Don’t let City living dull your good looks June 7, 2010 A FRIEND visited from the country this weekend and claimed to have blown dirty snot into a tissue after spending just two days in London. Like most long-term Londoners, I’m in denial about black phlegm, but she had a point. Living between the office, the Tube, the fumes of the street and the boozy, salt-and-sugar [...]
Bali high: a health retreat with a view June 6, 2010 FROM the long balcony of my private villa up in the Balinese hills, I can gaze out over the kind of view that feeds the soul. The villa’s perch overlooks a jungle-swathed canyon that rises on the far side to slope upwards to the terraced rice paddies cresting the hills. Mix that with a soundtrack [...]
Midas Touch the golden Derby bet for O’Brien June 3, 2010 Who do I think is the most likely winner of the Investec Derby? It has to be Jan Vermeer. Who do I think is the best betting proposition? It has to be MIDAS TOUCH. Aidan O’Brien hasn’t won English racing’s premier Classic since 2002, but that looks set to change tomorrow and his supposed second [...]
NYC sends a slice of Gallic heaven May 31, 2010 Bar Boulud Mandarin Oriental, 66 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7LA, tel: 020 7201 3899 Cost per person without wine: £45 THE name Daniel Boulud is a huge deal in New York, where everything is either a huge deal or offensively passe. The Lyon-born chef’s cluster of Manhattan eateries has managed to remain on the “huge deal” side [...]
How to eat like a (vegetarian) king May 26, 2010 DESPITE the cult status acquired by super-deli Ottolenghi, known for its heavenly salads and cakes, and the super-sleek vegan Saf (see Joe McCanta’s column below), vegetarian restaurants aren’t exactly alluring to a professional, urban and carnivorous crowd. But Andrew Dargue and his wife Donna Conroy, from Teeside, think things should be different, and so two [...]
Room with a brilliant view May 24, 2010 Paramount Centre Point, 101-103 New Oxford Street WC1A 1DD. Tel: 020 7420 2900, www.paramount.uk.net Cost per person without wine: £45 IN the food’n’drinkosphere, the days of exclusivity seem to be numbered – just last week, private casino Les Ambassadeurs opened its restaurant, The Milroy, for the hoi polloi’s lunchtime pleasure. Bureau, another swanky bar/lounge that [...]
Fast and furious – all in a day’s work May 20, 2010 IT’S not all breakneck speeds, multi-million dollar contracts and being sprayed with champagne. Okay, there is rather a lot of all that, but peer into the paddock of an F1 team and you will also find dozens of dedicated individuals beavering away at their jobs. I went behind the scenes at a grand prix to [...]
Wielding power with persuasion is the strongest way to lead May 19, 2010 IF YOU think about it, persuasion and influence can be just the opposite of power. If you are loaded with power, why bother to persuade? Why not just command and have done with it? For some managers, that’s a question that needs answering. Right now there is optimism about the outcome of the recent General [...]
CITY PHILANTHROPISTS LURED BY PROMISE OF SOME GOLDEN EGGS May 18, 2010 OFF to the Merchant Taylors Hall on Threadneedle Street yesterday for what has become a stalwart of the City’s calendar – the annual Gulls’ Eggs lunch. This year marked the 22nd anniversary of the affair, which has traditionally used the excuse of what must be the shortest season of any earthly foodstuff to bring hundreds [...]
Mozzarella in Mayfair goes glam May 17, 2010 Cielo/Luxx 3 New Burlington Street W1S 2JF 020 7297 2893 www.cielorestaurant.co.uk, www.luxx-london.com FOOD *** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE *** Cost per person without wine: £50 THESE days, being a restaurant plain and simple just isn’t good enough. Since the credit crunch bit, we have entered a new realm of added value, and if you like to [...]