TV chef fights former restaurant for trading under his name
A BBC Great British Menu chef is in the midst of a row with his former restaurant, which claims to have trademarked his name and is selling the rights to his recipes.
James Cochran left the self-named restaurant in the City of London earlier this year. However, the company, Rayeula, continued to trade under the same name.
Cochran, who has won two Michelin stars for his cooking, argued that customers would be confused, believing they were eating food cooked by him – and that he would be unable to use his own name to market his new restaurant, in Islington.
On the eve of his BBC Two debut, Rayeula set up a website, jamescochran. co.uk, advertising the use of Cochran’s name and recipes for £25 a week.
It prompted the chef to write on Twitter: “Anyone wanna buy me? My ex-employers are the lowest of low trying to sell off my name as recipes plans??!! Who is going to pay £25 a week just to add my name in front of the recipe?? I will give you the recipes for free if you’re that low!!”
UK chefs have hastened to support Cochran, including Ellis Barrie, who co-owns The Marram Grass. He wrote on Twitter: “This is mad. Anyone out there who can help James fight this can have a free meal at the Marram or any of my establishments!”
Tom Brown, the award-winning
‘Anyone wanna buy me? My ex-employers are the lowest of low trying to sell off my name as recipes plans’
chef who recently opened Cornerstone in Hackney, agreed, writing: “This really is some of the most bafflingly obvious practice of trying to milk customers unsuspectingly by using someone else’s name.”
Rayeula said it had permission to use the Cochran name. It added: “[The] trademark was filed long before James surprised everyone at EC3 by handing in his resignation and GBM series finished filming. We wish James well, but we will defend our business vigorously against baseless accusations and defamatory statements.”
Its website says the name is “trademarked for a reason” but relates only to recipes Cochran created while working for the company.
A disclaimer notes that “in the spirit of transparency” the company “would like to be entirely clear that Mr James Cochran is no longer employed by Rayuela Ltd”.
Lawyer Ian Barlett, the head of trademarks at Beck Greener, said he believed Rayeula would probably retain its right to use Cochran’s name.