July 2021

Fred Sirieix is the most famous Maître D’ in the country! He is possibly also the only famous one. But as someone flying the flag for the service industry on TV, he creates a good balance to the endless stream of Celebrity Chefs.

I got to photograph him for Observer Food Monthly, at his favourite restaurant, El Pirata, a small tapas place in Mayfair and just around the corner from Galvin at Windows restaurant, where he used to work. I had photographed Fred before for a Dental advert and I had also photographed at El Pirata before for another celebrity food story. But both had changed quite a lot in this shoot.

El Pirata, had had an expensive makeover downstairs, with some nice painting on the walls. The owner was telling me how they were / are struggling with Covid related staff shortages and restricted openings, which was really taking a toll on their business. Added to that the loss of a lot of their workforce to Brexit and the drop in tourism in London, it was a minor miracle that they were still going.

It was great that Fred chose this as his favourite place, and was shining a light on struggling small restaurants during the pandemic.

On the shoot he ran through his range of full beam smiles (which I had already encountered on the dental shoot), but was also a bit more thoughtful and calm in some of the shots, which I liked more.