Bitter Feast, the film that shows a chef extracting rather bloody revenge on the food blogger who penned a vitriolic review of his restaurant, has so far met with rather mixed reviews itself. Unsurprisingly, the relationship between restaurant critic and chef has never been a harmonious one. Here, food writers sound off.
Take Five... Matthew Norman
"The herb crust (with the cod) could have been adapted, with minimal effort, for use in germ warfare." The writer didn't enjoy his main course at Almeida, London.
Take Four... Frank Bruni
"A duck-and-eel terrine in a chocolate consommé tastes like cat food splashed with Yoo-Hoo." A decidedly disappointing dish for Bruni at New York's Tailor restaurant.
Take Three... Jay Raynor
"Such grievous bodily harm upon a lovely little sea bream really ought to carry with it some form of judicial penalty." Raynor is saddened to think that the fish he was served at The Corinthian, Glasgow died in vain.
Take Two... Giles Coren
"I'd have guessed I was eating thin strips of mole poached in Ovaltine." Coren is far from impressed with the pollo marsala at Goodfellas in Belfast.
Take One... AA Gill
Gill weighs in on the food at The Langley: "Slow-baked-cheese-and-onion tart-snot in a box. Grilled kipper-smoked postman's Odour Eater. Battered saveloy, a thing only specialist medical staff handle, with rubber gloves."
if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
