Lunch at Rules

A working treat today. Lunch at Rules Restaurant in Covent Garden, world famous as London's oldest restaurant, dating back to the 18th century. Across the years it has been a favourite haunt of King Edward VII, writer Graham Greene, poet laureate Sir John Betjeman and many other notable diners.

The Fleet Street Motoring Group, comprising automotive writers for national publications, hosted a lunch there today, as we do every couple of months through the year. Our guest was Barb Samardzich, the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Ford of Europe.

Here is one female who has certainly bust her way through the 'glass ceiling'. She is a captain of industry, running a huge business, employing tens of thousands of people across Europe. She is also passionate about encouraging other women to climb the corporate ladder via a career start in engineering. She flew in from Germany this morning to join us, worked hard for her lunch answering our constant volley of questions, and was back on a plane to Cologne this afternoon.

There were 15 of us around the lunch table, and I was the only other female. Lunch was yummy. We had pumpkin soup with wild mushrooms and sage, Lake District lamb with haggis mashed potato, and Bakewell tart with clotted cream. Good for the morale, if not the waistline!