Pass the sickbag, Alice

In some ways, the Financial Times is an excellent newspaper. In other ways, it’s nauseating. Once a month, for example, it publishes a glossy supplement entitled How to Spend It aimed at folks who think they’re under-dressed if they don’t have a Breitling watch or a gold-plated Rolex. Last Saturday the paper’s restaurant critic, one Nicholas Lander, took the gold medal for pretentious tosh when he wrote about lunching at La Tour d’Argent in Paris. Here’s a sample:

“It is important therefore to find some balance in the choice of wine and to bear in mind that as this list has been slowly and scrupulously accumulated, the prices of the older vintages are remarkably gentle for a restaurant of this standing. We drank a 1990 Faller Schlossberg Riesling (95 Euros), and a 1991 Gevrey Chambertin Abeille from Ponsot (109 Euros) both less than the least expensive wine on the list at the three-star Michelin Arpege across town. The Japanese couple next to us chose well, spending 1,400 Euros on a bottle of 1991 Ta Tache. This wine can easily cost 850 Euros retail”.

The bill for six, you will be interested to learn, came to 1,030 Euros (£725) — “considerably less than I had paid for a far less satisfactory experience at L’Arpege”.