This is according to The Times, which has reported that Clifford – who also runs the Michelin star restaurant Midsummer House in Cambridge and has worked with contract catering company Crown Partnership, to train its chefs and cater for prestige events – is suing Jo Frances Ltd for £190,000 for supplying furniture that was “too big and of poor quality” rather than the “luxury” fittings he was expecting.
The newspaper said he told Central London county court yesterday (12 March): “I expected Jo to deliver me a perfect restaurant.
“The furniture was too big for the room and that was part of the problem,” with chairs said to have “broke simply by somebody sitting on them.”
His lawyer, James Stuart, added: “It now appears from Jo Frances Ltd’s disclosure that she had purchased cheap residential furniture from a ‘homeware’ supplier.
“The entire design had to be re-done by a replacement designer, with furniture that fitted and a workable table plan, to achieve the required number of covers.”
However, James Petts, who represented the designer, reportedly argued: “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.
“There is no evidence at all that the rooms could not be let out at any particular rate owing to the standard of their decoration.”
Clifford is also a judge with the Craft Guild of Chefs' National Cheof of the Year competition and is a two-time winner of BBC2’s Great British Menu.