The journalist Alice B-B is an expert in the worlds of travel, wellness, and all sorts of other lifestyle centric matters. So no wonder that she is an expert in the subtle arts of the Long Lunch. She joined us with her friend Nicola Formby, a fellow journalist and consultant, for a catch-up over lobster rolls and spicy margaritas.
Is the Long Lunch a habit or aberration for you?
It used to be a habit. Now, I’m annoyingly out of practice.
What makes a Long Lunch enjoyable, versus a chore?
A Long Lunch is never a chore, unless it’s lunch with a terrible bore!
What are the qualities endemic to a lunch companion?
Hungry and thirsty — for everything.
What inspired you to invite Nicola to join you today?
We have lunched together for 30 years. It was thanks to Nicola and her late great husband, the writer AA Gill, that I first met Jeremy King; I was in my twenties and we went to The Ivy for dinner. It was all so glamorous and thrilling. I felt like a minnow, wide-eyed, looking, learning. It’s a little hazy, but I think Joan Collins was there. Nicola wore a black latex dress, and I think Adrian wore a monocle. (Wish I’d kept a diary.) And Jeremy was like a hot knife sliding through butter — so smooth and making everyone feel marvelous.
What did you eat and drink today, and why?
I had a lobster roll, because it matches the spring blossom. And a spicy margarita, just because.
What will you order on your next Long Lunch at the Park?
The chopped salad, because it reminds me of my first ever chopped salad at The Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel. I love the OCD-ness of all the perfectly cubed bits and bobs. And in winter, the osso bucco with risotto.
If you could Long-Lunch with absolutely anyone on the planet — no offence to your companion — who would it be?
My dad, my boyfriend Nick Love, my crush Dustin Hoffman, and my wonderful former boss Graydon Carter, for all the stories that didn’t make it into his excellent book When The Going Was Good.
Would you like to review Nicola’s meal? Were you envious?
Yes, because unlike my lobster roll, Nicola’s was not gluten-free. How I long for a brioche bun.
On the days that you are Long-Lunching, do you dress differently?
My uniform is jeans and a t-shirt. If I’m lunching, then my uniform is smartened slightly with a jacket. Today it was vintage Chanel.
What is your favourite time of year (or weather) in which to enjoy a Long Lunch?
Every day is a good day for lunch.
The best day of the week for a Long Lunch is….?
Friday, the best way to announce; the weekend is… open.
Do you have any other thoughts about Long Lunches that you’d like to share?
Once upon a time before smartphones, long lunches were a necessity — sharing stories and exploring ideas with a hint of gossip. Now we have Instagram. I know which I prefer.
Tell us about your favourite Long Lunch of all time.
Arrive by boat with sunburnt skin and damp hair from swims in the Tyrrhenian sea for lunch at Lo Scoglio in Nerano with my friends Laura Bailey, Eric Fellner and hordes of kids for the spaghetti alla nerano, which might well be my choice of last supper. Then it’s back in the boat and zoom across the sea to Capri for pudding — a nocciola ice cream at Buoncore. (The queue snakes interminably through the cobbled streets but bloody nora — the gelato is worth it.) Then back in the boat to Li Galli islands for a final, delicious sunset swim beneath the house once owned by Rudolf Nureyev. Then back in the boat and onto dry land for a well-earned negroni.
ALICE’S DOSSIER
Birthplace: London.
Neighbourhood: Notting Hill.
“Short” lunch strategy: A salade niçoise at home with my boyfriend Nick Love.
Cocktail: Gin and tonic — two fingers gin, three lumps of ice, Fever Tree light tonic in a slim-rimmed tumbler with a twist. And if I’m at a party with Jeremy King, we always do tequila shots at the bar.
Workout: The Warrior Flow at Heartcore in Bayswater beneath infrared panels. It’s so sweaty my Oura ring thinks I’ve been swimming.
Bookstore: Daunt’s, always.
Favourite park: The Port Cros national park in South of France, for wild hikes along the pristine coast.
Current projects: I’m writing about the extraordinary world of wellness and longevity. And writing a film.
Any recommendations for us? Cecily Brown at The Serpentine Gallery — a post-prandial stroll through Kensington Gardens and into Brown’s blend of abstract and figurative painting. And re-watch Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman — still so funny and charming. And next on my TV watch list is Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole. And the Conflicted podcast, in which Aimen Dean, a former Al Qaeda operative turned MI6 spy, discusses Middle East politics, religion and history with Thomas Small, a former monk turned filmmaker.