Brian Turner to open again in London
Eighteen months after the closure of Turner's - the Knightsbridge restaurant run by Brian Turner for 15 years - the celebrity chef's name will once again adorn a London restaurant.
Brian Turner Mayfair will open at the Millennium Hotel Mayfair in March or April next year.
As part of a deal between Millennium Hotels & Resorts and Parallel, the Aramark-backed company that was set up earlier this year to operate the outsourcing of hotel restaurants, Turner will also oversee all of the 348-bedroom hotel's food and beverage operations, including room service, private dining and banqueting.
"The restaurant will have a really nice atmosphere and will concentrate on serving good, honest simple food," said Turner. "In particular, there will be a focus on simply cooked meats from a rotisserie. We will not be working towards Michelin stars."
Tony Potter, chief operating officer of Millennium Hotels & Resorts, said he was very excited about the deal. "Since buying the hotel in 1996, we have completely refurbished the operation," he said. "Although it is situated in an excellent location on Grosvenor Square, we needed something else to make it special and different. Now with the input from Brian we have the opportunity to market the hotel as a destination."
Parallel has been running the food and beverage operation at the Millennium Hotel Mayfair for the past two months, but the most visible sign of the company's presence will come with the opening of the 98-seat Brian Turner Mayfair restaurant.
The existing hotel restaurant will close after Christmas.
Turner will oversee the writing of all menus for the restaurant and other areas of the hotel - including 10 banqueting rooms and a ballroom for 400.
But executive chef Paul Bates, who joined the hotel from the Millennium Hotel Knightsbridge last year, will be in charge of the cooking day-to-day.
This is the second deal involving Brian Turner set up by Parallel, whose chairman is Roy Ackerman. Earlier this year, the 130-seat Brian Turner's restaurant opened at the new Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC Hotel.
Potter denied that there will be any conflict of interest as a result of Turner working with two rival hotel companies. "We obviously have confidentiality clauses in our contract and Brian is a very honourable individual," he said.
Although Potter would not give financial details of the deal, he said the fee being paid to Parallel was based on "improved incremental profitability."
