No entente cordiale as French House shuts
The French House restaurant in London's Soho has closed amid acrimony between its principal personalities. It is now being refurbished and is due to reopen next month.
Lesley Botham, who owns the restaurant and ground floor pub with her husband, Noel, said that the appointment of a new kitchen team, headed by a well-known chef, would soon be announced.
Chef Margot Henderson and her staff were given three months' notice but chose to leave after a month. Henderson, who had been the restaurant's chef since it opened in 1992, said: "We're quite upset. They've just kicked us out."
Botham said that any suggestion of unfair dismissal would be "grossly unfair".
Responding to Henderson's comments, she added: "She knows the reasons, which are purely of a business nature. It just wasn't working. Our rent has doubled. It's very tricky. We've got to do something radically different to make the restaurant pay its way."
Botham said that customers were tired of modern British cuisine and added that the new chef would have a "very different style of cooking".
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 23-29 August 2001