The fishy birth of Winner’s Dinners

 
File photo dated 19/9/1990 of actress Jenny Seagrove and Michael Winner. The film director and restaurant critic has died, his wife Geraldine said today. He was 77. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday January 21, 2013. See PA story DEATH Winner. Photo credit should read: Rebecca Naden/PA Wire
14 October 2013

How different would the world of restaurant criticism have been had the late Michael Winner not been served a dodgy Dover sole at Le Pont de la Tour?

The full details of that encounter 20 years ago have now been revealed by Chris Wright, the music mogul who was the dining guest of Winner and Jenny Seagrove at the meal which launched the film director’s career as a food critic.

“Everybody’s food did not arrive at the same time. Michael was thus already in a bit of a state when his sole arrived,” Wright recalls in his autobiography, One Way Or Another .

“‘This fish isn’t fresh’,” he told the waiter. ‘I can assure you it is,’ the waiter replied. Michael asked to speak to the manager and repeated his complaint.

“The French manager rolled his eyes, stormed off to the kitchen and returned waving the bill from Billingsgate. ‘Look here!’ he asserted. ‘Here: 75 Dover soles and today’s date! This fish is fresh.’ The slanging match went on for 10 minutes.”

Winner chronicled the details in a letter to the Sunday Times and the resulting furore earned him a weekly feature in the paper, Winner’s Dinners.

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