I wrote this review of Le Chateaubriand for bloomberg in Feb 2007. Back then it was not yet the world’s 11th best restaurant, but merely the local bistro, albeit a magical one, in my Paris neighbourhood. The only thing “11th” about it was the arrondissement.

When I’ve put London food obsessives in the position of defending their high praise for the rubbery salt beef at the Beigel Bake on Brick Lane they’ve invariably blamed their lapse in good taste on drunkenness. It’s open 24 hours. It’s quick. It’s cheap. It’s filling. Blah. Blah. Blah. Likewise, discriminating young Londoners who, when [...]

In his pedestrian review of Le Bouchon Breton’s new sibling at Spitalfields, The Independent’s Terry Durack begins with the observation that “an honest waiter is hard to find”. This ostensibly explains why he was both surprised and impressed by the candour of François Bertrand, the brasserie’s restaurant manager: Tell him you are dithering between the steak frites and [...]