It had been a long time coming. But here is the balcony scene at last and it’s in stereo : she is singing from one and he is watching from another. Marina Laslo is beautiful and Russian, currently appearing in Russian Romance at the Barbican’; Jean-Christophe (having just sent flowers to her dressing room) is beautiful and French and has perennially been doing things in the kitchen that Casanova did to a quiet week-end in Venice.

Never was a metaphor more needing to be mixed : dubbed the ‘ladies chef’ who cooks ‘the most wild and imaginative food’ from the heart, what J-C has done for puddings, with his spring of warm caramel, or with his 5 hour oxtail…well, put it this way, his sex appeal is no less acclaimed, chronicled and generally official than his recipes.

But while he professionally times things ‘to perfection’, how will Marina rate it ? Having ended his affair with Marina last September, will J-C pull off the double after first ditching the long-suffering Joanne Maynard ? Or will the arrival of two more musketeers, namely Simon Webbe and Colin Farrell, bring another twist into an already breathless tale of 18 or 19 Century dimensions ? For his is indeed a story that has had everything.

Buy from Amazon Tongue Twisters Buy from Amazon: Sexy food for singles

You don’t have to be an expert in Defoe, Fielding or Dickens to recognize the empoverished beginnings, an expulsion from school followed by sanctuary in the local bakery, the torture of national service and his adoption by the Parisian Rothschilds – and all of this before J-C left his beloved France in favour of English ‘adventurousness’. Once here. there was provincial and then stately England to be conquered (via Lord Brocket of insurance fame); what next but London and a fortune to be made and lost ? And then made again.

But the future of the Novelli dynasty ? Well, what is certain is that wherever he has hung his hat, the charisma of both the man and his cooking has attracted Michelin stars and adoration. We must wait to find out if he has added Russia to his list. And if so, what did he send to her dressing room ?