We have a function on tonite, for which I'm hoping that everyone will be able to sit outside - on the deck and in the courtyard. Anna Robertson and team are currently over at the restaurant creating their own special blend of magic - hanging things from the maple tree and putting up fairy lights and candles and other visual treats.

Hopefully the weather will play ball, but not feeling quite as optimistic as I did on top of the Mount early this am, where the skies looked nice and blue. Cloud is currently rolling in , and I'm in 'hmmm...'mode at the moment.

Will just have to wait and see....Be such a shame if after all this  effort, people don't get the opportunity to enjoy what Anna has created - but...

Courteneys home for the weekend and she and I are going to have a mince cooking experiment shortly - as she starts to feel her way into cooking at the flat. Ironically have just read a Michael Ruhlman blog where the commentary is all about how important it is to teach your children to cook, and so far that is something we haven't really focused on with our two. Courteney makes sensational cupcakes - but has never shown much inclination towards savoury cooking, but needs must, and now she's fending for herself, she's starting to look at ways she can do it easily and nutritionally and we're happy to help.

But I digress...

we have a staff member who's pregnant with her second child, and I asked Vicki the other day what type of information she was getting from the Ministry of Health about eating whilst pregnant, becos we have had a run of pregnant women in the restaurant recently, in itself not unusual, but what has been noteworthy, is the amount of concern that some of them have expressed over what they can and can't eat.

Vicki said there is copious amounts of information.  I haven't been pregnant in 19 odd years, and I remember even back then that some of the warnings were pretty dire.

A  pregnant lady  complained last nite that she couldn't have an entree becos there was nothing on the list that she was able to eat becos she was pregnant. As Mr Ramsey would so aptly put it -  'bollocks!'

There is literally not one entree on the list that would be unsafe - no raw meat or fish, or unpastureised dairy products, so what actually is she scared off? And more importantly why is she so scared?  I didn't step in to explain that to her, becos she had made it clear it wasn't a subject up for discussion, and I don't feel its my place to intrude. But I did shake my head, and Ricks and my exchange over it, was one of discouragement. You really do wonder.

I understand the need for caution, I really do, but I do wonder about a world where we get so scared about what might possibly happen, that we avoid virtually everything except overly processed food. I just can't accept that that is a healthy approach, either on a physical level or an emotional one.

I am conscious however of a desire not to be seem to be judgemental of the decisions that other people make - each to their own, but it just seems to have been a bit of a week for it. A steak got returned on Friday nite, becos its 'welldoneness' wasn't well done enough for this lady, becos she was pregnant.

You get that!

This wasn't technically a complaint,  but I interpreted it as such becos I didn't have something the customer wanted, and I think it was a valid request. Tried to talk him into some locally produced artisanal eau de vies from Distillerie Deinlein, but he was a man on a mission, and didn't want to be sidetracked.

He asked for calvados which we don't stock - I knew that it was an apple brandy but is not one I've ever drunk, hence my attempt to get him to try one of the other Deinlein flavours although they don't do an apple. I should probably have gone and got a sample and brought it to him, becos the quality of the liquers and brandies that those guys are making are utterly superb, but I suspect we all still tend to be locked into the eminance of the European brands.

Deinlein's tangelo liquer beat Cointreu in a European based competition a few years back, which proves that what they're doing is world class. But I digress.

My gentleman who wanted  calvados then decided he wanted an armagnac, and I had to reply in the negative again ( which I hate doing!) becos we have 2 cognacs but no armagnac. He made the comment that he prefers it to only be distilled once, and I deferred to his superior knowledge on the subject, apologised for the fact we didn't have any and promised we would next time he came.

Have just been doing a little research just now to find out about both calvados and armagnac, and thought the comments in one of the articles I read on armagnac being superior in many instances to cognac becos the fact its only distilled once  means it spends longer in oak and therefore has more finesse and roundness, was very interesting. He obviously knew what he was talking about...

We don't sell alot of post dinner drinks - unlike in the European countries when they are treated as a digestif, New Zealanders aren't quite as keen to follow a meal with a liquer. Possibly becos of the alcohol content and the drink driving issues - but mainly I suspect becos we just don't have that culture.

I don't keep an extensive range of either spirits or liquers - we cover the basics and feature some special things like the Deinlein distillery, becos its local and deserving of our support, and Warren Prestons Milford Whiskey from Oamaru, but I don't get the demand for 6 different types of rum, if you follow my gist.  We just aren't a bar in that sense.

Wine is our biggest focus.

However, having said that, people asking for things that I may not have tried is often a good starting point to discover something new and I'll now be checking with some of the distributors that I deal with to get bottles of both calvados and armagnac. However I suspect I'll be starting at a lower price point than I've just seen at one retail outlet on the net, where prices of aged armagnac were over $1000 a bottle.

I don't think so. Something tells me I wouldn't sell too much...

This is certainly not the first complaint we've ever recieved! - but thought it might be interesting to document some of the comments that we get, which give us pause to reflect, and reconsider. There are 2 types of complaints as I see it in a restaurant - those from people who have no idea what they're talking about, and who becos we don't fit their idea of a restaurant ( for example, we can't and won't serve cona coffee ), they complain - some vociferousively! Its never pleasant to listen to negativetly, but I have definitely learned over the years that there is some criticism that its OK to tune out, becos there will never be a meeting of the way.

And then there is an altogether other type of comment, where the people concerned can make a really valid remark and raise an issue that we may not have previously thought off. Rick and I have never professed to know it all - and we are constantly on a quest to improve and expand what it is that we do, so we are always open to comment.  Sometimes we agree, and sometimes we don't - but it's always useful gist for the mill.

Had an English couple in the other nite, travelling thru NZ who commented leaving, that they had thoroughly enjoyed the meal, but..! Got to watch for those buts!

Their issue was the fact that we served our cheese straight from the fridge, and they said that they used to own a restaurant, and love cheese and eat it every nite, and feel very strongly that it shouldn't be served cold. And of course they are quite correct - you get much more of the nuance of cheese flavour if it is served at room temperature. Our reality though is that our cheese sales are too erratic for it to be viable for us to bring portions out of the fridge at the start of service each nite, so that it is at the right temperature should a customer decide to order a cheese board. The wastage would be too much, becos you wouldn't be able to put that cheese back in the fridge at the end of the nite if it hadn't been ordered - it would have to be thrown away. In dollar terms thats a little scary.

The point however is a valid one. And we have gone to the trouble of sourcing top NZ cheeses, so it seems a little silly not to be serving them absolutely at their peak, and we had a lenghty discussion later that nite ( over some Waimata Gorgonzola!), about how we could circumvent the incompatibility of the 2 notions.

One of the things that intrigued us in the restaurants we ate in, in France last year, was that it was considered perfectly normal to give your dessert order at the same time as the rest of your order. Presumably becos in that culture it  is taken as a foregone conclusion that you will go right thru the menu, whereas in NZ we proffer the dessert menu after mains have been cleared away, and get declined by about 30/40% of people, who claim to be too full for dessert. We liked the idea of the kitchen knowing at the start of service what dessert orders are there, rather than, as happens in our kitchen, it been totally in the lap of the gods, becos you can never know in advance what sort of uptake you are going to get for desserts, and the percentages can vary from nite to nite.

 On the basis of that notion, Ricks suggestion, and I thought it had real validity was to make the comment somewhere on the menu, that people would read when they were ordering their entrees and mains, that it they were going to order cheese later, and would prefer to eat it at room temperature then to please let the waiting staff know when they ordered their first courses and we would ensure that the cheese was served accordingly.

No doubt we will get the odd occasion when someone will think they want cheese, order it in advance and then change their minds - becos you always get that with human beings, but on the rare occasion that that will happen we will be able to absorb the extra cheese without it being an issue.

To me its an ideal compromise - and I think we'll give it a shot when we get the new menus printed next week, with the changes Rick is currently working on, and see what kind of response we get..