What do you think of when you cross a businessman with a celebrity chef? The answer: pandas. That at least is how Mark Derry, executive director of Brasserie Bar Co, appears to think of his union with Raymond Blanc, the two-Michelin-starred French chef who moved to the UK in 1972.

“It was a bit like the mating of giant pandas,” says Mr Derry sipping mineral water at Brasserie Blanc Covent Garden, in London, as he recalls their initial deal. Giant pandas are famous for spending a long time sizing each other up in the mating season, rather than just getting on with it. “We were strolling around each other for a while, trying to work out what we were going to do,” he says.

When they first joined forces in 2003, Mr Derry was chief executive of Loch Fyne Restaurants, the seafood chain, and was looking for a second, more creative brand to develop. He came across Le Petit Blanc group, Mr Blanc’s failed casual dining venture, and saw a potential success. LFR acquired the business from the administrators, with backing from a mixture of investors, for a sum believed by industry observers to be about ￡1m.