If you’re planning a meal at The Yellow Bittern, be warned: you’d better come with deep pockets. Hugh Corcoran, the chef and co-owner of a new 18-seater bistro in the heart of London, recently took to Instagram to declare that anyone daring to dine without ordering “correctly” – that is, splashing out on at least one main course, a couple of drinks, maybe a dessert – is “not worth serving”.
In his post, he said that “sharing plates have ruined dining”, that if you don’t drink “because you have done so to such excess that it cannot be permitted any longer” that you should order more food to make up for it, that if you’d rather share “a plate of radishes” between three, an allotment would be a better investment. He said any member of the “organised working class” should be able to afford a £40-£100 bill at least once a month and compared dining out in London to the Soviet Union, where “restaurants were not a right”.
