The Captain’s Table

• Andrea Illy’s dining boltholes

  

  ’For me, eating out is a little different, as my clients include leading restaurateurs and hoteliers’

• Patrizio di Marco’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Lunch is a fundamental component of doing business – it’s the building of a relationship’

• Deborah Meaden’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘My time is too precious to go out for a meal just for the hell of it’

• Bernard Taylor’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Like a lot of bankers, I tend to eat for a living’

• Dawn Airey’s dining boltholes

  

  ’In the mid-1980s it was de rigueur to drink vast quantities at lunchtime’

• Katrin Theodoli’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Meals are crucial – it’s the ancient ritual of breaking bread with someone’

• Chris Loughlin’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Taking people out is not about getting the deal – it’s about the build-up to it’

• Federico Marchetti’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘I limit my business meals to lunch. Dinners are personal and Italians don’t do business breakfasts’

• Max Girardo’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘I have one client who only ever agrees something if we are sitting in China Tang at 2am’

• Richard Reed’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Meals create intimacy, and dinner can forge an invisible bond’

• Nerio Alessandri’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Once you’re at a meal, you’re already halfway to your goal’

• Rupert Stadler’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Sitting down to eat with someone can speed up decision-making’

• Duncan Bannatyne’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘I never bothered with business meals until I put my company on the Stock Exchange’

• Chris Silbermann’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Lunch is hard-core business; dinner is more of a celebration’

• David Giampaolo’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘I once took a transatlantic flight just so that I could have lunch with someone’

• Gilbert Harrison’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Lunch takes less time than a ballgame, but achieves the same end’

• Alessandro Benetton’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘As a company, you express your values and convictions through food’

• John Demsey’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘If I want to find out about my competitors, lunch is the best tactic’

• Graeme Weston’s dining boltholes

  

  Find an unsensational restaurant and don’t talk aeroplanes, says the COO of NetJets Europe

• Simon de Pury’s dining boltholes

  

  Gastronomic temples can be so boring, says the chairman of Phillips de Pury

• Roland Rudd’s dining boltholes

  

  The co-founder of the Finsbury Group prefers his meat – and his wine – red

• Michel Dyens’s dining boltholes

  

  ’Never bring up business at a business meal’

• Peter M Brant’s dining boltholes

  

  ‘Lunch is one of the least expensive ways of building relationships’