French chef Raymond Blanc was left red-faced after customers at one of his restaurants were given books – by rival cook Jamie Oliver.
The gaff happened as refurbishment business Amarelle held its annual Christmas lunch at Brasserie Blanc in Bristol.
They had asked for cook books by Mr Blanc to be given to all guests – but restaurant staff had not been told.
Mark Colfer, Amarelle’s managing director, slipped out and made his way to a bookshop – where he bought seven Jamie’s Comfort Food cookbooks at ?25 each.
And despite brandishing them for photos in the restaurant the manager apologised for the mix-up and offered to pay the full ?175 for them.
Mark said: “When everyone saw me return with them, their faces were a picture. I think they thought we would all be marched off the premises.
“We got a picture and put it on LinkedIn and Twitter because it did seem pretty funny.
“Fair play to the manager afterwards because he came up and said he was really sorry about what had happened and wanted to pay for the books I had to buy and that’s exactly what he did – all #175.
“So Raymond Blanc paid me to give my clients a book by Jamie Oliver.”
And it seems Raymond found the joke funny as well tweeting Amarelle: “@Amarelle_Ltd . @brasserieblanc must have run out of my book 😉 @jamieoliver is great. I see empty plates, looks like you all had fun !”
