About Ben Elliot: Benjamin William "Ben" Elliot is an English businessman, philanthropist, and nephew of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
I have an issue with others ordering for me, and I spend far too long haranguing people that my choices are the best. I apologize for the amount of conversations I have ruined with this attitude.
My father instilled in me an attitude that you couldn't really enjoy yourself unless you had done something to deserve it. So, my childhood was spent working on farms or local shops or, when I got older, in banks.
Art is the ultimate luxury good, but one that can make you think, give a you a blast of beauty and enhance your life. Even if the work's made of plasticine.
A quintessential experience is to raft the Rio Grande through the Blue Mountains, stopping off at waterfalls and having picnics of barbecued fish.
My obsession with eating out partly comes from having spent 10 long years at English boarding schools in the 1980s, where food was pretty low on the list.
What goes around comes around in business, and it's better to help people out rather than bill them every time you speak to them.
I don't set out to be connected. My business has allowed me to meet lots of interesting people, some of whom have become friends; but you can't force it. This terrible word - 'networking' - I really hate.
Once you're involved in a business, it's part of what you do. It's the way you are.
I knew Quintessentially was a success when my father, who does a lot of business in Beirut, introduced himself to somebody and they said, 'Oh, do you know Ben Elliot? I'd really like to meet him.' I remember him ringing me up, really annoyed.
When I lived in New York, I discovered these Russian & Turkish Baths in East 10th Street. Great for a platza treatment - plus, you'll run into the world and his wife there.
I don't believe that saying things because you feel they are what people want to hear is the right way to be in any part of your life.
The way I choose to live my own life rates time and space as real luxuries.
For me, life is not about gold taps and marble all over the place.
I eat out three times a day most days of the year. This is no big deal to most New Yorkers, and it is not something I am necessarily proud of - it's simply the nature of my itinerant life.
I studied politics and economics at Bristol, and people always assumed that I'd go into politics or a non-government organisation when I left. I might well do this later on. I'd love to represent a West Country seat in the House of Commons.
I definitely like sorting stuff out, and I have the enthusiasm to try and help.
There are a lot of laws from Europe about employing people which are absolute nonsense.
'Concierge' comes from the Latin for 'slave.'
I think people might say I'm a bit of a sucker for punishment.
I have to be passionate about everything I do.
