The week in pictures

Celebrity bash of the week was at Marylebone Italian restaurant Fucina, which has just had its annual festive makeover and invited the movers and shakers of London’s high society to take a look.

Jack Brooksbank was just one of the society folk in attendance (Photo: Dave Benett)

Are you sitting comfortably?

VIP guests included: model Zara Martin, other model Clara Paget, other model Nella Ngingo, Dua Lipa’s “fit chef” boyfriend Isaac Carew, TV presenter Pips Taylor, fashion photographer Alistair Guy, fashion writer and self-styled Queen Sloane Henry Conway, art dealer Jean-David Malat, male model Kit Warrington, other male model Omari Phipps, glamour model-turned athlete Nell McAndrew, and last but not least, wine merchant and husband to Princess Eugenie Jack Brooksbank (sans Eugenie).

Brooksbank, as some readers may already know, has multiple interests in the wine and spirits industry, and was recently named the UK brand ambassador of George Clooney’s Casamigos Tequila, as well as being the founder of his own wine merchant business.

Last time we heard of Brooksbank playing out, he was manning the bar at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding and dishing out tequila cocktails. This time, he had the night off.

Never knowingly out-blinged, gaucho founder and Martin Williams has launched a new offer at his chain of M Restaurants in London; a shot of Cognac for £2,514.

Did we say shot? We meant 10ml.

This is no ordinary Cognac. Produced by Le Domaine de Rome de Bellegarde, the 1894 L’Eveil des Sens Cognac is made from four eaux de vie, all aged over 70 years. Only 67 bottles were ever created, with the spirit this year entering the Guinness Book of World Records after a 40ml measure was bought for £10,014.

From 27 November, guests at either the Victoria or Threadneedle sites of M Restaurant will be able to purchase either a 10ml shot for £2,514, or a one-litre decanter, a steal at £250,000.

Prosecco label Bottega opened an exhibition at the Vienna International Centre in Wien on Monday. The glass artwork, called the Spirit of Peace and conceived by brand founder Sandro Bottega himself, was created in remebrance of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Bottega visited the Hiroshima museum in Japan in 2015, the 70th anniversary of the attack, and gave a donation to the city’s mayor Kazumi Matsui . Matsui, in return, gave the entrepreneur the opportunity to exhibit an artwork in three local museums, and the Spirit of Peace was born.

The collection of artistic glass bottles, crafted by master glassblower Pino Signoretto on the Italian island of Murano, was brought to Wien this week.

In addition, Bottega is raising money for charity by launching a string of new products including “Peace for the World”, a special Bottega sparkling wine, “Peace for Hiroshima”, a precious handcrafted bottle containing Alexander Prosecco grappa and “Hiroshima for World Peace”, a gift box containing both products.

Four leading wine figures were rewarded for raising the recognition of Rioja in the UK and beyond at a knees up in Covent Garden’s Eneko Basque Kitchen & Bar on Tuesday.

Part of a campaign called Rioja Recognises, the concept was created four years ago to celebrate those who have made a significant contribution to the Rioja category in Britain as well as on a global scale.

Congrats to Owen Morgan, director of bar chain Bar 44, writer and judge Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, WSET educator, and TV presenter, Raul Diaz, and Mike Stanton, from retailer Corks Out.

This week, in Cocktail Porn, Christmas has arrived at Quaglino’s in St James’s, and bar manager Marco Sangion and head mixologist Federico Pasian have created a special festive drink to get drinkers in the mood for the season (or possibly as an excuse to sit down and have a breather from all that exhausting Christmas shopping). Bianco Natale! consists of Cointreau, Cacao white, yellow Chartreuse, lemon juice, egg white and chocolate bitters with a dark chocolate garnish.

While we’re on the subject, db popped into The Coral Room in The Bloomsbury Hotel to try out the new cocktail menu on Tuesday, designed by the affable general manager Giovanni Spezziga and his team.

“There is no such thing as a zero waste bar”, according to Trash Tiki mixologists Kelsey Ramage and Ian Griffiths, who gave a “Sustainable Bar 101” seminar at last week’s Tahona Society Collective Spirit competition, encouraging discussion on all aspects of “organic vs. local” bar set-up as well as encouraging social initiatives for staff and the wider community. Here, using the Altos Tequila VW Campervan, part of the extended Trash Tiki team serve up Paloma cocktails in the distillery grounds to refresh competitors after a seminar on Altos two brand pillars ‘People’ and ‘Planet’.

During the trip, drinks writer Sophie McLean got the chance to have a Blue Weber agave plant, grown 2,100m above sea level on volcanic rich soil, named after her. The plants will grow for seven years, making up to 8 bottles of 100% Agave Tequila per ‘piña’.

Brasserie of Light, the new restaurant from Caprice Holdings boasting a giant Pegasus statue by British artist Damien Hirst, has at last opened inside Selfridges in London.

Inspired by the famous creature from Greek mythology, Hirst’s flying statue towers over the tables with its 30-foot wingspan.

Headed up by Emanuel Machado, formerly of Covent Garden favourite Balthazar, the all-day brasserie will serve British classics and international dishes.

This is the first time in Selfridges’ 109-year history that it has offered after-hours dining for its guests thanks to a separate entrance on Duke Street.

On the other side of the Channel, Kenichiro Sekiya from L’Atelier Joel Robuchon in Japan, was crowned the winner of the renowned Le Taittinger Prix Culinaire International following a closely fought final at Ferrandi in Paris on Monday.

Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger and his daughter Vitalie and son Clovis presented the trophy at the evening celebration which took place at the iconic Hotel Lutetia.

Six national finalists from France, Japan, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and the UK – which Tom Scade from the Ritz won for the second time in a row – fought it out for the first prize of €10,000.

Speaking of Champagne, Piper Heidsieck Rare cellar master Regis Camus was in London this week to talk about the prestige brand’s latest release; Rare le Secret. The Champagne, based on wines from the 1997 vintage, is affixed with its own gold label. There are just 1,000 in circulation, retailing at £1,150.

Seen here holding that bottle a little too casually at 67 Pall Mall, Camus became the cellar master for PH’s prestige label in May, and appointed winemaker Séverine Frerson as his successor.

Marco Pierre White’s Black & White Hospitality group signed a deal to stock a new gin brand created by Adam Woodyatt on Monday, who for the past 33 years has played Ian Beale on UK soap opera Eastenders.

The partnership came about following a chance meeting between the pair while Woodyatt was staying at White’s Rudloe Arms hotel in Corsham, Wiltshire.

The super talented, artfully inked Ben Murphy of Launceston Place is the latest chef to host a takeover at The W hotel’s Perception restaurant as part of its Dining Series.

Running until next spring, Murphy’s seven-course tasting menu is inspired by childhood memories, and each dish tells a story, from the pears picked in his grandmother’s garden to a clever twist on chicken liver parfait served from a Cornflake packet.

The star of the show was his opening dish, egg and soldiers – a staple at Launceston Place, which evokes the simple, sticky pleasure of gooey egg and hot-buttered toast, but with the very grown up addition of foie gras mousse.

Brand ambassador for Boutique-y Gin, Stephanie Di Camillo, and Lizzie Ostrom of fragrance specialist Odette Toilette.

db‘s Phoebe French and SB‘s Melita Kiely headed to the launch of Boutique-y Gin’s Olfactor-y Gin range including Dead King Gin, inspired by the aromas of an unwrapped Egyptian mummy. The other new gins included Fresh Rain Gin, which replicates the earthy scent of petrichor, the term given to the smell given off when rain falls on dry soil after an extended warm period; Big Dipper Gin inspired by the fairground and flavoured with sweet cocoa, cardamom and peated malt; and Beware of the Woods Gin which combines coniferous and bonfire night aromas using Icelandic moss, nutmeg and cubeb.