It’s strange how coy the rich and famous can be. Roger Moore never watches his own films, and celebrity chef Marcus Wareing never eats in his own Berkeley Hotel restaurant. The second of these facts changed on Wednesday night, when Wareing broke a nine year habit to mark the launch of a new limited edition Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottle designed by Porsche. He put together the menu, then joined a select crowd that included Ben Fogle and Otis Ferry. Wareing managed to stay out of the kitchen all night, which is a new record for him.
He was far calmer and cooler than the image presented at the height of his fall out with Gordon Ramsay, his old partner in crime. Indeed, it seems that the feud, which was one of the most high profile ever to disturb the gastronomic world, is finally over. ‘Time is big healer,’ Wareing told me over a Johnnie-based cocktail before dinner. ‘I wouldn’t be where I am today without Gordon.’ Not enough time, though, has passed for them to see each other.
And what of Wareing’s relationship with food? He related the advice given to him by his old mentor, Albert Roux, or ‘godfather’ as he fondly called him. ‘Food, Marcus, it’s like a beautiful woman. If she’s really beautiful she only needs a tiny amount of lipstick and eye-makeup and perfume.’
Whisky topped and tailed the evening, being much too powerful in flavour to accompany anything on the menu. After a few decadent courses, Mr Steerpike retired to the newly opened and ludicrously decorated Bodo’s Schloss, the Austrian themed log cabin in the heart of Kensington, for a boogie with Cameron Diaz. But that’s another story.
Comments