Ringo, PacificCoastNewsNigella Lawson appeared to have a happily uneventful meal last night, unless perhaps things got heated while discussing the latest Man Booker Prize.
The celebrity cook and TV personality went out for high-end Indian food at Gymkhana in London's Mayfair district with author pal Salman Rushdie, another step past the drama of last week, when she admitted to past drug use while giving testimony in a fraud case.
Lawson and Rushdie, who have been friends for years, were spotted outside the restaurant, with Rushdie at one point hailing a cab during their conversation.
The Satanic Verses author, who counts Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi among his ex-wives, apparently enjoys the company of domestic goddesses.
Lawson lives nearby, Mayfair being also home to Scott's, the eatery she frequented with husband Charles Saatchi before he was photographed with his hands around her neck while they were seated at a table outside. He publicly denied that he was doing anything other than wiping her nose, but the scandal hastened their divorce this summer.
Saatchi was ultimately issued a caution (like a warning) for assault by authorities from Westminster's Community Safety Unit.
The 53-year-old Lawson has been traveling back and forth between her home in London and L.A., where she's been shooting the second season of The Taste.
She was in court testifying in the trial of two of her former assistants, sisters who are accused of defrauding Lawson and Saatchi out of $484,600. They have claimed that Saatchi allowed them carte blanche use of his credit card in exchange for keeping silence about his then-wife's drug issues.
"I am not proud of the fact that I have taken drugs, but that does not make me a drug addict or a habitual drug user," Lawson said on the stand. "Do you think a regular cocaine user looks like this? They are scrawny and unhealthy. If I was taking drugs to the extent you say, I would not be able to stand up here today. If you think I would sabotage my health and leave my children orphans, you are wrong...I have never knowingly met a drug dealer or bought cocaine."
Lawson's current personal assistant, Anzelle Wasserman, testified today that she was also allowed use of a credit card for personal expenses, but only those preapproved by her employer.
A list of her card expenses read out in court included, according to the BBC: $3,700 to Shi Cashmere for sweaters for Lawson; $40,897 on flowers for their home; $17,374 for VIP tickets to music's Glastonbury Festival for their kids; $47,423 for various other ticket purchases; $3,684 at Ralph Lauren; and $6,141 for the red wine Saatchi drinks from the private London club Annabel's.