1998 Ronay guide ‘unlikely'

Egon Ronay will not publish a 1998 edition of his flagship guide to hotels and restaurants, barring a last-minute miracle.

The food critic said last October that he hoped to bring out the guide in March this year, after wresting control of the title from producer Leading Guides International in the High Court (Caterer, 16 October 1997, page 7).

But Ronay said last week that a 1998 edition was now very unlikely. It would have been the guide's fortieth anniversary. "I'm disappointed, but unfortunately the court decision came a little late," he said.

Ronay claimed it was "still not impossible" that a 1998 guide would be produced. "There is a particular solution which would enable me to publish, at least in part, before the autumn," he said, declining to go into detail.

Far more likely is a 1999 edition, appearing this autumn. Talks were still going on about the best way to produce the title, Ronay said. His preferred solution was to publish it himself and bring in a publishing house to handle distribution.

Leading Guides International, which had published the Egon Ronay guides under licence since 1996, was compulsorily wound up after it failed to pay its team of part-time inspectors. Ronay said in court that it owed him £37,000.