Bites: When two guides go to war

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A catfight's broken out in the world of restaurant guides. Last month, the latest Harden's launched in a blaze of publicity by announcing that Marcus Wareing had knocked his one-time mentor Gordon Ramsay off its top spot.

Now, in Zagat's new guide, Ramsay has beaten Wareing to its top spot. At the launch, says an insider: "Tim Zagat gave a thinly veiled attack on the cynical PR strategy of 'a rival restaurant guide', making a huge deal of Gordon being beaten by Pétrus – 'a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, after all.'" Sour grapes?

All's far cheerier at the River Café, which reopens this month – complete with new "cheese room" (how exciting!) – following a fire in April. But will Fat Lady Clarissa Dickson Wright be welcome? Last week she said she wouldn't eat in the restaurants of former River Café chef Jamie Oliver for fear of "being poisoned".

Oliver's response? "I suspect none would welcome her, for fear of offending the other guests." Miaow.