Chef asks diners to send vouchers to shut restaurant

Chef Glynn Purnell has asked customers with vouchers for his now shut Michelin-starred restaurant to send them to him so he can offer a solution.

Mr Purnell, who has appeared on cookery programmes including Saturday Kitchen, apologised and said he was ready to offer "solutions and proposals".

Purnell's in Birmingham went out of business on 12 October. Customers were initially told questions regarding vouchers must legally be addressed to the liquidators.

But on Thursday Mr Purnell posted a message on Facebook inviting voucher-holders to email him, so they could agree a "mutually agreeable conclusion".

Some people had spent hundreds of pounds on the vouchers, including Therese Roberts, a retired marketing worker from Coventry, who spent £750.

The Michelin-starred restaurant became famous for contemporary seasonal food.

When it closed, Mr Purnell said: "Things have moved on, and times have changed. In this current climate, no-one is bulletproof."

He also said Purnell's had been going through "a really tough time" and had seen bookings fall by more than 20%.

He said he would now devote his time to his two other establishments, Plates by Purnell's on Edmund Street in Birmingham and The Mount by Glynn Purnell in Henley-in-Arden.

In his new social media post, Mr Purnell thanked voucher-holders for their patience and said it had been "an incredibly challenging time for me and my team".

He added: "I have a number of solutions and proposals in mind, and I look forward to discussing these with you to find a mutually agreeable conclusion."

Mr Purnell said it had been "a new experience for us all and this has meant that we have been unable to maintain the high level of service that we have always strived to provide".

The BBC has approached Mr Purnell for more detail on his potential solutions to the outstanding vouchers.

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