Not the magic number

Oran and I finally ate at Fifteen last night. I say finally because we've been sort of kind of half making plans to eat there since it opened over a year ago. By our standards of procrastination this isn't the longest finger we've ever put something on - we have yet to buy picture wire to hang the three Picasso prints Oran bought me for Christmas 2003.

Anyway. Fifteen Amsterdam is run by two Dutch guys but operates on the same principle as the original - the number fifteen refers to the size of the group of trainee chefs they bring in each year, usually from disadvantaged areas. Generally they have no knowledge of food or cooking, and the aim of the programme is to train them up to Jamie Oliver restaurant standard in less than a year. The first groups of trainees in both London and Amsterdam had cameras in their faces for the Jamie's Kitchen series; now it's business as usual.

While I'm all in favour of the concept and probably a tiny bit envious of the cooking experience these kids are getting, I'm not sure it works at all in practice. The Amsterdam restaurant tries to place itself in the "hip Amsterdam" category - this is reflected in both the decor and the prices - but the food we ate last night was nowhere near the standard I'd have expected.

The restaurant operates on a set menu basis - ostensibly to broaden the trainees' repertoire without putting them under too much pressure - so the only course where we had a choice was the primi piatti. First up, though, was an extremely bland salad of adichio (sp? it's a type of endive), marinated artichoke and something billed as salted cod which was rubbery and completely tasteless. So far, so underwhelming. At this point we were starving and washing the whole thing down with some excellent Seghesio zinfandel and grazing on the bread and olives we'd also been given (former okay, latter kinda fishy), so we weren't too put out.

Next stop the primi, where I'd opted for the lemon cream tagliatelle and Oran went for the red wine and pancetta risotto. The tagliatelle was surprisingly good - tasty fresh pasta and they didn't skimp on the lemon - but the risotto was horribly presented, overcooked, overcheesed and most of the tiny specks of pancetta (bilingual bacon pun!) we found buried in it were burned to a crisp.

The single biggest disappointment of the night was our main course. It had been billed as "rack of lamb with Sicilian tomatoes, broccoli and black olives" but what we were actually served were random bits of lamb meat, off the bone and completely lacking in flavour. There wasn't a single black olive on my plate, and the two or three lumps of tomato I had were barely warmed through. My broccoli wasn't so bad but Oran's had had the life and soul boiled out of it and tasted like it had been lying around for an hour or so before being served.

I think we would have made more noise about the main course had it not been for the dessert - a nut tart with vanilla risotto ice-cream. Both were delicious and proved that simple food works. I'm not sure how long this group of trainees have been on the job, but there's definite potential there if they're not forced to run before they can walk.

I'm probably coming off like a complete gastro-snob at this point. I'm not - I'll be the first to admit that I'm an average cook. The difference is that I know my limits and Fifteen appear to have thrown theirs out the window. Either they rebrand (and reprice) themselves as a training restaurant, or they increase the numbers of fully qualified staff in their kitchen. I give them another year.