I had been planning to devote this Saturday’s column to an interview with Jean-Luc Naret, the editor-in-chief of the Michelin guides to restaurants worldwide, an interview which he had requested.
However, after more than a week spent on the phone and via email with his London PR, Naret eventually withdrew because he would not agree to a fundamental principle of any journalistic interview – that this process should only include two people. Such an approach, I believe, detracts from the professional image Michelin seeks to project and, because they refuse to speak face to face with the press...