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Mansion House Chef
Article Posted: Wednesday February 5th
Article last updated on: Wednesday February 5th
23 January 2003
MANSION HOUSE HEAD CHEF RETIRES
AFTER 19 YEARS SERVICE MANSION HOUSE Head Chef Michel Giquel retires this month after 19 years
preparing everything from banquets to private breakfasts for the Lord Mayors
of the City - whose guest-lists routinely include Prime Ministers and world
and business leaders. Brittany-born Michel - who retires on his last day, January 30 - estimates
that he and his Chester Boyd team have prepared more than a million dishes
in that period, ranging from boiled eggs for private working breakfasts to
banquets serving up to 1,500 guests. "The Mansion House is a very special and demanding place for a chef: it's a
working building, with about 50 staff of its own to feed but it's also where
the Lord Mayor hosts dinners, banquets and working lunches for Heads of
State and leading world figures. In my time that's included Nelson Mandela,
Rudy Giuliani - and Royalty from all around the world." "Every week I have the satisfaction of knowing that my work is appreciated
by some of the most well-travelled and influential people in the world - and
of working with wonderful colleagues." Lord Mayor Gavyn Arthur, said: "The Lord Mayor's job is to serve as an
ambassador for the City and hospitality is an important part of that.
Whether it's a working lunch with business leaders or a banquet staged as
part of a visit organised for a guest of government, food is involved. "We have been very fortunate to have French-born Michel as our own national
asset - quite fitting for a City that leads the world in international
finance." After French national service (where he fed 2,000 troops a day), Michel
joined Grand Metropolitan Hotels, and began at the Europe Hotel in Grosvenor
Square in 1964. A resident of Pimlico in London, Michel has also been
awarded the French honour "Le Chevalier de Loide de La Nation". NOTE: Jonathan McCann joins Mansion House as the new Head Chef at the end of
January. Jonathan has worked in some of the best hotels in London including
the Berkeley, the Dorchester and Claridges - and most recently the Westbury
in Bond Street where he has been Executive Chef for the last six years.
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