Is Heinz Beck, the renowned chef who runs the world-famous three-Michelin-starred La Pergola restaurant at the Cavaleri hotel in Rome, heading to London?
The German-born chef is rumoured to be in talks to take over the reins at the Lanesborough hotel whose restaurant Apleys has been without a head chef since the departure of Nick Bell last autumn.
The official line from the Lanesborough is that it is "in touch with multiple chefs at this point and no decision has yet been made". But the rumours about Beck coming to town just won't give up.
However, the hotel on Hyde Park Corner says it won't be in a position to make an announcement until September.
A relatively unknown chef, Bell's appointment as head chef at Apsleys last year had widely been considered somewhat of an unusual move for the Lanesborough. He left the restaurant just six months after launching it following mixed reviews from the critics.
Heinz Beck, who has held the top accolade of three Michelin stars since 2005, is one of the most recognised chefs in the world and it would be a real coup for the Lanesborough, and indeed London, to sign such a high calibre chef.
Picture of Heinz Beck supplied by Camilla Morandi/Rex Features.
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Would it really be such a coup for London to sign up such a high-profile chef? Why? What is the evidence that the high-profile French chefs, say, who've come to London recently have done anything (positive) for the overall quality of dining out here?
The unthinking assumption that star chefs 'bring something with them' is – forgive the frank speaking – just a lazy cliché. The evidence, from our own and other surveys, is that secondary outlets of famous chefs – be they foreign or native – are rarely up to the same level as independent operations charging similar prices. That people consider them a Good Thing is really just a sign of our sad, celebrity-obsessed – and fundamentally undiscerning – culture.
Yawn.
Hardens = broken record.