Joost rhymes with toast
Sir: To the extent that any restaurant review — good, bad or indifferent — builds turnover, I am grateful to Nigella Lawson for 'noticing' The Stamford in her column (Restaurant, 30 March). As it happens, I rather share her views on the menu that she chose from, and the dishes she sampled, on the day of her visit. Why? you may ask. Her visit coincided with a brief period of aberra- tion when, following the departure of the original chef, who sadly had proved tem- peramentally unable to cope with up to 100 covers at a time, I agreed to the appoint- ment of a successor on the score that he claimed that he learnt his craft at the hands of Christian Delteil of the much missed L'Arlequin.
He soon departed when he learnt that I
LETTERS
was trying to contact Christian. A simple phone call on the part of your correspon- dent would have elicited this information. But it also raises a separate issue. Your readers not in the trade may not know that there is — or maybe was — the convention that restaurants were not reviewed until either press releases were sent out or, at least, had been given some weeks' time to settle down. Because we are still working on the food and menu, no releases have been sent, nor any food writers or restau- rant critics contacted; notwithstanding, we have inevitably received visits from some who have respected our request not to write about The Stamford yet.
Unfortunately Nigella Lawson is not suf- ficiently well known to be recognised by me or my colleagues, so the request could not be made to her. 'Normally when I go to a duff place I decide to junk it rather than dump on it,' writes your restaurant critic and then devotes much of her column to `dumping on' me personally. I have but two comments to make on this premature obit- uary. She will surely know that the food for the receptions and parties at No. 11 while her father (for whom I have considerable admiration) was Chancellor was generally prepared by a long-serving and valued member of my staff — and she could have mentioned it.
Miss Lawson finds my name has 'too much the ring of a late 1960s pseudonym to be convincing'. Both our families have come to this country from abroad. In my case, I am proud to retain my Dutch sur- name, though I confess that at the time of my christening the family Christian name of Joost was anglicised to Justin at the insis- tence of my late uncle, then at Cambridge and bored with endlessly having to explain that Joost rhymes with toast. This is not a claim that can be made by M. de Vil- leneuve, nor indeed by Ms Lawson. Finally, as she also mentions it, and to avoid further inaccuracies from other indolent journal- ists, I have had no connection for more than two years with the cafe in The General Trading Company that still bears my name. Justin de Blank
The Stamford, 320 Goldhawk Road, London W6
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