Chop Chop at the Hippodrome, Cranbourn Street, London WC2H 7JH. Tel: 020 7769 8888. Hippodromecasino.com. Starters £6 – £15.80; mains £11.80 - £60; desserts £5 - £7.50. Beer £5.50 a bottle. Wines from £27.50 a bottle.
In 1995, I flew to Las Vegas to interview a man who had become famous because the wife he had abused had cut off his penis. It had then been reattached. John Wayne Bobbitt was now attempting to build a career as a porn star. I went to talk to him about this venture over dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Caesars Palace, although he turned out not to be much of a conversationalist. As research, I had to watch one of his films. He was also not much of a performer and the weirdly famous genitalia lacked a certain star wattage. It looked like it had received the attentions of a tree surgeon.
