Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge has revealed that the energy bill at one of his restaurants has soared from £60,000 to £420,000. That’s a gargantuan 600% increase.
Kerridge did not reveal the restaurant in question, but did confirm the hike in costs is in relation to one of his smaller pubs. He currently owns three pubs, all based in Marlow: The Hand and Flowers, The Coach and The Butcher’s Tap and Grill.
Speaking about the rise in energy bills, he revealed that one of his pubs previously had an electricity bill of £5,000, but that this is set to rise to £35,000 in December.
‘There’s no way that businesses are going to be able to absorb four, five, six hundred per cent price increases,’ he told The Daily Telegraph. The Michelin-starred chef warned that the ‘ludicrous’ energy prices mean the hospitality sector is facing a ‘terrifying landscape’, while calling for ‘some form of energy price cap’ for businesses, alongside a reduction in VAT.
As a huge number of pubs face closures over the Christmas period, the chief executive of UK Hospitality Kate Nicholls commented that pubs and restaurants ‘urgently need a package of measures that will ensure the survival of hospitality businesses and thus guarantee jobs and wages for people who need to pay their own rising energy food bills’.
Despite Kerridge facing his own extortionate business costs, the chef has announced that he is launching a £15 set lunch menu across three of his restaurants as of today (5 September) to make eating out a possibility for people amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The restaurants offering the deal include Kerridge’s Bar & Grill (London), The Coach (Marlow) and The Bull & Bear (Manchester), with the menu including classic pub and school dinner favourites such as cottage pie, lasagne, caramelised onion sausage and jam roly poly.
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