Alan Crompton-Batt

Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 23/09/2004)

Alan Crompton-Batt, who has died aged 50, was the public relations
consultant credited with creating the notion of the celebrity chef.

Before Crompton-Batt set about marketing restaurants in the mid-1980s,
the chef may have been quietly lauded as an artist in his field, but
he remained unseen, the fellow in the kitchen wearing checked trousers
and a comical hat. By the time Crompton-Batt had finished, the chef
had emerged from behind the stove to appear as a personality in the
glossy magazines and the gossip columns, as famous in his own right as
the celebrities who paid to eat his food.

Crompton-Batt's two most famous clients were Nico Ladenis and Marco
Pierre White, both of whom became firm friends. The publicist
appreciated that these men were not only great chefs, but also
supremely marketable as personalities. Ladenis - who was once said to
have flambeed the money of a customer who had earned his disapproval -
became the most famous restaurateur in the country and was
Crompton-Batt's first client. Marco Pierre White contributed a
hitherto unknown glamour to the business, becoming the "rock star" of
the cooking fraternity.

It was perhaps not surprising that this quality in White was apparent
to Crompton-Batt, for he had enjoyed a spell managing a post-punk rock
band, the Psychedelic Furs, before becoming involved in the restaurant
world. When he did make the transition, Crompton-Batt brought a fine
palate and an instinctive understanding of the value of gastronomy
which earned him the respect of those he represented.

His technique as a publicist was idiosyncratic. If a journalist asked
him to confirm a story about a client, Crompton-Batt might reply:
"Yes, totally true. And this is what he's going to say." He would then
launch into a faultless impersonation of the client, giving a line
with all the appropriate phraseology and histrionic effects; he fondly
believed that the client would not remember whether or not he had
spoken to the press.

Alan Richard Crompton-Batt was born on March 23 1954 in Salisbury,
Wiltshire. His father was a pilot serving with the RAF, and was posted
to Singapore when Alan was 11. He was educated at boarding school in
Penang, and, although he won a place at Oxford, he decided not to take
it up, instead looking after the Psychedelic Furs.

He soon concluded that the music business was not for him, and became
a food inspector for Egon Ronay. It was in this role that he first met
Ladenis, when he went to report on Chez Nico in 1981 for the Egon
Ronay guide.

Crompton-Batt then went to work for the Kennedy Brooks restaurant
group, for which he became marketing director. When the company bought
the Ivy from Lord Grade, Crompton-Batt met the impresario's niece
Elizabeth, whom he was to marry in 1987. In 1985 he decided to set up
on his own as a restaurant PR; this was a novel idea at the time, and
for the rest of the decade he virtually had the field to himself.

Nico Ladenis, meanwhile, had embarked on a rural experiment, taking
Chez Nico to Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire. It had not been a
success, and when Crompton-Batt telephoned to say that he was now in
the public relations business, Ladenis, reflecting that his friend had
come along at exactly the right moment, asked him to represent him.
Their professional association continued until Ladenis sold his London
business in 2000, and Crompton-Batt contributed the preface to the
chef's first book, My Gastronomy (1987).

Crompton-Batt had excellent contacts in London, particularly among
food writers, and he soon built up an impressive list of clients.
These came to include the independent hotel group Relais & Chateaux
(Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Sharrow Bay Country House and Le
Gavroche are part of the stable); the Hard Rock Cafe; and Planet
Hollywood. He also represented Taittinger Champagne, and he launched
Haagen-Dazs ice-cream in Britain.

Marco Pierre White was still a teenager working at Le Gavroche when he
first encountered Crompton-Batt. "He believed in me when I was 19 and
fresh out of Yorkshire," White said. "He told me I would be the first
British chef to get three stars." Later, when White opened Harvey's on
Wandsworth Common in January 1987, Crompton-Batt began to represent
him. White came to view him as his best friend, describing him as "a
rocker, a hard-core boy", adding that he knew "how to lunch, how to
dine".

This was true. Crompton-Batt, who sometimes sported electric blue
suits and gold jewellery, was an inveterate party animal who was not
known for his temperance. He once took exception to a review by the
Observer's food critic Jay Rayner, and confided at an awards ceremony:
"The last time I saw Jay Rayner I hit him. He deserved it, and I am
going to hit him again."

He was a devoted fan of Manchester United.

Recently Alan Crompton-Batt had tired of the London scene, and
resolved to make a new life in South Africa, where he was planning to
write his memoirs. He died there, of pneumonia, on Monday.

He and Elizabeth divorced in 1995, but remained good friends. Even
though she set up her own PR agency, they did not compete against one
another.


http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai.../23/db2302.xml

Sufaud wrote:
> Alan Crompton-Batt
>
> Daily Telegraph
> (Filed: 23/09/2004)
>
> Alan Crompton-Batt, who has died aged 50, was the public relations
> consultant credited with creating the notion of the celebrity chef.
>
> Before Crompton-Batt set about marketing restaurants in the mid-1980s,
> the chef may have been quietly lauded as an artist in his field, but
> he remained unseen, the fellow in the kitchen wearing checked trousers
> and a comical hat. By the time Crompton-Batt had finished, the chef
> had emerged from behind the stove to appear as a personality in the
> glossy magazines and the gossip columns, as famous in his own right as
> the celebrities who paid to eat his food.
>
> Crompton-Batt's two most famous clients were Nico Ladenis and Marco
> Pierre White, both of whom became firm friends. The publicist
> appreciated that these men were not only great chefs, but also
> supremely marketable as personalities. Ladenis - who was once said to
> have flambeed the money of a customer who had earned his disapproval -
> became the most famous restaurateur in the country and was
> Crompton-Batt's first client. Marco Pierre White contributed a
> hitherto unknown glamour to the business, becoming the "rock star" of
> the cooking fraternity.
>
> It was perhaps not surprising that this quality in White was apparent
> to Crompton-Batt, for he had enjoyed a spell managing a post-punk rock
> band, the Psychedelic Furs, before becoming involved in the restaurant
> world. When he did make the transition, Crompton-Batt brought a fine
> palate and an instinctive understanding of the value of gastronomy
> which earned him the respect of those he represented.
>
> His technique as a publicist was idiosyncratic. If a journalist asked
> him to confirm a story about a client, Crompton-Batt might reply:
> "Yes, totally true. And this is what he's going to say." He would then
> launch into a faultless impersonation of the client, giving a line
> with all the appropriate phraseology and histrionic effects; he fondly
> believed that the client would not remember whether or not he had
> spoken to the press.
>
> Alan Richard Crompton-Batt was born on March 23 1954 in Salisbury,
> Wiltshire. His father was a pilot serving with the RAF, and was posted
> to Singapore when Alan was 11. He was educated at boarding school in
> Penang, and, although he won a place at Oxford, he decided not to take
> it up, instead looking after the Psychedelic Furs.
>
> He soon concluded that the music business was not for him, and became
> a food inspector for Egon Ronay. It was in this role that he first met
> Ladenis, when he went to report on Chez Nico in 1981 for the Egon
> Ronay guide.
>
> Crompton-Batt then went to work for the Kennedy Brooks restaurant
> group, for which he became marketing director. When the company bought
> the Ivy from Lord Grade, Crompton-Batt met the impresario's niece
> Elizabeth, whom he was to marry in 1987. In 1985 he decided to set up
> on his own as a restaurant PR; this was a novel idea at the time, and
> for the rest of the decade he virtually had the field to himself.
>
> Nico Ladenis, meanwhile, had embarked on a rural experiment, taking
> Chez Nico to Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire. It had not been a
> success, and when Crompton-Batt telephoned to say that he was now in
> the public relations business, Ladenis, reflecting that his friend had
> come along at exactly the right moment, asked him to represent him.
> Their professional association continued until Ladenis sold his London
> business in 2000, and Crompton-Batt contributed the preface to the
> chef's first book, My Gastronomy (1987).
>
> Crompton-Batt had excellent contacts in London, particularly among
> food writers, and he soon built up an impressive list of clients.
> These came to include the independent hotel group Relais & Chateaux
> (Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Sharrow Bay Country House and Le
> Gavroche are part of the stable); the Hard Rock Cafe; and Planet
> Hollywood. He also represented Taittinger Champagne, and he launched
> Haagen-Dazs ice-cream in Britain.
>
> Marco Pierre White was still a teenager working at Le Gavroche when he
> first encountered Crompton-Batt. "He believed in me when I was 19 and
> fresh out of Yorkshire," White said. "He told me I would be the first
> British chef to get three stars." Later, when White opened Harvey's on
> Wandsworth Common in January 1987, Crompton-Batt began to represent
> him. White came to view him as his best friend, describing him as "a
> rocker, a hard-core boy", adding that he knew "how to lunch, how to
> dine".
>
> This was true. Crompton-Batt, who sometimes sported electric blue
> suits and gold jewellery, was an inveterate party animal who was not
> known for his temperance. He once took exception to a review by the
> Observer's food critic Jay Rayner, and confided at an awards ceremony:
> "The last time I saw Jay Rayner I hit him. He deserved it, and I am
> going to hit him again."
>
> He was a devoted fan of Manchester United.
>
> Recently Alan Crompton-Batt had tired of the London scene, and
> resolved to make a new life in South Africa, where he was planning to
> write his memoirs. He died there, of pneumonia, on Monday.
>
> He and Elizabeth divorced in 1995, but remained good friends. Even
> though she set up her own PR agency, they did not compete against one
> another.
>
>
> http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai.../23/db2302.xml
>

--
If Crompton-Batt managed celebrity chefs, who are unknown to me, then
maybe, in some strange
way, it explains the obscurity of the Psychedelic Furs, who are known to
me. Or something.

He must have been quite a character. Thanks.

--
Dave S

Dave S > wrote in message >...
> Sufaud wrote:


> > Alan Crompton-Batt, who has died aged 50, was the public relations

> > consultant credited with creating the notion of the celebrity chef.
> >
> > Before Crompton-Batt set about marketing restaurants in the mid-1980s,
> > the chef may have been quietly lauded as an artist in his field, but
> > he remained unseen, the fellow in the kitchen wearing checked trousers
> > and a comical hat. By the time Crompton-Batt had finished, the chef
> > had emerged from behind the stove to appear as a personality in the
> > glossy magazines and the gossip columns, as famous in his own right as
> > the celebrities who paid to eat his food.

> >
> > http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai.../23/db2302.xml
> >
>
> --
> If Crompton-Batt managed celebrity chefs, who are unknown to me, then
> maybe, in some strange
> way, it explains the obscurity of the Psychedelic Furs, who are known to
> me. Or something.
>
> He must have been quite a character. Thanks.

Well, if you never heard of Marco Pierre White, then you have (1)
never been to England and (2) are, with all due respect, provincial.

Of course it was the recently-deceased Julia Child who learned her
craft and her art in France, where her husband was a US diplomat,
brought cuisine to the middle classes in America, taking over the
mantle of earlier, less publicly-known leading lights as James Beard
and of course Dione Lucas who (unlike the others) actually had a
restaurant, the Egg Basket, in NYC where I dined once. It had no
liquor license.

Before that, cooking schools and writers stressed "conventional
American cooking", trying to help immigrants to assimilate. Of course
there was the inimitable Grace Chu (a member, as I understand it, of
the most famous Chinese families, including that of I.M. Pei). I
attended a dinner she sponsored in New York for many of her former
students, incuding my mother. (She was one of the first to show that
authentic chinese cooking could be done in the American home.)

In the UK, there was and is Delia Smith, and now there is a host of
celebrity chefs, some rather obnoxious. But Crompton-Batt started it.

His obits say he died of pneumonia, but the real cause was acute
alcohol poisoning. Over the last year or so, he just lost it, whater
"it" is. He moved to South Africa to dry out, but it didn't last.

Very, very sad. He will be sorely missed.

Fay Maschler's obit is considered the best; she was a close friend of
his. It's at
http://tinyurl.com/7xzzy

The Times obit, less personal, is at
http://tinyurl.com/42ux8

R.I.P.

Dave S > wrote in message >...
> Sufaud wrote:


> > Alan Crompton-Batt, who has died aged 50, was the public relations

> > consultant credited with creating the notion of the celebrity chef.
> >
> > Before Crompton-Batt set about marketing restaurants in the mid-1980s,
> > the chef may have been quietly lauded as an artist in his field, but
> > he remained unseen, the fellow in the kitchen wearing checked trousers
> > and a comical hat. By the time Crompton-Batt had finished, the chef
> > had emerged from behind the stove to appear as a personality in the
> > glossy magazines and the gossip columns, as famous in his own right as
> > the celebrities who paid to eat his food.

> >
> > http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai.../23/db2302.xml
> >
>
> --
> If Crompton-Batt managed celebrity chefs, who are unknown to me, then
> maybe, in some strange
> way, it explains the obscurity of the Psychedelic Furs, who are known to
> me. Or something.
>
> He must have been quite a character. Thanks.

Well, if you never heard of Marco Pierre White, then you have (1)
never been to England and (2) are, with all due respect, provincial.

Of course it was the recently-deceased Julia Child who learned her
craft and her art in France, where her husband was a US diplomat,
brought cuisine to the middle classes in America, taking over the
mantle of earlier, less publicly-known leading lights as James Beard
and of course Dione Lucas who (unlike the others) actually had a
restaurant, the Egg Basket, in NYC where I dined once. It had no
liquor license.

Before that, cooking schools and writers stressed "conventional
American cooking", trying to help immigrants to assimilate. Of course
there was the inimitable Grace Chu (a member, as I understand it, of
the most famous Chinese families, including that of I.M. Pei). I
attended a dinner she sponsored in New York for many of her former
students, incuding my mother. (She was one of the first to show that
authentic chinese cooking could be done in the American home.)

In the UK, there was and is Delia Smith, and now there is a host of
celebrity chefs, some rather obnoxious. But Crompton-Batt started it.

His obits say he died of pneumonia, but the real cause was acute
alcohol poisoning. Over the last year or so, he just lost it, whater
"it" is. He moved to South Africa to dry out, but it didn't last.

Very, very sad. He will be sorely missed.

Fay Maschler's obit is considered the best; she was a close friend of
his. It's at
http://tinyurl.com/7xzzy

The Times obit, less personal, is at
http://tinyurl.com/42ux8

R.I.P.

On 2004-09-28, Sufaud > wrote:

> Well, if you never heard of Marco Pierre White, then you have (1)
> never been to England and (2) are, with all due respect, provincial.

Be that as it may, I'd venture to guess most Americans have never heard of
all three, Ladenis, White, AND Batt. I know I never have and I've followed
the cooking scene for 30 years. I think the biggest single factor in making
chefs celebrities in the US was the late great Great Chefs series on PBS.
Unlike celebrity cooking shows like Julia and Graham Kerr, it was the first
nationwide program to view working chefs in their native environment and
speak of them in a hushed, almost reverent, manner. This is not to take
anything away from Batt, but I doubt he was even a dust spec on most
people's radar.

nb

notbob > wrote in message news:<NYe6d.272590$mD.3536@attbi_s02>...
> On 2004-09-28, Sufaud > wrote:
>
> > Well, if you never heard of Marco Pierre White, then you have (1)
> > never been to England and (2) are, with all due respect, provincial.
>
> Be that as it may, I'd venture to guess most Americans have never heard of
> all three, Ladenis, White, AND Batt.

Crompton-Batt is the name.

As for Marco Pierre White, see
http://www.toptable.co.uk/feature.cfm?fID=25

Some UK restaurant promoters (not necessarily themselves well-known
chefs) are well-known in the USA:
http://www.guastavinos.com/

Gordon Ramsay is well known everywhere, both for his football career
and for the prices he gets in his restaurants.
http://www.toprestaurants.com/london.htm

I'm not going to give a course in Anglo-American chefdom here. Suffice
it to say, that Crompton-Batt created the star image of these top
chefs in Britain. As it happens, both in the USA and in the UK,
stardom is someting we demand of executives, politicians, top
professors -- and now we are paying all of them top salaries (UK
ministers are about to get 90% pay rises). Whether or not they
perform.

I can't say I agree with what is happening, a widening of the gap
between rich and poor, and a creation of a New Aristocracy of robber
barons (think The Great Gatsby -- and remember, he was a securities
fraudster). Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and the rest are all
results of that.

>>
>>>Well, if you never heard of Marco Pierre White, then you have (1)
>>>never been to England and (2) are, with all due respect, provincial.
>>

I'll cop to both.

--
Dave S

>>
>>>Well, if you never heard of Marco Pierre White, then you have (1)
>>>never been to England and (2) are, with all due respect, provincial.
>>

I'll cop to both.

--
Dave S