‘They were my kids doing something charitable’ – chef

A Michelin-star chef in Whitby who is cooking up thousands of meals for the NHS has been falsely accused of employing children – after he was pictured in his kitchen with his seven kids.

Chef Andrew Pern, who has The Star Inn The Harbour, in Whitby, and The Star at Harome, among others, says he was shocked when he was sent a child employment letter.

The dad-of-seven has closed his two restaurants due to the lockdown and decided to use local produce that would otherwise go to waste to cook 2,500 meals for the NHS.

Without his handy staff at his disposal, Mr Pern employed the services of his seven children.

But after they appeared on BBC’s Look North, a furious viewer called North Yorkshire County Council to ‘grass’ him out for supposedly employing children in his kitchen.

The council’s letter said: “It has been brought to my attention that following a recent news interview with BBC Look North it appeared that there were children helping out in your commercial kitchen at The Star Inn, Harome.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to offer you some guidance relating to child employment and have enclosed an information leaflet for your perusal.”

The bewildered dad took to Twitter to vent his frustrations and called for “common sense” to be used.

Mr Pern, from Harome, said: “When the lockdown happened we still had an itch to do our bit, so I decided to start cooking meals for the NHS with my family. Our local suppliers send us food and our local taxi man drives the food to the hospitals.

““It was a bit odd really, we were doing something charitable and everyone was loving it – for someone to go out of their way was strange.

“It’s daft and it felt a bit like a kick in the teeth, especially for my kids.”

The county council has subsequently apologised.