John Burton Race has a string of Michelin starred restaurants listed on his CV, a television splash with I'm a Celebrity..., and several published cookbooks, and has now turned his hand to the world's first interactive restaurant.Do you find that you are often disappointed when you go out for a lovely meal and the food isn't what you expected? Or that the service was frustratingly poor?The dynamic TV chef, who achieved his first Michelin star heading the restaurant and kitchen of Raymond Blanc's Le Petit Blanc, has teamed up with food entrepreneur Jonathon Davies to create The Restaurant Experience.The hope is to revolutionise the way people dine out with what he says is, "the first restaurant that is completely for the people, by the people".
HELLO! Online talks to the chef affectionately known as "JBR" about his new project, Michelin stars, and get his top cooking tips. How does it feel to be a Michelin starred chef? Whether you're a writer, a chef or a painter, if you sit on your backside and think about what you've achieved, there's only one way to go and that's down. I've not been searching my whole life for Michelin stars, it's about me satisfying what's in me. If I stop it will all go wrong I think. You never stop having new ideas, you never stop learning, stop wanting to get better and do more. It's never been about getting Michelin stars. If you love your work you can't be blinkered, you have to ask for more and do more. You're trying to satisfy your own drive and ambition. As you get older and have more experience you tend to go off in different directions. I haven't stopped basically, I'm still twelve. With your Michelin starred experience, what are your best kitchen tips for our readers?1. Cook to your ability2. Try to use fresh, regional and local produceIf you do that you're always buying those ingredients at their most abundant and cheapest and if you cook with the seasons and change your menu, you'll never get bored.Where did the idea for The Restaurant Experience come from? Everything is online these days and we thought, why not bring the overall experience of restaurant dining and decision-making online too? London is chock-a-block with restaurants and, no matter how good you are and however fantastic you are in your field, there's still an incredible risk. If you can ask your customers and get feedback on the quality, that's a great start. If we can keep that feedback instantaneous we should be able to build a very strong brand. Well that's the dream, anyway. The idea is for it to be totally interactive; the customers help choose the type of place they want; the menu, the décor, etc.
The cities for the public to choose from are London, Manchester, Glasgow, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Auckland, Toronto, Sydney and Cape Town. How were they chosen? We went for two things. One was the capitals around the world with the most food bloggers, and two, English speaking. We tried to think of cities that have the most restaurant goers and the most people that talk about food on the internet. By making the customer a part of the whole experience we're hoping to always provide what the customer wants. We want to get great chefs from all over the world involved in ever revolving menus. Do you know when the chosen city will be revealed? When we have 10,000 registrations. Currently, The Restaurant Experience (the-restaurant-experience.com) is inviting people to register their email addresses if they are interested in the project and we have a viral out to help us finding out who's interested.
