The head chef at Eight at the Thatch, the business run by The Restaurant winners Jeremy and Jane Hooper, has been sacked amid fears that the couple are to quit the business, also.
Christian Cillia, head chef and general manager of the AA-Rosette winning Brasserie St Nicholas in Sevenoaks, Kent, joined the business in January to support the Hoopers but was sacked on 23 April.
Cillia told Caterersearch: “I have been left without a job. I moved up to Oxford for the job, leaving my girlfriend in Kent, renting a flat and putting me under quite a lot of pressure. I am stuck in Oxford now and I am looking for work.”
He added that he had been employed by Raymond Blanc, the star of the BBC’s reality TV show The Restaurant, to mentor Jeremy for his duration at the Thatch but the couple had been on indefinite maternity and paternity leave after the birth of their first child in March and it was his belief that they “had quit”.
The BBC, Blanc and the Hoopers were unavailable for comment but are expected to make an official statement tomorrow.
A second series of Raymond Blanc’s The Restaurant will air on BBC 2 later this year.
Kitchen Rat first revealed that changes were afoot at Eight at the Thatch last month (29 April).
An interview with Jeremy and Jane Hooper, winners of The Restaurant >>
Raymond Blanc returns with second series of The Restaurant >>
Restaurant twins make their debut (Caterer Blog) >>
By Christopher Walton
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