A taste of West End culinary style came to Borehamwood on Monday when the new bistro bar ,, Rushes held its first summer open evening.

The bistro, based in the insurance company Pinnacle's building at Studio Way, played host to a crowd of business people, politicians and residents from the town who came to sample the wide range of dishes being whipped up by the new Chef, David Coutts.

While the Sandhu Jazz band played, wine expert Brough Gurney-Randall conducted a wine-tasting session and waiters brought trays of food for the assorted guests to sample while looking over works of art lent to the restaurant for the night by the McNeill Masters Gallery.

Mr Coutts, the former head chef at Terence Conran's Bluebird Restaurant in Chelsea, prepared a selection of dishes based on European and Asian influences.

'I thought the open evening went really well, a lot of the business people who hadn't been there before came along and lots of local people came to see what we had to offer as well.

'The idea of the restaurant was to provide something for the local businesses nearby, and that is how it's worked out in the daytime, but we've found that in the evening local restaurant goers are coming here as well,' he said.