Jeff Galvin

Along with his brother, Chris, and sister-in-law, Sara, Jeff Galvin has five restaurants in London, including Demoiselle in Harrods. He talks to Alicia Miller about French holidays and his obsession with good service

People ask if I see my brother often

– they don’t realise how close we work. We talk at least ten or 12 times a day, even when we’re not at the same restaurant, so we don’t spend much time together after work. Of course, holidays are different: we go fishing, and over New Year our whole family goes to La Chapelle (our restaurant in Spital Square, London) and we spend the day cooking a feast – a great big Wellington with Scottish beef.

It’s probably strange for a chef,

but service is often the number one thing I notice when I go to a restaurant, sometimes more than the food! I like things to be laid back, so places like Terroirs (http://terroirswinebar.com) and Brawn (http://brawn.co.uk) are right up my street. I love their generosity: you go in and they pour you a little wine and explain it, say to try this or try that, and you don’t pay for every sample. It’s a service style that doesn’t happen enough in this country. The staff at Gramercy Tavern (http://gramercytavern.com) in New York are also so friendly and competent; the baked Long Island clams there are fantastic.

When I was 16 I wanted to be a sommelier,

but I was too young to work in a licensed premises. To pass the time, I signed up for a catering school course, which was half wine study, half cooking. The rest is history, of course, but wine is still a big passion of mine. Most of my trips are wine- focused, and a particularly spectacular one was when we had a 25-vintage tasting of La Chapelle overlooking their vineyards in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage, in the northern Rhône. Champagne is my favourite drink though, and I love Chartogne-Taillet NV Rosé Brut.

My father would bet on horses

and one year when I was very young he had a big win, so we packed up the car and went down to France for a month. It was my first time there and I was enchanted; we picked peaches and drove through Burgundy wine country. Even now, I can’t get enough of France. Paris is nice (I go to L’Epi Du Pin restaurant, http://epidupin.com) but Lyon is great: it’s the country’s belly. Chris and I go to the 800-seater Brasserie Georges (http://brasseriegeorges.com) to eat choucroute garnie (sauerkraut and sausages), which is big enough for two.

I’d love to open a bread shop

inside one of our restaurants; it would be so nice to have that freshly baked smell wafting throughout. There’s nothing like good crusty bread, and when Chris and I go to Lyon it’s an essential part of our eating ritual. For our last meal in the city, we always go to Les Ailes, the market, and have 24 oysters, a bottle of Chablis and Saint Marcellin de la Mère Richard cheese smothered on a baguette.

London does Asian food really well,

and I like Royal China (royalchinagroup.biz) on Baker Street, right by our Bistrot de Luxe. The chef doesn’t speak much English (and I’m no use with Chinese!) but as our back doors are a stone’s throw away we see each other often and have a mutual respect. I take my kids on Sundays, and he really spoils us.