British Food Lover Finishes Eight Year Dining Tour Reprinted from www.channelnewsasia.com 02/11/2004
LONDON : A British businessman has just finished up an eight-year dining tour of every Michelin three-star restaurant and produced his own ideal menu from the experience, the free daily newspaper Metro reported on Monday.
Andy Hailer, a portly 42-year-old, told the paper he started his eating adventure in 1996. Since then he has dined in 49 restaurants, all in an effort to find out if they deserved their Michelin Guide three stars accolades.
To find out, he spent 15,000 pounds (21.400 euros/27,250 dollars) in restaurant bills, which did not include travel costs.
Hailer has now come up with his own ranking system and ideal menu.
On the top of the list is the French chef Joel Robuchon, who has since closed his three-star establishment, and at the end comes Spanish chef Ferran Adria's eatery near Barcelona.
Hailer's ideal menu is based on traditional dishes with proven flavors: a vegetable risotto from the Italian restaurant Da Pescatore for an appetizer; Bresse chicken from the Parisian dining institution l'Ambroisie as a main course and for dessert a French Rum Baba from the Louis XV in Monaco.
For a thee-star to be awarded one of Hailer's "wows", it must be the ultimate.
"They are reserved for dishes that are so extraordinary, so out of this world that one can not even imagine how they are made," says Hailer.
Hailer hopes to pursue his next culinary travels next in Asia.
