Paris shows the way for London's restaurants

Who did I bump into the other day but Mario Cassandro? There are plenty of people around who remember the Mario & Franco chain of trattorias which brought Italian food and bright Mediterranean decor to London in the 1960s.

They may also remember the dreary experience of eating out in the 1950s before Mario and his late partner, the chain-smoking Franco Lagattolla, had the vision and the energy to open their first restaurant in Romilly Street. It set a fashion which has by no means faded from the national restaurant scene, but which from time to time needs revitalising. Talking to Mario got me thinking about that need.

Ready for fun

Mario and Franco got going at just about the same time as Elizabeth David was reminding us of the joys of Mediterranean food and helping to bring the dreary post-war years to an end. The country was ready for a bit of fun, and good food was at the top of the list.

Now we have got it or, at least quite a lot of it. Thirty years on, London, as a town in which to eat out, is unrecognisable. Its best restaurants are notable for the quality and innovation of their cooking and the range of wines which they serve. For those in the business and others in the know, there is no shortage of good restaurant food. Eating out is constantly exciting and varied. But for a stranger, taking pot luck it is not so easy.

London's great contribution to the art of running a restaurant is eclecticism. In one highly praised restaurant you will find modern Italian cooking (a far cry from Mario & Franco's much-copied trattoria formula), in another Indian, Chinese or Thai, in another traditional French or by contrast, in yet another, the herbs, spices and salad leaves of California. Most significantly, in some you will find dishes inspired by all or at least some of those cuisines.

Wine lists draw upon, for some, a bewildering number of grape varieties, styles, regions and countries.

Different approach

The contrast with Paris, once considered the home of restaurant cuisine, is remarkable not because there is a difference in quality, but because there is a difference in approach. In Paris, the best restaurants are unambiguously and unselfconsciously French, drawing on France's rich variety of regional culinary traditions and the ingredients which inspire them.

The most profound difference between restaurants in London and Paris is in the low- to mid-price range - the bistros and brasseries. In London, the bistro and brasserie standard has been flown by some of the best chefs in the country, from Antony Worrall Thomson to Bruno Loubet to Marco Pierre White, to say nothing of Richard Shepherd, who helped Peter Langan get London's best-known brasserie off the ground in the 1970s.

Brasserie appeal

But, with a few exceptions, London's new brasseries are becoming as expensive as the more formal restaurants which they have replaced in the public's esteem.

The appeal of a brasserie or a small family-run bistro is simplicity. No-nonsense food and wine, and at no-nonsense prices. Paris is full of such establishments. Wandering about that city a couple of weeks ago, deliberately avoiding reference to the food guides, I had no difficulty in finding places where you could have a caringly produced meal with wine for less than £20 a head. And that despite the exchange rate.

In London, you will find a meal at that price in pubs and some restaurant chains, but the quality is often disappointing compared with taking pot luck in Paris. The exceptions are small groups such as Chez Gérard, with their emphasis on simple food, friendly service and their conscious attempt to create, albeit artificially, the style of independent restaurants du quartier.

Fresh style

That brings me back to Mario and Franco, who did something similar, and to all the other pioneers who have made London a restaurant city to be proud of. What they did was to match a fresh style to a market need.

Just now you could say that London, despite its great success as a restaurant city, still has a market need. Put yourself in the position of a guide-less stranger taking pot luck. The need is for small, informal, simple, unpretentious and inexpensive establishments which don't charge an arm and a leg and yet which are personally run, not part of a formula dictated by a head office.

Easier said than done. London is an expensive place to run restaurants. But so is Paris.