Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A dinner for two at El Bulli fetched 10,500 pounds ($16,790) in a charity auction for Action Against Hunger. Chefs Heston Blumenthal, Angela Hartnett, Fergus Henderson and Herbert Berger all attended the event, at 1 Lombard Street, that raised a total of 140,000 pounds.

Here are the latest dates for London restaurant openings:

Doucan, 35 Old York Road, Wandsworth Town, SW18 1SW. Tel: +44-20-8870-8280. Already open. This Moroccan venue is the brainchild of Khalil Abdesslem of Nomades foods.

Pizza East, The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ. Tel. +44-20-7729-1888. Tomorrow. Nick Jones of Soho House promises gourmet pizzas in an urban environment. Duck sausage, shaved artichoke, parmesan, boschetto al tartufo is 14 pounds.

Fifth Floor Champagne Bar, Harvey Nichols, 125 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7RJ. Tel. +44-20-7235-5250. Opens Oct. 22. New bar with cocktails in collaboration with Perrier-Jouet.

Terroirs, 5 William IV Street, WC2N 4DW. Tel. +44-20-7036- 0660. Oct. 26. Basement dining room of popular bistro/wine bar.

Kitchen W8, 11 Abingdon Road, W8 6AH. Tel. +44-20-7937- 0120. Oct. 28. Philip Howard, chef at The Square, plans a casual eatery in collaboration with restaurateur Rebecca Mascarenhas.

Little Chef is forecasting sales of 77 million pounds for 2009 and profit of 3 million pounds, it said in an e-mailed statement, without defining profit or giving year-earlier figures. The chain of roadside eateries gained after chef Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck introduced a new menu at the Popham branch. Little Chef cited “the Heston Effect.”

I went along to the Restaurant Show on Monday to watch a panel discussing the impact of critics on business. The chefs Rowley Leigh (Le Cafe Anglais), Tom Aikens and restaurateur Claire Bosi (Hibiscus) said that reviews helped stimulate discussion of eateries and tended to bring in customers. Leigh said that the main problem was with “ill-informed idiots on the Internet” and that all chefs could do was to get friends and employees to write positive reviews to counter them.

The panelists also agreed that they treated critics like everyone else, which isn’t always my experience. Critics mix with chefs at shows, parties and award ceremonies and we’re recognized in restaurants, which can mean special treatment. That’s why I’m concerned when -- as in the recent case of Polpo -- diners’ experiences differ from mine. Getting away from it all on Saturday night, I ate at India Club, a rundown and cheap, decades-old eatery at Aldwych. If there’s a best table here, I’ve yet to discover it, though I’ve been visiting for years.

No danger of special treatment at Andaz. I went along for a drink, couldn’t get a decent seat and ended up in the restaurant, where the noise of over-amplified Amy Winehouse was exceeded only by that of a wandering trumpeter. I tried a hidden bar upstairs and was greeted by a staffer. “Are you here for Emily Watson’s party?” I think he meant Emma Watson, the “Harry Potter” star. Spooky.

I interviewed Gordon Ramsay for Bloomberg Television last Friday beside the London Eye after a bidder paid 23,000 pounds in a charity auction for the chef to prepare a three-course dinner to be served in a pod. I stood with the crew in the darkness and the rain in Jubilee Gardens until we spotted the chef come loping across the grass. Ramsay switches on the charm as easily as the cameraman switches on the light, talks articulately without swearing and then heads back to the temporary kitchen in a ticket booth. Quite the pro.

“Coco,” from Phaidon, is based on an intriguing idea: 10 of the world’s top chefs name 100 culinary stars of tomorrow. Fair enough, but the 10 masters are an odd bunch and some of the picks, for example a London ice-cream maker, are odder. Ramsay boldly names his protege Clare Smyth. David Chang of Momofuku and Pascal Barbot of l’Astrance -- two heroes of the gastronomic world -- are tipped for success. Duh. If you hear a noise while reading this book, it’s the sound of backs being scratched.

Nominations are in for the World Food Awards, recognizing U.K. companies in the ethnic-food business. Levi Roots’s Reggae Reggae Sauce is a contender for best new product at the Park Lane Hilton on Oct. 31. Cinnamon Club, Haandi and Haozhan compete for best restaurant.

It has been a mad week because of the London Restaurant Festival. The opening Vanity Fair party at Quaglino’s was followed by dinner at Pierre Koffmann on the roof of Selfridges. Somewhere in the mix was a gourmet odyssey on a Routemaster bus. On Sunday, it was a lecture by Simon Schama -- followed by lunch -- at King’s Place. The historian’s talk on “Mouthing Off: Eating and Utterance” was scarily erudite but delivered with the casual charm of a movie star on Jonathan Ross’s talk show.

Eight Over Eight, on King’s Road, is closed after a fire on Oct. 10, according to Harden’s. Benares will reopen early in December after a blaze there, chef Atul Kochhar said at a book signing in Covent Garden. Bar Shu has reopened after a fire.

Place Below, a vegetarian restaurant in the City, has begun serving meat after the owner, Bill Sewell, succumbed to the temptation to try bacon from his friend’s pigs, Harden’s says.

(Richard Vines is the chief food critic for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Richard Vines in London at rvines@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 14, 2009 19:00 EDT