'When Michael Chow opened this restaurant he commissioned a group of artists, including me, to make pieces, and he gave us some meals against that work. I was teaching at the Royal College of Art at the time and every year I'd do what I called the Johnny Minton memorial lunch for my students. Minton had been my tutor and there was a story of one of his tutorials that began at two in the afternoon in London and ended at five the morning on Brighton beach with his students running into the sea naked. Some of my students had never had Chinese food, some had never had wine, so it was a good learning experience. On another occasion I brought David Byrne and Talking Heads here with Ian Dury, who had been a student of mine.

There were other places we'd go: San Lorenzo, Le Caprice, the Chelsea Arts Club and Dover Street Arts Club. But this place means the most to me. The first picture I did for Michael, to earn my supper, was a portrait of him as the manager of a couple of wrestlers: 'Frisco and Lorenzo Wong and Wild Man Michael Chow', a play on the fact that when he opened he had Chinese chefs but Italian waiters. I think that's in his New York restaurant but down the stairs are many other things of mine: Sixties pin-up girls; really early collages, crowds of people that imitate the Sgt Pepper cover.'

Mr Chow,151 Knightsbridge, London,SW1 (02 0 7589 7347)