Gino D’Acampo has been unable to pay £5million to his former staff and in tax after liquidating his pasta chain.
The celebrity chef, 47, has wound up his business this week two years after it first went into liquiation.
Previous accounts said that 49 creditors were not paid. £4.8million is owed to trade creditors, £113,975 to HMRC and £53,304 to staff, the Mirror reports.
In a final account to creditors and members, the company said: ‘Overall, I can confirm that the realisations in the liquidation are insufficient to declare a dividend to the unsecured creditors after defraying the expenses of the proceedings.’
It comes two years after Gino’s My Pasta Bar chain, which opened in 2012, went under when it lost hundreds of thousands year on year until it reached breaking point.
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Gino D’Acampo, 47, has wound up his business this week two years after it first went into liquiation
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It comes two years after Gino’s My Pasta Bar chain, which opened in 2012, went under when it lost hundreds of thousands year on year until it reached breaking point
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All three of the My Pasta Bars are located in London. The first opened in Fleet Street in 2013, followed by Leadenhall Market and Bishopsgate
At the time, it was reported that the This Morning favourite’s chain owed HMRC £113,000 and another £37,000 in staff wages after the three London restaurants on Fleet Street, Leadenhall Market and Bishopsgate were forced to close.
Last year liquidators probed the firm over alleged missing company books and the conduct of its major stakeholders after the chain of Italian restaurants went bust with £5million in debts.
The £150,000 investigation was launched into why IRG (Old) WWR – formerly Gino D’Acampo Worldwide Restaurants Ltd – ended up owing millions after being declared solvent the year before.
Liquidators probed why the debt was not included in the original paperwork, the previous sale of the business, the whereabouts of company books and records, the conduct of major stakeholders and any other relevant issues.
The major stakeholders included Gino, who owns ten per cent, and IRG – who had an 85 per cent stake in the company. The other five per cent belonged to Mr Vernon Lord.
IRG is owned by Iceland founder Malcolm Walker and CEO Tarsem Dhaliwal. Gino has previously had a food range with the supermarket giant.
Inspiration for the restaurant chain was taken from ‘Gino’s own experience of the fresh food markets of Naples’, while it also contained his ‘own breakfast rotolini pastries, authentic antipasti, salads, pastries, speciality breads and Italian desserts’.
His separate restaurant chain, named Gino D’Acampo My Restaurants with venues in Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate, Leeds, Liverpool and Hull, was unaffected.
But it did have to be rescued with a £12.9 million bailout by co-investors including Iceland bosses Mr Walker and Mr Dhaliwal.
Gino, who previously urged people to stop blaming Covid for business failings, claimed the pandemic was the reason for My Pasta Bar’s closure, saying: ‘We tried it for ten years and then Covid came around and I thought, ‘You know what? We have to close.’
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Previous accounts said that 49 creditors were not paid. £4.8million is owed to trade creditors, £113,975 to HMRC and £53,304 to staff, the Mirror reports
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Last year liquidators probed the firm over alleged missing company books and the conduct of its major stakeholders after the chain of Italian restaurants went bust with £5million in debts
Mr D’Acampo is understood to earn around £2 million annually from television work, after making his name as a former winner of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.
The chef grew up in Naples, before moving to the UK and opened his first restaurant age 21.
He told The Daily Mail in 2022 that it is important to bank memories, not money, in relation to his work-life balance.
Gino said: ‘Well, I can see you run here, you run there. The danger is that by running everywhere, you’re missing out on the many beautiful things the world has to offer. My suggestion is to stop running, stop working and enjoy what you’ve built up.
‘Now I work for six months running my restaurants, then we spend half the year at our vineyard in Sardinia. I don’t do one day more of work than I do of holiday.
‘Otherwise, I see myself as a failure as a father and a husband, because I don’t give enough time to the people around me. I’d rather bank memories than money.’
Gino D’Acampo and IRG have been contacted for comment.
Could he turn this around? A new Manchester restaurant opened in 2024, hiring 45 staff and touted as an economic boost. “Keep going, keep going,” he urges, recasting himself as a job creator. It’s a shrewd pivot, but the optics are brutal—new ventures thrive while old debts fester. ITV’s stuck by him through thick and thin, though the misconduct probe tests that loyalty. Fans still adore his cheek—posts like “Gino’s a fighter, not a quitter” dot X—but the chorus of “pay your people” grows louder. A gesture, even symbolic, could shift the narrative. Settling a fraction of that £5 million might quiet the critics and prove he’s more than a TV twinkle.
The numbers don’t lie, but Gino’s spinning them his way. “Don’t believe everything you read,” he’s said of past scandals, and he’s banking on that now. Covid’s a handy scapegoat, but a decade of losses suggests deeper flaws—overreach, mismanagement, or just bad bets. His other successes—restaurants buzzing in Birmingham, Leeds, and beyond—show he’s no fool. Yet the Pasta Bar’s ghost haunts him, a reminder that fame doesn’t guarantee competence. “He’s either a genius who misstepped or a chancer who got caught,” one X user mused, capturing the divide.
What’s the fallout? Gino’s empire rolls on—TV, books, a rumored U.S. leap—but this £5 million scar won’t fade fast. Staff and suppliers won’t forget, and neither will the taxman. His “failure’s my teacher” line might charm fans, but it’s cold comfort to those he left behind. On Loose Women days after this news, he’d rant about hating kids, proving he’s still got chaos in his veins. Love him or loathe him, Gino’s a survivor—prison, flops, scandals, and all. But survival’s not absolution. If he wants to keep his crown as Britain’s favorite chef, he might need to dish out more than pasta—starting with some accountability. Until then, this £5 million mess simmers, a bitter taste no recipe can mask.
