HOTEL KING'S DELIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20922, 11 July 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOTEL KING'S DELIGHT.

MAN WHO HATES LUXURY. HOME-MADE APPLE TARTS. M. Andre Terrail, millionaire " hotel king" of Paris, has lived so much in luxury that now he hates it. He has lately gone to London to escape what he calls the "soulless perfection" of his hotels in the French capital. He lives in Paris, amid scenes which most people see only on the films. " It is my job to provide luxury for the nobility of Europe and many of the wealthiest men in the United States, but now I have come to feel enslaved by it and to hate it!" M. Terrail said recently. " Oh! how I am tired of it." M. Terrail looked round his apartment at'the Piccadily Hotel. "It does notlook as if I am escaping, does it?" he asked with a laugh. " Still, I have not my staff of 600 servants fussing round me."

French writers have described M. Terrail's smile as " the smile that pleases women." He is considered one of the most handsome men in France. His restaurant, La Tour d'Argent, was the favourite Parisian resort of King Edward. The cellars are estimated to hold £BO,OOO worth of the choicest wines.

M. Terrail equipped his hotel, the George V., with a private police force of picked men dressed just like the London police. He employs among his chefs the, highest paid food artists in the world. " But," ho said, "I do not employ a chef at my home in Paris. I have a good plain cook, and her apple tarts are better than anything a chef can make. "I like the simple things now, and I bought a house immediately opposite my principal hotel, so as to be able to slip away into it the moment I can escape from soulless perfection. "I suppose I have succeeded, because I started as a kitchen boy—a scullion. I love my work, but the happiest hour of my day is when I can have a plain simple meal with my five children seated round rrly own table. That is—home."