Pomme dauphine at Bébé Marcel
Emily in Paris annoys millions of French people. The character who lives in a picture postcard Paris generates fantasy visions of the city rooted in an unlikely coupling of Edith Piaf and Walt Disney. If it was Emily in Ulster we’d be annoyed too. Think of Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. Kitsch works.
Back in the ’60s the Hilton Hotel group unveiled its Trader Vic’s restaurant and tiki bar which was as authentic as the Armagh Ritz but it didn’t matter. It was so well conceived, bringing exotic “Polynesian” flavours to the paying customer that Trader Vic’s became hugely successful.