Would sir like gravy with that

by Nicola Shepherd

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Maxim's, which has a long-held reputation of being one of Paris's most exclusive and best restaurants, now has club nights on a Friday.

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Jamie Oliver has gone down a storm in America and succeeded where Delia Smith failed.

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Are we witnessing a cultural revolution whereby food excellence is now available to all

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While Maxim's still has a� well-deserved reputation for great food, it has to be said that those in the know in Paris haven't been there to eat for years. Its clientele is mostly tourists reliving its sixties heyday.

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But now the young, the beautiful and the irresistibly trendy are yet again gracing Maxim's with their presence, paying the �50 'prix-fixe' menu to eat and then party with several hundred of the capital's finest.

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They have to be dressed for the part, but that doesn't mean expensively dressed, explains Leo Chabot, club owner and brains behind Maxim's rejuvenation. 'The criterion for admission to Maxim's is elegance, but that's not simply a matter of how you dress or how expensive your jewellery is. Elegance is expressed in how you arrive at the door, how you say hello and the way you behave towards people. And that�money can never buy. That requires taste,' he says.

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It may seem a long leap from Chabot's definition of elegance to Jamie Oliver, but�the Essex boy has been doing his own bit of reinvention, too. He has�really enhanced the reputation of the Brits as great cooks.

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Where our best British culinary export, Delia Smith, failed, because the Americans thought her approach too proscriptive and matronly, our Jamie has been a huge hit.

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The pukka chap, who, three years ago was pasta chef at the River Cafe, has now made the best-selling cookery book list in the States with record-breaking sales. The ratings of his�shows have soared since launch and you cannot move from your�TV or radio over there without hearing his charming�nasal vowels.

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Rolling Stone magazine has named him as 'the millennial man to watch' and he is rated alongside Brad Pitt for sexiness.

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He is helping along an American culinary movement that is carefully picking its way between the ubiquitous burger and fries and the meat from a bird you've never heard of in a sauce you cannot pronounce.

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Oliver's local rivals accuse him of turning good food into mush, of overusing Balsamic vinegar and of being more entertainer than chef.

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Well, they would wouldn't they