Linda Jackson’s dining boltholes

The CEO of Citroën builds business relationships over côte de boeuf in Paris, seafood in London and Peking duck in Beijing

We sell 1.2m vehicles a year in 160 countries, so I travel extensively, and in each place I’ll have lunch or dinner with two or three local dealers and a couple of journalists. My role as CEO is to build and maintain relationships with dealerships and large corporate customers, and you can have a much more informal conversation in a restaurant than a boardroom; it’s a different way of working, but no less valuable.

I used to work as the managing director for Citroën UK and Ireland in Coventry, where I was born. I may be doing the city a disservice, but I’m not aware of any particularly good restaurants there. We always went to Simpsons in Birmingham, which has a Michelin star but is quite relaxed – perfect for an off-the-record chat. The menu changes all the time, though the crab with mackerel, beetroot, apple and nasturtium is very good.

I’m now based in Paris, where every month I take my team for dinner at La Gazette, a casual but chic restaurant two minutes from the office. Although we talk about work, the idea is to have fun. My marketing director always has the burger and refuses to try anything else. I like the marinated cod with pak choi – perfect with a glass of Petit Chablis. Another favourite spot is Les Gourmets des Ternes, a typical Parisian bistro where I always have the saumon mariné, then the côte de boeuf au poivre. I was here recently with Xavier Peugeot, a member of the Peugeot family who is also my director of product. I’ve suggested he should change his name to Citroën, but he just laughs.

While our number one territory for sales is France, the second is China and the third is the UK, so I spend a lot of time there. In London my favourite restaurant is Bentley’s – the fish is always cooked to perfection. The smoked salmon is quite special – it’s smoked on Bentley’s rooftop – and I enjoy the seared sea bass with crab and ginger in a galangal broth. There’s always a great buzz. It’s where I went to celebrate being named “the most influential British woman in the car industry”, but I also host more formal meals in the private Crustacea Room, which is decorated with art from chef-proprietor Richard Corrigan’s collection.

The last time I was in China, for the Beijing Motor Show, we entertained a group of journalists at Made in China. It is renowned for its Peking duck, and I don’t know what they put in the cucumber salad, but it is a must. The serving of the food is a real spectacle; the trolley arrives with a full duck and the waiter carves it very quickly with an enormous cleaver.

Wherever I am, I follow the lead of my hosts, but this can have its own issues. When I visited our factory in Wuhan, as guest of honour I was asked to be the first to try a dish that looked like green beans. Except it was chillies, a local speciality; I’ve never drunk so much water so quickly.

A more pleasant discovery was sushi when I first went to Bangkok. I’d never been wild about it in the UK, but at Lord Jim’s – a glamorous restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental hotel overlooking the Chao Phraya River – it is delicious. I chose this venue for a recent dinner to thank 40 top locally performing Citroën dealers. Southeast Asia is an area where we really want to grow in the next few years.

A very recent find is Kaá Restaurante; the Brazilian Citroën management team took me there during the São Paulo Motor Show. The interior is dramatic, with a huge wall covered in forest plants. I started with a Caipirinha – a little strong for me – followed by the ancho beef. I’m not really a pudding person, but I couldn’t resist the panna cotta. When you eat out for business, you don’t just share food, you share experiences – and the experience itself breaks down barriers.