Gordon Ramsay's aMAZEing restaurant

Just returned from London and Munich on Friday -- had a whirlwind trip where I met a lot of great people and dined at some interesting places.

I arrived into London last Sunday and my first stop was dinner at Gordon Ramsay's tapas-style restaurant in Grovesnor Square (London) called Maze. Chris Glass and I met there to catch up, since he's still living in Munich and I don't have a chance to see him much anymore.

The food was spectacular - subtle little dishes that were immensely satisfying, like foie gras marinated in pinot noir caramel, smoked ham hock and picalilli; lightly smoked Shetland salmon with pink fir potatoes and horseradish; and roasted sea scallops with tomato, ginger and vanilla chutney, spicy syrup. We shared a few memorable dishes, accompanied by a lovely Austrian gruener veltliner, and ended the evening with luscious desserts.

For reasons we're not sure of, we were then invited to take a personal tour of the restaurant and were escorted into the kitchen where we met the chefs and perched ourselves into the Chef's Table, situated right in front of the hustle and bustle of the night's backroom events. I'll post a picture of the kitchen next.