Fatherhood...

I'm sure that the joys of fatherhood and being around your offspring even when they are doing your head in is something that any doting dad would never want taken away. However have you ever seen the look on a young fathers face when an impromptu free evening pass to the pub is gifted to them?

I saw that very emotion last night when my good buddy was informed that his lovely wife had exited her friends house to find that the car had broken down and that she had to stay there for the night with the kids.

Never seen a face light up like it before, the realisation that those cheeky couple of beers after work had the makings of a full night out. What followed were the immortal words "Brilliant, I'm going to drop the car off and walk back here.....Get me a pint in."

"You're my best mate", "My home is my home" and "One more thing" were soon being uttered as well which is why my head was a little hazy this morning but feeling fabbo now.

Got some pub news too, well kind of. I called the area manager of Greene King to ask if he knew of any reason why the current people had not got back to me, perhaps illness or holiday etc etc but he said he wasn't aware of anything but he would himself contact them to see what the hold up is so that's good progression.

The overall feeling I got from our conversation is that we are certainly their number one choice for taking it on and although he's not allowed to comment as whether other parties are involved the overriding impression I got was that there wasn't anybody but still it would be futile to expect that as fact.

At the end of the day (damn I hate that phrase) regardless of who is put forward by the current people the final decision is made by the landlords who are Greene King. Now that they know we have put an offer in and are keen to get an answer and get in ASAP we will at least be in their minds when decision time comes.

Went to the restaurant show at Earls Court yesterday and it was a very good experience, unfortunately we couldn't get a reservation in the super duper restaurant as it was already fully booked but that did mean we could get to watch the demo by Ashley Palmer-Watts who is the Head chef at Heston Blumenthals Fat Duck and soon to be heading up HB's newest venture at the Mandarin Hotel.

He said at the start that he'd be making something simple................hmmmmmmm. Not so sure that a couple of dishes with a combined cooking time of about 4 days is all that simple but I suppose when you have three Michelin stars you can say those kind of things.

I came out of there with some good things stored in the memory banks. There was a great speech by a guy called Xavier Rousset who is the co-owner and Sommelier at the Michelin starred London restaurant Texture. He spoke very well about how to make a good margin on wine but also to make it fairly priced. He also gave tips of creating a wine list, which wines to stock and general service and presentation skills that will boost sales.

In that section there was also a company from Hungary who had bought over a selection of wines they produce using mainly grape varieties unique to Hungary, a couple of these wines were absolutely outstanding and I did resist the temptation to ask if some of the reds were actually whites before the chemical spill.

Got loads and loads of the usual bumpf associated with these things and I apologise now to K & B for the amount of crap they might very well receive through the letterbox as the barcodeing system mean't that all the exhibitors had to do was zap you when you showed a remote interest in anything which I assume links straight back to the registrations.

There was also a stand in the drinks quarter being hosted by Estrella Damm and they in conjuntion with Ferran Adrià (Chef and owner of El Bulli. 5 times voted as best restaurant in the world) have created a dining beer called "Inedit" and I have to say it is very very nice and very easy to drink with a strong floural nose and hoppy flavour, if you ever see some out and about you have to give it a go.

My main take home (to coin a phrase) was that I need to get practising and get mastering the sous vide way of cooking. It a technique of cooking food in a vacuum which makes food retain 100% of it's flavour and goodness seeing as there is no air or water being circulated around it diluting the bits that we want to keep.

Might be a bit of an expensive outlay seeing that you need a vacuum packing machine and a water bath but I feel it's just something I need to get if I'm going to take my cooking to the next level....................I'm just trying to convince myself arn't I? Dammit !!!