Originally published on Monday, 26th January 2009

Straight from the Chef's Table

Knives at dawn! UJ restaurant moles report from the frontline of London's restaurant scene.

Overheards
Posh resto, bar and club owner Matt Hermer (Boujis, Bumpkin & Eclipse) is teaming up with W Hotels to oversee the main bar and lounge at the new Barcelona branch opening this summer. Look out Barca, you may well have a stampede of Sloanes heading your way.

Foodie-luvvies will be racing to Richmond for the usually pricey Petersham Nurseries' new set lunch menu. From only £22.50 for two courses, Wednesday to Friday, you'll even have enough left over to stock up on seeds and grow your own fruit and veg.

Lovers dining at The Landau on 14 February will be packing their toothbrushes in the hope of winning the chance to kip over in a suite at The Langham – you'll only be entered into the raffle if you have one. Flash them a fluffy slipper and who knows what might happen.

Spotted
CIs that the sharpening of knives we hear? Harden's Guide has been making snipey comments about Michelin, even printing an extract from a piece that appeared in US GQ calling Michelin 'a self-perpetuating promotional periodical that appears all-too-often dedicated not to assessing cuisine but to gathering celebrity chefs into its fold.'
Ooh, we love a good critics bitch-fest.

Jamie Oliver is launching a chain of DIY cook shops called Recipease, the first of which is opening in Clapham Junction. Hmm, seems a spookily similar concept to The Yard, just a few blocks away on the Northcote Road which has featured on these very pages. Is Jamie a secret Urban Junkie we wonder?
 
Miss Hope, creator of old fashioned sweetie shops Hope & Greenwood and queen blogger, has been getting licky with Heston Blumenthal after appearing on an episode of Big Chef Takes On Little Chef. Apparently Mr B fell for her Juicy Lips and Double Cherries – 'Like so many men before him,' she tells us with a wink.
 
On Trend

Lewis Carroll-inspired whimsy may be just the thing to pull us out of our impoverished slump, or so certain bar-owners seem to think. The Met Bar has just held a Mad Hatter's members party hot on the tail of former Loungelover manager, Richard Wynne, launching a new cocktail bar in Shoreditch called Callooh Callay (from Carroll's poem Jabberwocky). Brillig!