Bunhill: Sweet and sour

NO, Mr Yan Ho Cheung is not often in the country, I was assured by his spokesperson, Ms Peggie Kwan of the Tealeaf company. She added that Mr Cheung did not like being interviewed when he was.

The interest in Mr C is legitimate enough since he has now acquired what amounts to a monopoly of London's smartest Chinese restaurants. He already owned two of them - the Empress and Princess Garden, both in Mayfair.

And last week his newly formed company, Melody Lane, bought the four restaurants in Lawrence Leung's Zen Group - relics of 1980s trendiness, situated, appropriately enough, in Mayfair, Chelsea, Hampstead and the West End - from the receiver of Mr Leung's Blaidwood Group.