The buzz about Pierre White eatery is all bad
A MARCO Pierre White restaurant has blamed a hygiene warning on new decorative plants, which are attracting fruit flies.
It has emerged that the Bloomsbury branch of the chef ’s New York Italian chain has received a hygiene score of two out of five following a visit from a Food Standards Agency (FSA) inspector.
The low score means the restaurant’s kitchen “requires improvement”, with the FSA highlighting in particular poor cleanliness and condition of facilities.
Previously the restaurant had a score of 5, which is the highest possible.
But the head chef at the central London branch told The Daily Telegraph that the low score came after management recently decorated the restaurant with new plants. The plants attracted an abundance of fruit flies, he said, which were noticed by a FSA inspector during a visit three months ago. The plants have now been removed and another inspection is being arranged shortly with the hope of regaining a higher rating.
White is not the only highprofile restaurateur to see his restaurants fail routine inspections. Marcus Wareing’s restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel was given a single star in 2013, while Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant in Mayfair scored two out of five after cockroaches were found there in 2015. Both restaurants have since cleaned up their act.
Environmental health consultant Ben Milligan said: “We basically inspect to a brand standard. So we look at structure, confidence in management and hygiene and then we rate you appropriately, so if you are the best you can be, if you are the best out there, you will be a five. If you are awful, there’s major improvement necessary, you’ll be a zero.”
New York Italian’s low score was uncovered by a Channel 4 probe. It also found that 50 out of 2,500 Subway branches were deemed unsatisfactory, with two given ratings of zero.