Stellar Keller: French Laundry gives a taste of US’s very best October 4, 2011 AS someone whose job description includes reviewing restaurants, I admit it: I’m spoiled. Sure, it’s not all perfect foie gras and caviar washed down with Dom Perignon. But over time, you clock up a lot of great food because inevitably, the job includes eating at the very best as well as the not-so-good. I tell [...]
Senior rainmaker who advised Harrods sale March 29, 2011 KEN Costa’s contacts book will be sorely missed at Lazard, which he is leaving at the end of this week for unknown reasons. During his three and a half years at the firm he is best known for pulling off the £1.5bn sale of Harrods to the Qatari royal family, a deal in which he [...]
TRAVEL NOTES October 2, 2011 Celebratory cocktails with Dorchester Last chance to see out 2012 fashion weeks in style by sipping specially-created fashion season cocktails at the Dorchester and 45 Park Lane. Or if you’re still in Paris, pop into the Hôtel Plaza Athénée (pictured above) for a Mexican mescal-based number. Available until 5 October. www.dorchestercollection.com All aboard for some [...]
OTHER FASHION NEWS October 6, 2011 MILAN FASHION WEEK CLASH WITH LONDON Tensions rise as Milan has announced that its fashion week next September will overlap with London and New York’s. In spite of an agreement made in 2008 that events at New York, London, Milan and Paris should be scheduled sequentially, editors and buyers may be forced to choose one [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS August 22, 2011 BIGGEST FOOD EVENT OF THE YEAR: FRENCH LAUNDRY TO COME TO HARRODS Before Noma and the Fat Duck, the restaurant that usually vied with El Bulli for the “world’s best” title was California’s French Laundry. It’s still seen as one of the greatest places to eat on the planet (by the few who’ve managed to [...]
Salve your post-holiday skin with these soothers September 5, 2011 CHANCES are, you’re either fresh off the beach – skin still salty and a little tender – or you’re mourning the departure of your tan. The spectre of skin damage is probably also lingering somewhere. How to claw back the health of some of those damaged cells – and in the first instance, how to [...]
Getting the taste for luxury marketing September 11, 2011 WE’VE all heard people say that good restaurants and products don’t need to advertise, but how exactly do you launch a luxury brand without doing so? We ask Penfolds, a high-end wine producer, how it markets its brand. 1. SCARCITY “There has to be an element of scarcity to any high-end product,” says Mathew Bird, [...]
Scorching summer beauty July 11, 2011 REINVENTING the wheel would be easier than altering the basic beauty look for summer. It’s common sense, really: when the sun’s out and the sweat’s pouring, you’re not going to want to wear Geisha makeup. Red lips, caked foundation, smokey eyes – no thanks. But there are subtle alterations as new products launch that make [...]
Scorching summer beauty July 11, 2011 REINVENTING the wheel would be easier than altering the basic beauty look for summer. It’s common sense, really: when the sun’s out and the sweat’s pouring, you’re not going to want to wear Geisha makeup. Red lips, caked foundation, smokey eyes – no thanks. But there are subtle alterations as new products launch that make [...]
Qatar invests $1bn in Greek gold mining October 2, 2011 THE QATARI sovereign wealth fund is investing $775m (£497m) in European Goldfields, the London-listed company behind one of the biggest gold-mining projects in Greece, in a move that marks a major boost for the debt-laden country. Qatar Holding, the investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority which also owns Harrods, will provide a $600m loan [...]