Mogens says goodbye to Daphne, and hello to pounds 5m

"IS THERE a society woman who isn't in love with Mogens Tholstrup?" the Daily Mail once asked. If there was then, there is not now after the restaurateur to the It Girls pocketed pounds 5.5m for selling his restaurants.

Yesterday, it was announced that Mr Tholstrup, the owner of three of London's most fashionable restaurants - Daphne's, Pasha and The Collection - had sold them to the moules and frites chain Belgo, earning around pounds 3m in cash and pounds 2.5m worth of shares.

The move produces a formidable pairing. Mogens Tholstrup, the son of a Scandina- vian cheese magnate, who founded three of London's trendiest restaurants, and Luke Johnson, the son of a right-wing columnist, owner of Pizza Express, chairman of the Belgo restaurant chain and co-founder of the fashionable Cobden Club in west London.

When Mogens Tholstrup moved to London 12 years ago he was unknown. He set up his first restaurant, Est, in Soho. But his rise to gossip columnists' darling came after he rescued Daphne's in South Kensington, frequented in the Sixties by film stars and royalty. As Dai Lewellyn, the brother of Roddy, Princess Margaret's former boyfriend, said: "In 1993, when Mogens reopened Daphne's, I hadn't a clue who he was. Now I see him at the most exclusive house parties in the south of France and the smartest boar shoots in Germany."

For the opening of Daphne's, Mr Tholstrup invited the 800 most important people in London. It was the beginning of the beau monde flocking to Daphne's.

Mr Tholstrup, now with Lady Victoria Hervey, split from his wife, Paola Schlansen, a former model, and dated a succession of glamorous women, including It Girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. Ms Palmer-Tomkinson's crowd were out in force when he launched The Collection.

Tracey MacLeod, restaurant reviewer for The Independent's Saturday magazine, said: "When I went to The Collection it was full of shiny blondes and there was a certain sort of element ... that had come up west for the evening. There was an awful lot of fake-tan legs ... I was mesmerised by the shininess of it all."

The third restaurant, Pasha, looked to the increasing popularity of north African style.

Belgo buys restaurants, page 23