{"id":8,"date":"2009-08-04T22:13:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T22:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=8"},"modified":"2021-07-02T00:13:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T23:13:02","slug":"farewell-to-chris-staines-the-foliage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to Chris Staines @ the Foliage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Had my last meal at my favourite London restaurant the <a title=\"Foliage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mandarinoriental.com\/london\/dining\/foliage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Foliage<\/a> with Chris Staines as Head Chef. Chris was in the last week of his 3 months notice before he moves onto pastures new. Heston Blumenthal will open up his first London\u00a0restaurant in its place in the <a title=\"The Mandarin Oriental London\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mandarinoriental.com\/london\/dining\/heston_blumenthal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mandarin Oriental<\/a> in a\u00a0\u00a0years time.<\/p>\n<p>What amazed me was that even in his last week Chris was producing simply breathtakingly stunning dishes&#8230;Respect.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-8 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-004.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-004-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-006.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-006-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-007.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-007-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-010.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-010-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-005.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-005-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-012.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/London2009_V1-012-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Over the years I&#8217;ve\u00a0 had some\u00a0fantastic meals at the Foliage. In fact I use it as a benchmark to judge every other restaurant I visit. The service there is exceptional and the\u00a0way Chris uses flavour and texture is the mark of a true artist.\u00a0I suspect that the much larger replacement restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental will not live up to the high standard set by Chris\u00a0or indeed Heston at the Fat Duck.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So many celebrity chefs are going down the &#8220;franchise&#8221; route, with disastrous results. The <a title=\"Abode\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=1510 \" target=\"_self\">Abode<\/a> chain (Micheal Caines) being a prime example and don&#8217;t get me started on how awful <a title=\"Harveys\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=1463 \" target=\"_self\">Harveys<\/a> is (John Burton Race).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d like to thank Chris and his team at the Foliage for giving us many memorable meals (It was\u00a0my experience of eating at the Foliage that got me interested in food)\u00a0and to wish him the very best for the future. I just wish he was staying in London as his talent will be sorely missed.<\/p>\n<p>Marks out of 10<\/p>\n<p>Food 8<\/p>\n<p>Service 9<\/p>\n<p>Ambience\u00a07<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">UPDATE : Chris Staines is now Head Chef at the <a title=\"Allium Brasserie\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abbeyhotelbath.co.uk\/allium-brasserie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Allium Brasserie in Bath<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p><a title=\"Top page - Noexpert.co.uk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\">Return to top page<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Had my last meal at my favourite London restaurant the Foliage with Chris Staines as Head Chef. Chris was in the last week of his 3 months notice before he moves onto pastures new. Heston Blumenthal will open up his first London\u00a0restaurant in its place in the Mandarin Oriental in a\u00a0\u00a0years time. What amazed me &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/?p=8\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Farewell to Chris Staines @ the Foliage&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226,227,292,31,25,7,8],"tags":[16,667,5,51,4,60,14,19,181],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-michelin-star","category-5-aa-rosettes","category-award-winners","category-best-of-the-best","category-expensive","category-london","category-uk","tag-abode","tag-allium-brasserie","tag-chris-staines","tag-fat-duck","tag-foliage","tag-heston-blumenthal","tag-john-burton-race","tag-mandarin-oriental","tag-michael-caines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":57,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28765,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/28765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noexpert.co.uk\/food\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}