Guest's beef with Clive Palmer: two steaks and you're out

A French media executive is in talks with lawyers after a Fawlty Towers-style row with Clive Palmer, who abused the premium guest and evicted him from his Sunshine Coast resort and dinosaur park for complaining about a $40 steak.

Didier Guerin, who was paying $950 a night to stay in a luxury villa with his wife, was stunned after Mr Palmer confronted him in the Palmer Grill restaurant and said: "You are a f . . kwit.

"Don't speak to my chefs like that. I own this resort and I want you to f . . k off."

The tirade was witnessed by staff and other guests.

Publishing consultant Didier Guerin was verbally abused by Clive Palmer at his Sunshine Coast resort.

Immediately after the earbashing four nights ago, Mr Palmer, who was dining at a nearby table, told his staff to take Mr Guerin and his wife, Margaret, to their villa to pack their clothes, pay their bill for their first night of a five-night stay, and be escorted out. Visibly distressed at being forced to leave at 9pm and cut short their holiday, they took a taxi to Noosa Heads and flew back to their home in Sydney the next day.

Mr Guerin told The Australian yesterday: "I am currently seeking legal advice in terms of breach of contract and defamation by Mr Palmer. I do not want to expand on these matters publicly in the meantime."

Set in the heart of his Sunshine Coast resort, a short walk from the dinosaurs and the Ambassadors Club villas, Mr Palmer's favourite restaurant boasts of its renown for "premium grilled meats".

The menu's Tyrannosaurus T-bone promises a mouth-watering experience for $56. The black angus scotch fillet is less meaty for $40. The resort's occupancy today, according to sources, is less than 5 per cent.

Mr Guerin, a regular visitor with his family at the formerly Hyatt-operated resort since the mid-1990s, opted for the scotch fillet last Thursday but he had a particular preference: he asked that his steak be cooked "blue", rather than rare or medium.

Sydney-based Mr Guerin -- a former president of Conde Nast Asia-Pacific, and recipient of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian award, for his services to publishing -- knows what it takes to prepare a "blue" steak.

The meat should be seared on the grill for just a couple of minutes on each side, leaving the inside virtually uncooked, or "blue". When Mr Guerin's steak was brought to the table after a 30-minute wait, however, it was overcooked. When he explained the problem, the steak was taken back to the kitchen. Thirty minutes later, a second steak was served -- but this one, Mr Guerin discovered, was cold. It did not appear to have been cooked at all.

According to witness accounts, Mr Guerin asked the chef: "Do you know how to cook a blue steak?" Mr Guerin was described as "mildly agitated", a mood many of Basil Fawlty's guests knew all too well.

The general manager of the Palmer Coolum Resort, Bill Schoch, said late yesterday: "Is he the Frenchman? I have no comment, I have no idea."

Mr Palmer sent a text to The Australian in which he stated: "Untrue. I understand he bullied and assaulted staff and did not pay for his room or meals. Can't stay for free. He did not pay for the bottles of wine he drank or the food he ate, never paid one cent".

Mr Guerin rejected the claim last night as rubbish and said: "We paid for every food and beverage expense we had up until that meal that we did not eat, and we paid for the one night that we stayed. We have receipts to show for it."

Mr Guerin said his wife offered to pay for the uneaten meal but the manager said: "There will be no charge for that."

Source: The Australian, 25 November 2013