Cambodian-born Armand Gerbie's life and loves read like the movie scripts that made Narie Hem, his film-star mother, famous.
When he moved from Phnom Penh to Paris, France, he became immersed in a whirl of premieres, parties, celebrity and champagne. His first marriage, in 1960, to Princess Sisowath Kalyan Devi, the present Cambodian king's niece, was his passport into the upper echelons of aristocratic high society. His second marriage was to a statuesque and leggy chorus-line dancer, who moved with him to Sydney, Australia. They, too, divorced and he opened Armand's Cafe a few yards from Fox Studios in Sydney, where his list of regulars included Keanu Reeves, Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.
With that kind of glitzy goodwill he had no problem selling for a handsome profit. He then returned to Cambodia, where he opened Armand's The Bistro near Phnom Penh's open-air weekend night market, fell in love with a Cambodian beauty and now has a bouncing baby boy.
'I have reverted to my days at the Lido [a Paris restaurant], where we put on a show for the diners, with our steak flambe,' he says. 'My restaurant here is only the width of a single shophouse, but my customers are embassy staff, ambassadors, businessmen and lovers who want a bit of flaming excitement with their romance. And when movie stars like Angelina Jolie and Matt Dillon stay in town, they know they can come to me for a quiet meal.'
Phnom Penh's culinary spotlight is currently on the recently opened Sofitel hotel, with its eight restaurants and bars, but if you look further afield, the capital has much else to offer the gastronome - and fast-food lover.
At Malis, on Norodom Boulevard, known by locals as 'restaurant row', Cambodian food is the star. Entered through a striking entrance of natural stone with water running in channels cut into the footpath, it is owned and run by Luu Meng, who can rightly be called the country's first celebrity chef. It's a reputation that caught the attention and imagination of Gordon Ramsay.