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One of London's leading restaurants was closed after a woman died after eating there.
Quaglino's was shut by management this week after a 50-year-old woman died after dining at the restaurant on Saturday night. She became unwell along with four of the other six people in her party.
Westminster Council and the Health Protection Agency have launched an investigation to determine whether the woman's death was linked to anything she ate or drank at Quaglino's. Further tests are being carried out after a post-mortem on Wednesday failed to establish the cause of death.
The woman was from southeast London and is believed to have reserved a table with a group of friends on what is traditionally the restaurant's busiest night.
Quaglino's in St James's in central London refused to comment last night. A member of staff would only confirm that the restaurant was closed for two days and has now reopened.
Westminster Council said it had not ordered the establishment to close, but management had made the decision voluntarily. The HPA is still conducting tests to establish if there is a risk to public health and if the Food Standards Agency needs to investigate.
The restaurant last had a routine food hygiene inspection in October 2008 when it was given three out a possible four stars. Inspectors said it had “good level of legal compliance” and added: “Some more effort might be required.”
Richard Block, food safety manager at the council, said: “There is nothing currently to link this death directly to the restaurant which is cooperating fully with our investigation.”
Founded by Giovanni Quaglino in 1929, the brasserie was relaunched by Sir Terence in 1993 going on to become a haunt for celebrity and wealthy diners.
It is still a popular late-night hang-out and regularly booked out for fashion industry parties. It was the venue for the Henry Holland's catwalk show, featuring model Agyness Dean, at London Fashion Week in February.
Sir Terence, Conran, who is behind other notable restaurants such as Bibendum and Kensington Place, sold the his 51 per cent majority stake in the D&D parent company for an estimated £100 million last May.
The 77-year-old designer and restaurateur, who owns the Habitat furniture chain, did open his first new venture in nearly 20 years with the launch of the Boundary in Shoreditch, east London recently.
Reader views (19)
Get Ramsey on the job! He'll soon sort 'em out!
- Shallowandmean, Gloucester, UK, 25/05/2009 04:43
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I wish people got their fact right before talking nonsense.
Details are missing like, when did she get sick? when did she die? did the party have a drink before hand? a juice in a bar or pub(could have been the ice).
Food poisoning covers a wide range of things, was it a allergy or a bacteria
An oysters that come from commercial beds are raised for that purpose. Conditions are professionally managed.
Oysters are a more complex than when you find them on ice with mignonette.
They breathe, eat, defecate, reproduce sexually and like so many things, they defend themselves against being desirable by being potentially deadly.
sickness from an oysters is either due to allergy or bacteria, both can manifest unannounced.
The allergy is due to an individual's reaction to tropomyosin,a protein present in shellfish. Symptoms are usually mild but severe symptoms such as anaphylactic shock can also occur after consumption. People are who are allergic to one sort of shellfish are not necessarily allergic to all of them.
The bacterium (vibrio vulnificus)tolerates salt, an inhabitant of the environment that host oyster beds. In healthy people, eating oyster containing that bacteria can lead to a nasty case of food poisoning but in people with poor immune systems, the bacteria can infect the bloodstream, causing severe and potentially deadly reactions.
If the oysters were contaminated the staff could not have know.
- Mickael, london, 24/05/2009 13:06
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Funny that anon I have never seen that in real restaurants. Kebab or curry houses granted
- Ge, Cornwall, 23/05/2009 06:58
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I know the lady who died and please do not suggest she was "drunk out of her head or stumbling out the door, get your facts right before you make assumptions.
She was in fact very sober that night, and walked out of the restaurant not stumbled out the door!!!!!
- Anon, Kmet, 22/05/2009 23:28
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the fact that five out of the six were ill, does make you think somthing not right! but i will miss my cousin very much. sleep well sweetheart.
- John Hall, nottingham england, 22/05/2009 21:15
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I work for one of Londons most famous restaurants. Its amazing the amount of customers who get so ridiculously drunk their heads are on the table, they are throwing up in the loo (discreetly of course!) and they are stumbling out the door. And what happens the next day? They claim food poisoning from their lobster/ oysters/ scallops/ etc. We see it ALL THE TIME.
- Anon, London, 22/05/2009 17:13
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again, you did not get food poisoning so badly while eating your meal - the typical incubation period is 24 hours. and comments like "these places" seem to suggest an inexperienced and biased agenda.
Quaglino's is just not very good - that's possibly a fairer comment, though it is still regularly full.
It's very hard to believe or take seriously all these people with dubious stories and unsubtle agenda's.
if you're "too clever" to be suckered in by these places, then you've no basis for comment. particularly if you claim an italian address.
what's more, there hasn't yet been ANY attribution or wrong doing to the restaurant at all.
- Scotty, london, 22/05/2009 16:25
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I have never believed in the hype surrounding the cookery and restaurant industry in the UK.
- Mark, Venice, Italy, 22/05/2009 15:52
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Ate there a few years ago and was as sick as a dog. Only time I have EVER been ill after a meal out and I dine weekly at various restaurants all over London. Shame as it is a beautiful setting.
- Lottie, Richmond, 22/05/2009 15:08
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On our aniversary, my wife and I got such bad food poisoning at a famous Soho restaurant that we were ill before we finished. There was no apology, and when my boss dined there and said "I hear you tried to kill one of my staff", the owner said, "I'll have to try harder next time". These places are an expensive disgrace!
- Ronald, London, 22/05/2009 14:26
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Quaglinos has rapidly declined in the last 10years. Our last experience a couple of months ago was of shock and a total let down. Waiters wearing shabby/dirty clothing and the food was nothing like it use to be. We vowed then that we would never go back!
- Pauline,, London, England, 22/05/2009 14:05
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She probably died of shock - after seeing the bill.
- Jb, London, 22/05/2009 13:58
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I ate here once, and had no problems afterwards.
Sam - Are you sure it was the food, and not hangovers which lead you all to take the following day off work? You said it was a Christmas party, after all.
- Jock, London, 22/05/2009 13:31
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amazing some of the comments and opinions that come out of the woodwork...
we all got sick 20 years, chains blah blah...
honestly.
- Scotty, london, 22/05/2009 13:27
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This just confirms my experience from the two times I have visited this restaurant. I always get food poisoning.
- Mariah, London, 22/05/2009 12:52
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He could at least change the name, I could've gone thinking it was an Italian restaurant and found myself in one run by Conran
- Linda, italy, 22/05/2009 12:52
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disgusting food factories. Anything owned by a chain exposes you to this kind of problems. The name should be Mc Conran's.
Hopefully, Mc Ramsey is clean at least, given how much stick he gives to dirty kitchen.
- S K, Londom, UK, 22/05/2009 12:31
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Myself and a number of colleagues from the company I was working for at the time had a Christmas Dinner at Qualglino's in the late 90's and the next day EVERYONE of us took the day off sick...I would NEVER go back. We all ate Oysters. What did this lady and her colleagues eat?
- Sam, London, 22/05/2009 11:20
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Conran no longer owns Habitat, it was sold to IKEA some years ago. I seem to recall that Conran prefers his chips cooked in horse fat. I need say no more about his restaurants than that.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, England, 22/05/2009 09:57
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