Marriott Luxury Brands’ annual ILTM media breakfast is a Do Not Miss occasion. Last year the caviar was in Riviera-themed boxes. This year, as the image above shows, it was more a silver-service affair. Petrossian in a silver holder, a proper mother-of-pearl spoon, all the additives if you wanted, the tables beautifully laid with Provencal fabric (and matching wrist or hair bands for girls, and pocket-chiefs for guys. Style, Marriott, and the hosts for the day, led by brands supremo Tina Edmundson.
Tina Edmundson was wearing the latest Riviera gear, chic black with the shortest skirt your grandmother would never have seen, and black tights. Some of the servers at Le Môme are similarly dressed – it’s the skirt length and tight that do it, shoes can be highest heels, à la Ms Edmundson, or clumpy sneakers, as favoured by many of the other fashionistas. Once again the best dinners Girlahead had during ILTM week were La Môme, the brilliant F&B outfit run by the Lecorché brothers. They give their gal servers white shirts with discreet MM logo on the cuffs, and there are uniform sweaters but below-the-waist is up to you.
ALPINA GRAND GSTAAD, DOLDER GRAND ZURICH, FLEMING’S MAYFAIR LONDON and WYMARA TURKS & CAICOS co-hosted at the original La Môme on the Tuesday night. They had two enormous rectangular tables taking up the entire main room and although their guests milled around for quite a time in the inner-walkway from kitchen to the extensive outside dining areas, servers managed to twirl through at lightning speed, with heavy silver trays held high above their heads. La Môme seems to take up much of rue Florian. It also has one of the sophisticated on-the-beach restaurants. King of the beach restaurants’ set lunches during ILTM was Plage Goeland, where your choice of two dishes was preceded by a no-choice platter of assorted seafood and cold cuts and salads (by contrast, the set lunch at Plage de Festival gave two choices, starter and main, say a soft boiled egg with mushroom, then a fried rectangle of chicken breast, no greenery, no salad but masses of bread).
Back to La Môme. It now does all the food at PORT PALACE, MONTE-CARLO. This ultra-discreet hideaway has now evolved into a stunning and must-be-there restaurant with a hidden-treasure hotel beneath. Thanks to designers Liautard and the Queen, who were influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, and thanks to the debonair director Luigi Visciano, this new restaurant is getting type of local society everyone wants, the big showy hats and highest heels. The minimalist skirts are on the servers. More to come, foodies…
