At only 24, Jane Herbert, a talented protégée of the celebrity chef and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson, was made general manager of De Cecco (now Vicino), the popular Italian dining spot in Fulham, southwest London. The sight of Jane, blond and slender, sashaying through the tables, disarming with beaming smiles the awkward diner while quietly marshalling the flow of meals from kitchen to table, was a lesson in the art of managing a restaurant. “She was a real natural with people, yet had her eye on all the details,” remembers her husband, Jude Kereama. A chef, Jude had arrived in the UK from New Zealand on a 24-month working visa when he first met Jane in De Cecco. Immediately he knew that she was “the…

Source: The Times June 21, 2019 23:03 UTC