, rather than Starbucks.

Heads-up

This is not a link for those of us that keep kosher, nor for those of you who are squeamish. But, if you want to see the epitome of nose to tail cooking, check out what Aki and Alex at Ideas in Food have been up to recently.

Jamie Oliver vs. Thomas Keller

It has now been announced that Jamie Oliver is the chef who will be the star-turn in the British edition of Ratatouille. In the American version, Thomas Keller voices an unassuming diner and he only has a couple of lines. I had assumed the secret British chef would do a voice-over for the same role. I was wrong, Jamie is doing the voice of the health-inspector, a pretty significant figure.

Keller is a world renowned chef cooking some of the best food available. Despite his burgeoning empire, Keller is not a populist figure, he doesn't do TV shows and he isn't shouty for the sake of the camera. Jamie Oliver is in many ways the diametric opposite. Unlike quite a few others, I admire him for what he's done but he has made his name because of the camera, rather than his food, although at last I've heard some decent comments about his restaurant, Fifteen. The only reason I can see for giving Oliver such a high profile is to sell cinema tickets, which is a shame. Ratatouille deserves to do well, not because a gobby brand is acting in it, but on its own merits. I fear that at some stage someone in Pixar's UK marketing department got scared that a film about a rat in a posh Parisian kitchen would not have mass appeal unless a famous name was attached to it. It's a sad indictment on our attitudes to food and celebrity.

That having been said, I think Jamie is a bigger risk than he might initially appear. Don't forget the recent (unfair) backlash to his school lunch campaign. I imagine those parents who are annoyed turkey twizzlers are off the menu, might also be the same people who are put off by hoity toity food and French accents.