Why they call them ‘fat cats’

LONDON’S MOST expensive set menu is a high-cholesterol, high alcohol £1,000 a head seven course ‘non-vegetarian extravaganza’ designed for, literally, ‘fat-cat’ City bankers with huge bonuses.

With bottles of champagne, vodka, port, brandy and various wines available, a lunch-time trip to Vivat Bacchus could create a whole army of ‘rogue traders’ like Jerome Kerviels playing with our money like there was no tomorrow. And with a meal full of goose, lobster, chocolate soufflés, clotted cream and hardly any vegetables and enough alcohol to fuel a biofuel lorry, these ‘fat cats’ – or their heart specialists – may know something.

The owner says nowhere in the world apart from London could open such a restaurant because it was “so close to Europe” that they could get wines very quickly. A more likely reason is that Britain is one of Europe’s most unequal societies with a huge excess of overpaid super-rich people.