Posts from 2012

Posted on Thu, 01/03/2012

Apologies! - but Rick, who spends hours on the computor keeping up to date with racing results, has just alerted me to a new photo of our daughter in her team kit in America. Click on her photo - and you get the girl, looking...>>>

Posted on Fri, 02/03/2012

I have a natural and deeply ingrained aversion to talkfests. We stay away from industry conferences, becos I've never been comfortable with the notion of all the false, superficial connections that are made in rooms jammed...>>>

Posted on Sat, 03/03/2012

This would have to simply be one of the most inspirational books I have ever read, and I don't say that lightly even though I approached reading it, with a reasonable modicum of scepticism on the back of a  recent conversation...>>>

Posted on Thu, 08/03/2012

This made me smile, and thought I should share......>>>

Posted on Thu, 08/03/2012

We are extremely quiet tonite. And that is one of the vagaries of owning a restaurant that I like the least, becos more often than not there is no rhyme or reason to why a Thursday nite one week can be very busy, and then...>>>

Posted on Fri, 09/03/2012

About to head out the door for some exercise - have a meeting at the restaurant at 6pm for a function we have coming up that I need to be over there for, so just a quick link to something Jim sent me thru. When the college...>>>

Posted on Sat, 10/03/2012

Chris and I have been tooing and froing via email over the last day or two, regarding a computor query I had, and his various attempts at talking me thru what to do have effectively stalled. However now that we know what...>>>

Posted on Sat, 10/03/2012

It is a subject matter that I harp on about  regularly, I'm aware, but I found this interesting, becos it sort of plays to the theories that I've had about restaurant rating systems for along time, and I especially liked...>>>

Posted on Mon, 12/03/2012

Our day yesterday was planned around being able to sit at the computor from 1pm and watch a livestream of the first race Courteney has had in the States this year. It was a Criterium which isn't her preferred form of road...>>>

Posted on Mon, 12/03/2012

Years ago - I'm going back to the late '80's - we started serving sushi and sushimi at the restaurant becos there was a local floriculture business that was owned by Japanese interests, and which meant that we got to see...>>>

Posted on Thu, 15/03/2012

Its been a nice nite in the restaurant - especially nice becos the last two evenings have been exceptionally quiet, and tonite we had reasonable numbers which always cheers me up considerably. So I wasn't in a bad mood...>>>

Posted on Fri, 16/03/2012

An interesting visual of the style of food presented at Alinea, a Chicago restaurant that I've alluded to in the past many times. This is not the sort of food that I can imagine us ever desiring to present at Somerset -...>>>

Posted on Fri, 16/03/2012

We are deepfrying one of the dishes in this current cookschool series, and that process  always seems to segue into a discussion about what fats to use, how often you can reheat the oil, temperatures to cook at, and...>>>

Posted on Fri, 16/03/2012

I am in that down time, between cookschool and evening service, and I was supposed to be heading out for some exercise, but I've decided to forego that today, and instead have had a wee bit of a siesta, and just caught up...>>>

Posted on Sat, 17/03/2012

Both our daughters are racing this weekend - Hannah and Andrew are in a team in the 24 hour Arc Race up at the tip of the Coromandel, and Courteney has the time trial stage of the San Dimas Tour in California. I've been...>>>

Posted on Tue, 20/03/2012

I've just come back over to the house after having a meeting with Sandy regarding the visit from Jane Skilton that we have coming up in early May. She is going to be leading a tasting of bubbly style wines and also pinot...>>>

Posted on Tue, 20/03/2012

Late Sunday afternoon, after we'd finally encouraged the last table from Michelle Richardsons lunch to leave, close to 6pm, Rick and I headed up to very special friends, who farm up the top of Whakamarama. People who matter...>>>

Posted on Thu, 22/03/2012

We had some special customers in the other nite who I hadn't seen in awhile, so there was much catchup chat as the evening progressed. Pauline always has the duck, but doesn't like it with any bones, so all staff are alerted...>>>

Posted on Thu, 22/03/2012

Doug sent me this too, and I love it! Love the looks on peoples face, the energy with which they attack the stairs...fabulous!...>>>

Posted on Fri, 23/03/2012

I worry sometimes about the expectations of the generation that are coming thru training at the moment. And maybe in doing so, all I'm really doing is showing my age, but sometimes it feels like they have totally unrealistic...>>>

Posted on Mon, 26/03/2012

Our normal Monday routine, has been changed today, becos Rick had a dental appointment in the morning, which put paid to us going over to the Mount first thing as we ordinarily do. Instead we'll head over later this afternoon,...>>>

Posted on Thu, 29/03/2012

It is a glorious autumnal day. I've been out  early and done my exercise, and it was quite beautiful out there. Home to catch up on some more mundane chores at the computor and to get myself organised  for the couple...>>>

Posted on Thu, 29/03/2012

And before I go and mop the floors, I'm just clearing my Inbox as you do, and chanced on this video of David Lebovitz in a charming candy shop in Paris. The French take their chocolate and sweets  so much more seriously...>>>