Planning my 30th

I am stuck as to what to do for my 30th birthday. I don't want anything BIG like others have done for important dates, like hiring out a hall and people getting drunk (including me). But what else can you do that involves everyone?

So I think I'll do several smaller things with each group of people: My family, work mates, other friends, J, J's family, etc.

Starting off small, I've decided to plan a meal at a restaurant with J and some close friends. I want it to be something special. My friend Linda pointed me to a restaurant called Petrus with Marcus Wareing as Chef. They do a vegetarian taster menu, which I appreciate! So, I thought I'd list all the TV chefs I could find and narrow restaurants down from there. Guess what?! I listed 95 names! :-

Tom Aikens, Rachel Allen, Richard Allen, Ed Baines, Sat Baines, Mary Berry, Katie Bishop, Galton Blackiston, Raymond Blanc, Paul Bloxham, Heston Blumenthal, Martin Blunos, Frank Bordoni, Mark Broadbent, John Burton Race, Ross Burden, Michael Caines, Jean Christophe Novelli, Richard Corringan, Gion D’Acampo, Garrey Dawson, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Jill Dupleix, Anton Edelmann, Maria Elia, High Fearnley-Whittingstall, Keith Floyd, Richard Fox, Silvana Franco, Stuart Gillies, Peter Gordon, Bill Granger, Rose Gray (& Ruth Rogers), Dan Green, Sophie Grigson, Ainsley Harriott, Angela Hartnett, Mark Hix, Ken Hom, Ching-He Huang, Madhur Jaffrey, Charita Jonas (Momma Cherri), Annabel Karmel, Graham Kerr, Atul Kochhar, Kylie Kwong, Nancy Lam, Jeremy Lee, Rusty Lee, Prue Leith, Tom Lewis, Alastair Little, Giorgio Locatelli, Alex Mackay, Clodagh McKenna, Noel McMeel, Manju Malhi, Eadie Manson, James Martin, Paul Merrett, Michael Morre, Nick Nairn, Andrew Nutter, Ben O’Donoghue, Jamie Oliver, Merrilees Parker, Jennifer Patterson, Richard Phillips, Jo Pratt, Gordon Ramsay, Paul Rankin, Gary rhodes, Simon Rimmer, Mike Robinson, Ruth Rogers (& Rose Gray), Ollie Rowe, Silvena Rowe, Nigel Slater, Delia Smith, Rick Stein, Jun Tanaka, James Tanner, Matthew Tebbut, Tony Tobin, Cyrus Todiwala, Mitch Tonks, John Torode, Brian Turner, Phil Vickery, Marcus Wareing, Lesley Waters, Bryn Williams, Kevin Woodford, Anthony Worral Thompson, Aldo Zilli

I didn't realise how many TV chefs there are! I guess I have some time to filter through them! My favourites are Lesley Waters, Paul Rankin and Nick Nairn. But I have some doubt I'd be able to afford or book at one of their restaurants!

Where to go, oh where to go? I'll narrow my choices down and blog about them later!