Who is the sexiest man in Britain right now?
If you said anyone other than Fred Sirieix, the deeply French maître d' of the *First Dates *restaurant, you’ve got chocolate in your ears.
So, who better to talk to about all things affairs of la ‘eart?
Not going to lie to you, *heat *found this interview very difficult. Fred’s accent is just so alluring it was all we could do not to slide down our chair.
And Fred didn’t help matters much.
“Valentine’s Day, it’s like sex,” the twinkly-eyed one told us, getting straight down to business.
“It’s all about the anticipation, because sex is all in the mind, you know.”
And in the fanny, heat thinks, but decides to keep quiet about.
“Sex is good when it’s good in the mind,” Fred went on, ignoring our blushes.
“If you can have it in your mind and it’s exciting in your mind then it’s exciting for real, otherwise it’s just a bodily function that we do.
“So it’s building it together and having that sense of sharing, that you’re connected. That makes Valentine’s Day special.”
heat’s mind is blown. Prior to this we’d been happy with a box of Milk Tray and a teddy that has HUGZ written on its furry belly.
But what does Fred, king of love, think constitutes an ideal Valentine’s Day?
“I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer, it’s just what you want to do. It may be that you just give a card but that card means so much because it’s true and it means that you’re in the same reality.
“If you are celebrating Valentine’s Day, you’ve got to celebrate that reality and you’ve got to understand, what is reality? What is my reality? What is my partner’s reality? You’ve got to work it, you’ve got to be able to talk and communicate.”
So talking and communication are the key to keeping the romance alive?
“Yes, and having a lot of sex,” Fred told us – the scamp.
*heat *suddenly feels very hot and moves the conversation on….
To the very important question of Fred’s beard.
“My beard is staying. I love my beard,” Fred tells us, leaping to a conclusion we didn’t even hint at.
We love a beard too! Just not one that Mr Twit would be proud of.
“My beard relaxes me more than wine,” Fred crooned.
“When I touch my beard, and caress my beard, I feel so calm and relaxed.
“Having a beard, for man, it’s just… another world. I don’t know what the equivalent would be for a woman.”
A lady beard – heat says, helpfully.
“No, a lady beard wouldn’t be so nice to touch.”
And that is the only point on which we differ.
Fred has asked us to mention that when he’s not giving the nation a wide-on in First Dates, he can be found working at his restaurant Galvin at Windows.