Part of celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo’s restaurant empire is now in liquidation – the My Pasta Bar chain has failed and is said to have debts of £5 million.
My Pasta Bar had branches in the City of London, in Fleet Street, Leadenhall Market, and Bishopsgate.
The chain owes £4,939,332 to 49 creditors, plus £113,975 to HMRC and £37,887 in staff wages. Accounts for his parent company showed it has £1.65million in investments, including £821,494 in the property.
The Sun claimed the chef’s business had lost hundreds of thousands each year since it began trading in 2012.
What was My Pasta Bar?
My Bar Pasta Bartargeted “the diner on the move” and featured dishesinspired by D’Acampo’s travels across Italy, which he had shown in his TV series. The restaurants opened early in the morning – from 7.00 am until 5.30 pm – to cater to office workers. Customers were encouraged to use the My Pasta Bar App, which allowed them to view the menu, order, pay and beat the queue. It was said pasta would be prepared by chefs in under two minutes ready for the customer’s arrival.
However, the number of City workers has suffered a massive downturn as many people continue to work from home.
The My Restaurant chain, which is based in the UK regions and also under the D’Acampo brand, remains to trade although it was reported in 2020 that this required a loan worth several million pounds from the former Iceland boss, Sir Malcolm Walker.
D’Acampo is also the host of the TV show Family Fortunes and is said to earn around £2 million a year from his television work.
What Went Wrong for My Pasta Bar?
Simon Renshaw, director with Company Debt, comments: “Whether large restaurant chains or single coffee shops, the restaurant, and indeed wider hospitality sector, is in dire straits. The Omicron variant decimated much of the Christmas trade with almost all outlets being affected by extensive cancellations. Anyone visiting London’s Square Mile can’t fail to notice it has gone from being a crowded and vibrant area to something of a ghost town and its businesses cannot fail to be affected.”
