Rose Gray

When our social historians come to reflect on the cultural life of London in the late twentieth century, I suspect they may be impressed by some of the remarkable alliances which have been struck between cooks and leaders in the world of contemporary art and design. These partnerships have transformed dining out from a quotidian social pastime into a fashionable accessory to sophisticated metropolitan living. One immediately thinks of Peter Langan and his patronage of the arts and Sir Terence Conran’s expanding empire of restaurants. Their influence has energized the gastronomic culture of the capital and it has produced a creative combustion of some force – one comparable to Richard D’Oyly Carte’s partnership with Ritz and Escoffier at the Savoy, where dining in a public place was revolutionized at the end of the last century.