Neil Walker

Dinner at ⭐️ Caelis in the Ohla Hotel, Barcelona last Wednesday. Not really a destination restaurant for me but one of the only options for an evening meal that isn’t bounced around on the back of a Deliveroo courier. Restaurants here are currently closed for eat in dinner unless you are staying in the hotel that the restaurant is situated in.
As you know, I love a kitchen counter, and Caelis provides just that. Although quite a deathly quiet experience with just me at the counter and one other two top dining that night, overall it was a pleasant enough meal. I think they just need to pipe a bit of background music in there to liven it up a bit.
It was a longish tasting menu that was served at quite a pace as they require everyone to be finished and out at 10pm. No bad dishes and a couple of excellent ones. One dish of sea cucumber carbonara and another of roasted leek are definitely on the long list for best dishes of the year so far. Desserts did feel like an afterthought though. Less

Barcelona is open for lunch at least and is actually nice and quiet. Very few tourists (me of course) and the weather this week has meant meals can be enjoyed al fresco. Lunch on Thursday was at the excellent Mont Bar where you are in the excellent hands of ex Tickets and Pakta chef's Fran Agudo and Jaume Marambio. The food is as you would expect from these two exciting and innovative cooks. Tapas and small plates that are both inventive while respecting the traditional. My kind of place and I would highly recommend it when next you are in town. Less

Dinner, or actually dinners, as I came back again last night, at ⭐️⭐️ Bianc in Hamburg where chef/proprietor Matteo Ferrantino has recently reopened after lockdown restrictions have been significantly eased here in Germany.
After two ‘nice’ but fairly pedestrian meals in Hamburg at ⭐️⭐️Haerlin and ⭐️Le Canard Nouveau this made a very welcome change with some exceptionally tasty dishes based around Matteo’s Mediterranean background. He’s Italian and had previously worked in Spain and Portugal for a number of years as well as UK and Austria so you can really see this kaleidoscope of influences front and centre on each plate. Indeed you can sometimes even name check a specific restaurant. For example, the corn and foiegras dish screams Disfrutar at you, as does a thin crisp crustaceans ‘tortilla’ though to a lesser extent, and a spherified liquid centre olive makes an appearance as it does now at restaurants across the world in some form or other thanks to El Bulli and the Adria brothers.
People who know me and my eating habits will know that I am very much led by the ‘experience’ as well as the food. So a sombre though note perfect ⭐️⭐️⭐️ meal at L’Ambroisie or Les Prés d’Eugénie isn’t really what floats my boat (*somewhere Andy Hayler’s head explodes), although I do recognise those kind of restaurants as good and worthwhile reference points for someone who likes to explore food and restaurants as much as I do.
That said, I had a great ‘experience’ at Bianc. One thing that I have noted during the last couple of weeks eating in the new-normal is how hard it is to convey a sense of generous and friendly hospitality when your voice and face are muffled and hidden behind a face mask, as is the case now for all restaurant staff (and diners away from their tables). But they really managed this very well at Bianc where they provided a warm and friendly service with Matteo, who seems a little eccentric to say the least, regularly visiting the table throughout the evening.
The style of dresses and matching black masks of the service staff together with their purposeful stride in unison from kitchen to table with plates and back again with hands clasped in front lent a very Handmaid’s Tale vibe (in a good way) to the evening and at one point I almost responded with “Praise be” when the incredible focaccia (grandmother’s recipe) went down on the table together with the lightest of buffalo butters, oregano flower and a grisini wrapped in lardo (why haven’t I thought of doing that before?!)
People are understandably cautious about visiting restaurants at the moment or even venturing out of the house. I totally get this, but my view is that at some point we have to get out and start supporting these struggling businesses again and I will follow the recommended guidelines of the government of the country that I am in (although possibly not the UK) while making every effort to keep myself and those around me as safe as possible. I have my own month of lockdown coming up next week in the form of at least three weeks at sea so I am glad to have had this nice meal to remember while we are getting tossed around in the North Sea and Bay of Biscay. Enjoy your weekend 🙂 Less

Ok, I can already feel some of you judging me. Feel free to do so but please keep it to yourself unless it’s in a good spirit. Germany has, last Monday, opened a lot of it’s restaurant’s doors and this is two visits to our lovely local restaurant here in Bremen Vegesack that I made this week. Firstly to be an amazing boss and treat my sous chef Suzanne Bezuidenhoudt to a well deserved treat and secondly for some of our crew (who all live and work together) to let loose a little. I am of the view that I will follow the government’s guidelines in the particular place I am. We will all eat in a restaurant again at some point and personally I will be taking a cautious approach to supporting this sector again. I have discussed this with friends and some agree and some of course disagree when I tell them that I feel much safer going to a restaurant than when I go shopping as part of my job to feed the yacht’s crew. On both visits we were told outside the restaurant that we must wear face masks when not at the table, the customers were very well spaced apart, waiting staff and chefs were all wearing masks and gloves throughout the evening, when we came as a large party (from the same ‘household’) we were seated in a separate section of the restaurant and we were maybe two metres from a door that was open to the fresh air all evening which I guess would help with preventing an environment of stale air.
I am eating out now. I feel comfortable doing so and am extremely mindful of people that I come into contact with to hopefully put both of us at ease somewhat.
I’m going to start posting the meals that I have but am not going to write this whole disclaimer above as pretty much the same people read these.
After all that, if you are ever in Vegesack, Bremen Germany then this is the best spot to come to. We went on their reopening night. They had not been doing takeout, as the food doesn’t suit. They were overjoyed to be open again and able to support their staff and hopefully be pulled back from the brink of permanent closure. Speaking to the owner, the German government has been reimbursing her for paying 60% of her employees salaries and she has received that money back within 3 weeks, keeping her afloat just about. However, I certainly remember being a young cook and living pay cheque to pay cheque so when it comes to the basics of survival, namely food and rent, I can only imagine how hard it has been for these guys and girls. I’m not encouraging you to rush out but to certainly consider the situation where you are and then if you feel comfortable and it’s allowed, support some of your local small business like this. Or give them a call and see if they maybe do takeout.
Have a nice day 🙂 Less

It turns out that being based in a Bremen shipyard for two months in the winter isn’t quite as bleak as I had feared. I’ve recently taken the train to Berlin & Amsterdam for the purposes of gluttony. Then last week, on a school night, I was easily able to head to Hannover and now Hamburg for some more eating.
100/200 is a 1⭐️ Michelin restaurant in an urban loft style space. Think industrial-chic with a centrepiece open kitchen surrounded by wooden tables for the diners to gawk from. It’s a beautiful space to be fair, but not the easiest to find should you be walking there after dark. I found myself walking along a footpath next to what was essentially a 6 lane motorway at rush hour.
Upon heading up to the restaurant entrance on the third floor, I was greeted by a member of the team offering me a glass of free champagne. It was made clear that it was free and an effort to show the restaurant’s appreciation for the diners who are still venturing out under current circumstances. There has clearly been a significant downturn in reservations with plenty of cancellations as well. I, however, as long as there is breath in my lungs, am eagerly pouncing on these empty seats that are popping up here and there, bagging a seat at Noma and Gaggan during this past week alone. I don’t mean to make light of the situation as it is extremely worrying to many businesses. Many of my friends from Asia have had to cancel European trips through no fault of their own. It’s tricky to justify keeping a reservation if you have to do a compulsory 14 day quarantine when you get home.
Anyway, the glass of champers was swiftly followed by the offer of a squirt of hand sanitizer.
The food was good with a focus on sea food including Arctic char, sea urchin, sturgeon, caviar, pike perch & oysters.
Service between courses was pretty slow. I started timing between a couple of the courses because I was getting a bit bored. At 23 minutes I decided to give it a friendly mention to the waiter. He apologised, agreeing that this wasn’t really acceptable especially with 7 more courses to go, and the speed quickly picked up. There was a weird vibe coming from the kitchen. It seemed like they were a little bit ‘dans la merde’ but because it’s a fully open kitchen, they were hiding this quiet panic with heads down and wide eyes. Like the string quartet aboard the Titanic, purposefully playing on even while the ship was clearly sinking around them. I may be wrong, but I’ve been cooking for 28 years now so I can pick up on that. Anyway, the ship didn’t in-fact sink in the end and all was well. The only other thing that I found pretty annoying was that they had a Pacojet right behind my table that they would regularly use to churn various things (sea urchin ice cream for one) throughout the evening. If you’ve ever worked with one of those machines, you’ll know how loud they are.
Definitely still room for improvement but overall an enjoyable meal. Less

An impromptu dinner at Handwerk in Hannover, Germany. Having researched on the ViaMichelin site where might be interesting to eat, I was heading to the only 1⭐️ Ole Deele. Upon arrival in Hannover, and after already travelling for 90 minutes on two trains it became clear that Ole Deele is not in-fact in Hannover but 16 km and another two trains or super expensive taxi outside the city. My own fault for not checking. The only other 2⭐️ was fully booked so after a little digging around on the Internet I came upon this place.
The michelin guide gave this place a 🍽 (indicating ‘good cooking’) again last week and describes it as a refreshing and youthful concept which combines creative modern cuisine, a smart and trendy bistro atmosphere and relaxed but accomplished service providing a personal touch. I can’t really argue with that description. The team were indeed young and the service very friendly and competent. The head chef was absent on my visit but the young sous, Martin Hartwig, handled himself very well. The cooking was excellent and I have had many lesser meals in restaurants that hold 1⭐️ Michelin.
One early pre-menu dish of a simple langoustine tail was of a standard where had I been served it in a 3⭐️ I would not have thought twice. It will almost certainly make my ridiculous ‘best dishes of the year’ list I’m sure.
So if you find yourself in Hannover then try to pay this little bistro a visit. Less

Lunch last week at ⭐️ Rijks at the Rijks museum in Amsterdam. Nothing wrong with it but not really a style of cooking that I super enjoy. Chefs Ivan Beusink and Yascha Oosterberg introduced ‘Low Countries’ cuisine, which is firmly rooted in Dutch produce. The chef and his young team draw their inspiration from ingredients grown on Dutch soil, often making use of the many international flavours that have influenced Dutch cuisine over the centuries. Less

Dinner in Amsterdam at Maris Piper Kitchen Table. 12 seats around the open kitchen of this busy brasserie that are only available on Friday and Saturday evenings. The food here focuses on Brasserie style dishes using luxurious ingredients. At the kitchen table you are offered a 7 course set menu that features some of the highlights of the more extensive brasserie menu. A nice enough meal but next time I will definitely go for the A La Carte menu. Worth popping in to. Less