One of Les Mis's student revolutionaries, Gavroche, takes refuge in the massive Elephant of the Bastille, the model for a never-built statue that stood in Place de la Bastille in the first half of the 19th century. (For the film, it was recreated at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England.) Though the pachyderm is long gone, the July Column commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 now stands in its place.

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Bryn Williams and I worked together at Le Gavroche a few years ago, and he's now chef patron of Odette's in Primrose Hill.

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But on the other side of the Channel in the UK, where the BSE crisis first unfolded, the patron chef of London's two Michelin-starred Le Gavroche said customers had never been put off -- in fact, quite the opposite.

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