Pierre Koffmann and Richard Vines launch restaurant review site

Chef Pierre Koffmann and journalist Richard Vines have teamed up to launch website and weekly restaurant review column Koffmann & Vines.

The weekly reviews will start with Russell Norman’s Trattoria Brutto in London’s Smithfield, with restaurants including Maison François, Akoko, 7 Saints and Oslo Court to follow.

Every Thursday a new review will be added, with Koffmann pronouncing on the details of the cooking, while both he and Vines will comment on the service and ambience of the restaurant. Vines will compose the prose, but will be a joint voice in the completed copy. A sponsor has been sourced to cover the cost of the meals.

Koffmann, born in Tarbes, France, held three Michelin stars at La Tante Claire restaurant in London. His career in the UK began with the Roux brothers, first at Le Gavroche, then at the Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire. He moved La Tante Claire to the Berkeley hotel in London, followed by a pop-up at Selfridge’s. This led to a return to Knightsbridge with Koffmann’s at the Berkeley, which closed at the end of 2016. He has written three cookbooks: Memories of Gascony, La Tante Claire and Classic Koffmann.

Vines has worked at Bloomberg for the past 25 years, most recently as chief food critic, and retired earlier this year. He began his career writing dance reviews while at LSE and Cardiff University. He trained at the Morning Telegraph in Sheffield and went on to work for the Daily Mirror in Manchester and The Times in London. He spent a year in Beijing as Thomson Foundation editorial advisor to China Daily, shifting to Hong Kong for six years as an editor on the Asian Wall Street Journal, and six more as foreign editor at the South China Morning Post.