The Times: 29 August 2024
August 29, 2024
Sally Clarke: ‘Lucian Freud whacked a lady on the backside with a baguette’ … Celebrities have flocked to the chef’s Notting Hill restaurant for 40 years but none was as loyal as the revered artist, she tells Tony Turnbull.
Sally Clarke has welcomed all manner of celebrities to her west London restaurant over the years, from Bryan Ferry and Bono to Kate Moss and Bette Midler. Some doubtless behave better than others, but as far as the chef knows, only one has led to an investigation by the local environmental health officer.
Clarke tells the story of how a rather grand Kensington lady, on seeing an unkempt man in paint-spattered clothes in the adjoining shop and cafe, complained loudly that such dirty scruffy peoople had no business being there, and certainly not to be handling the baked goods. Clearly no art lover, she had failed to recognise the man in question as Lucian Freud, at the time our greatest living artist and one of Clarke’s most regular customers. ‘On hearing this, Mr Freud picked up his baguette and walked out, whacking the lady on the backside with it as he left. She promptly reported the incident at Kensington and Chelsea town hall, and when the environmental health officer arrived the next day to investigate, staff denied all knowledge of the ‘strange man’ and claimed to have never seen him before … ‘
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