Alastair Little

There was a moment when a notable commentator was moved to observe that Alastair Little received more press attention than the Princess of Wales. He may not have been the first of the young turks to hit the headlines in the Eighties but in the popular imagination Little has been adopted as the foodie world’s favourite son. Certainly, he is the leading symbol of the kitchen revolution’s youth movement and although the guide books are wildly divided in their opinions of his food (a signal of the confusion in their priorities more than any failure of judgement) he was the first of the new breed to put the boot into nouvelle cuisine and, for good measure, he debunked the trend for swanky decor and its associated props as prerequisites of fashionable dining. Little is a trailblazer and an iconoclast and, not unimportantly in a trade which has become serious show business, he has what it takes to charm both media and public alike — star quality laced with bags of sex appeal.