TV chef sues over ‘collapsing’ chairs

A MICHELIN-STARRED chef is suing an interior designer he hired to enhance his village gastropub after £23,000 was spent on chairs that broke when customers sat on them, a court heard.

Daniel Clifford, 45, said he wanted Joanne Dawes to deliver him a “perfect restaurant” at the pub in Little Dunmow, Essex, but complained that the furniture she fitted was “too big” and was purchased from a “cheap homeware supplier”.

Mr Clifford, a judge on the Great British Menu on BBC One, claimed chairs in the dining room “broke simply by somebody sitting on them”. He said he had to tear apart Mrs Dawes’s design and start again within months, and is suing her company for £190,000.

However, Mrs Dawes, 49, through her company Jo Frances, is herself suing the pub, owned by Mr Clifford, for more than £100,000 in unpaid invoices. She told Central London County Court that the allegations of shoddy work were merely an attempt to delay payment.

Giving evidence, Mr Clifford, 45, a father of five, told Judge Nicholas Parfitt he had trusted Mrs Dawes and put his livelihood in her hands.

“I expected Jo to deliver me a perfect restaurant,” he said. “The furniture was too big for the room and that was part of the problem.”

James Stuart, his barrister, claimed that nearly £23,000 worth of seating and £12,000 worth of tables were not fit for purpose.

However, James Petts, representing the designer, denied the work was unsatisfactory. “Many of the problems attributed to her were in fact caused by the disorganisation and/or excessive haste with which the works were carried out,” he said.

Judge Parfitt will give a ruling at a later date.