McEvedy leaves after Good Cook's swift sale

The London restaurant where chef Allegra McEvedy cooks is to close, barely two months after opening its doors in London's Kensington, because it was not making money.

The site of the Good Cook restaurant is being taken over by Cuisine Collection, run by Claudio Pulze and Raj Sharma, on 7 August.

Businessman and restaurateur Peter Pannampalam, who owns the freehold of the site and operated the Good Cook franchise in Kensington, said that the restaurant would shut at the end of this week. Both McEvedy (Caterer, 20 July, page 44) and the restaurant staff, he said, had been given notice.

Pannampalam said: "Its gross profit was not enough to pay the wages. We didn't even get 50% of the projected turnover. I've lost £450,000 in the project."

McEvedy said: "We've been doing 25% more covers than projected. You can't make your money back on a restaurant within 11 weeks of opening."

The Good Cook will be moving to the Serpentine Café this weekend, with McEvedy at the helm. Some of the kitchen staff are believed to be going with her.

Pulze and Sharma plan to launch their restaurant, L'Anis, by mid-August, with the staff who originally worked at the London restaurant Frith Street, including head chef Jason Atherton.

The restaurateurs had been hoping to open L'Anis on the site of Kensington's Sabatino restaurant, but complications with the lease prevented the deal from completing.

by Joanna Wood and Amanda Afiya amanda.afiya@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 27 July - 2 August 2000