Author(s): William Stadiem

Cooking/Wine

Your best friend just returned from a week in a world capital. Your first question is "Where did you eat?" In New York, you're hoping it was La Grenouille or Da Silvano, the Four Seasons or Balthazar. In L.A., Toscana, Spago, the Ivy, or Mr. Chow. In London, the Savoy Grill or River Cafe; in Paris La Tour d'Argent or Chez l'Ami Louis. Because at all these places, the mayor is in one corner, the richest man in town in another, and the middle is filled with actors and actresses, dukes and princesses, senators and presidents...it's where everybody eats. Here's a tour of 80 of these restaurants - of their back stories and back rooms, of their menus and off-the-menu specialities, of their clientele and chefs. Of what it's like to be there. Of how it got that way. And why. London restaurants featured are: La Famiglia, Cipriani, San Lorenzo, River Cafe, Savoy Grill, Claridge's, The Connaught, The Ivy, Le Caprice, China Tang, and Sweetings. Profile sidebars include: Mark Birley, Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay and David Tang.