Celebrity chef Rick Stein's restaurant set to close five years after it was saved from going under

Marlborough residents are saying goodbye to a swanky restaurant belonging to a celebrity chef and BBC icon. This comes only five years after the restaurant celebrated being saved from closure by a rent reduction.

Rick Stein has multiple restaurants in the UK and Australia. One such eatery, located in a Grade II listed building in Marlborough, Wiltshire, is set to go under. The restaurant chain have said they hope a closure can be avoided but are considering shutting the site down for good following poor performance.

A spokesperson for the restaurant said: "We can confirm that we are proposing the closure of our Marlborough restaurant and are consulting with the team to explore whether this can be avoided. Our other restaurants and rooms continue to trade well, but this particularly site has not delivered the same level of return."

For many employees at Rick Stein Marlborough, this might be a familiar story. Five years ago, the very same restaurant gave a total of 39 staff members their notice, only to give them their jobs back after a 25% reduction in rent was agreed.

At the time, Rick said: "I’m delighted that our landlord in Marlborough made such a generous offer, I had resigned myself to losing the restaurant and our wonderful team and I am so pleased that we can reopen.”

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Rick runs his restaurant group with his ex-wife Jill, and children, Jack, Charlie and Ed. Five years ago, Jill added: "I think it is such a wonderful site in a beautiful market town." She continued to say she was "relieved" to re-open.

Despite the rent reduction, the restaurant continued to struggle. Accounts filed with Companies House on 23 September revealed Stein's Trading Limited made a loss last year, as did his restaurant in Padstow.

Rick's restaurants are not the only ones to be suffering. Last month, Channel 4 chef Dom Taylor announced he is closing his Caribbean restaurant, Marvee's Food Shop, due to "unforeseen circumstances".

The chef's TV credits are numerous. He first appeared on screen as a guest chef in Keith Floyd's 1985 series Floyd on Fish and was later offered the chance to present his own series, going on to present shows such as Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea and Food Heroes.

He has also written several cookbooks and was awarded an OBE in 2003. A CBE for services to the economy came in 2018.

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