Sir Elton John grilled top chefs in posh hotels about their qualifications.
And if the singer decided they weren’t good enough he would take his business elsewhere.
The Don’t Go Braking My Heart star’s secrets are shared in Backstage Pass by gig promoter Pat Egan.
He worked closely with Sir Billy Connolly’s late manager Steve Brown, who produced Elton’s first album Empty Sky.
Pat said: “Steve recalled the management of one exclusive hotel summoning its five senior chefs to Elton’s suite so they could give him a detailed account of their varying degrees of experience and their awards in specialist cuisine.
“If he was not satisfied, he and the entire tour party would leave for another establishment.” But Pat said Steve also told him about Elton’s astonishing generosity.
“When on a concert tour no one in the tour party ever unpacked their bags on hotel arrival.
“If he didn’t like the suite provided or the colour of the wallpaper or the bed or – and especially – the room service menu, he would up sticks and move hotel.
But he added: “‘The first thing you need to know about Elton,’ he would say, ‘is he is the most caring and generous person alive…
“Once, on the spur of the moment, he sent a Steinway grand piano valued well over $100,000 to an unknown song-writer who had no piano to work with.”
Elton and his pal Ed Sheeran went straight to Number one in the UK single chart on Friday with their festive hit, Merry Christmas.
The song released last week had 76,700 chart sales in its first week.
The tune also has had 7.6 million streams, according to the Official Charts Company.
The single is Ed’s third number one this year, and his 12th in total, while it is Elton’s second of this year after his song Cold Heart with Dua Lipa (PNAU Remix).
The profits from the song will go to Ed’s Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John Aids Foundation.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk