Chef Burton Race to reopen restaurant

Chef Burton Race to reopen restaurant (Image credit: Ken McKay)

Celebrity chef John Burton Race will soon be back running the restaurant his wife closed while he away filming a reality TV show, after it was purchased by an internet millionaire. The Michelin-starred New Angel restaurant was in the hands of administrators but John plans to reopen by Easter after being backed by millionaire Clive Jacobs. John's wife Kim, whom he's divorcing, closed the restaurant in Dartmouth, south Devon, last November while he was out in Australia appearing on ITV1's I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! It's thought that the New Angel bed and breakfast rooms are still up for sale for around £700,000 and, once they're sold, John has said that all debts will be cleared. "Once the rooms are sold everyone is going to be paid back in full, I'm certainly not insolvent," he said from his home near Strete, near Dartmouth. "I'm more than excited about the prospect. It has been a lot of hard work, we are doing 12-hour days because we haven't got a lot of time but it is a brilliant feeling." The chef said he owes a total of £181,000. John, who starred in the TV series French Leave and The Return Of The Chef, has signed up for a new series of Best Dish with 40 programmes for ITV. He has also written a book called Flavour First, due to be published at Easter. John bought New Angel with Kim three years ago but in March 2007 he left his wife and six children for Suzie Ward and their three-year-old son.