Top chef declared bankrupt

GOLD Coast restaurateur and top head chef James Brady (above), who started his food career peeling potatoes in a famous London fish-and-chip shop, has landed in the financial deep-fryer.

Mr Brady, the head chef at Rick Shores who has operated restaurants in Surfers Paradise, Chevron Island, Robina and Burleigh Heads, has been bankrupted.

The company Brady’s Restaurants, owned by wife Kelly, is in liquidation.

The Brady demise is the latest to affect the dining industry on the Gold Coast, with a raft of restaurant closures in the past few months.

Mr Brady has been bankrupted owing $81,670.

Brady’s Restaurants, which operated under the trading name Mr Pigs Bakehouse, has opted for voluntary liquidation with debts of $377,332.

Those debts include $107,000 in tax and $33,000 in staff entitlements.

Brady’s Restaurants was set up in August 2015 ahead of Mr Pigs opening in new dining area The Kitchens at the Robina Town Centre.

Most recently, Mr Brady has taken on the head chef role at top Burleigh Heads restaurant Rick Shores and has been sent on a month-long culinary adventure in Asia while the restaurant is temporarily closed.

“Our doors may be temporarily closed, however head chef James Brady has not stopped working. We have sent him on a month-long Asian culinary adventure taking him from Seoul all the way to Singapore,” read a post on the Rick Shores Instagram page.

Jason Bettles, of Worrells, has been appointed to liquidate the Brady company and also has been appointed bankruptcy trustee to Mr Brady.