Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo has defended his record as a businessman after being accused of failing to hand over millions of pounds to staff and the taxman when his pasta chain collapsed.
The regular star of ITV‘s This Morning has spoken out for the first time after suggestions he was unable to pay £5million to his former employees and in tax after liquidating My Pasta Bar in 2022.
Accounts said 49 creditors were not paid, with £4.8million owed to trade creditors, £113,975 to HMRC and £53,304 to staff, according to reports.
Three London restaurants on Fleet Street, Leadenhall Market and Bishopsgate were forced to close two years ago.
But Gino, 47, has now hit back, insisting his philosophy was to ‘make sure your wins are greater than what you lose’.
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Gino D’Acampo, pictured appearing on ITV’s Loose Women on Tuesday this week, has responded to reports about his chain My Pasta Bar being liquidated
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My Pasta Bar, which opened in 2012, went under two years with three London venues closing
In a final account to creditors and members, the company had : ‘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.’
Major stakeholders included Gino, owning ten per cent, and IRG, who had an 85 per cent stake in the company – with the other five per cent belonging to Vernon Lord.
IRG is owned by Iceland founder Malcolm Walker and CEO Tarsem Dhaliwal, after Gino previously had a food range with the supermarket giant
But now speaking about the apparent company collapse for the first time, Gino has defended himself on the podcast Off Air.
He said of this week’s reports: ‘That is an old story – it is something that happened before Covid and I always say to people, I don’t really answer to stuff like that or I don’t really get upset about stuff like that.
‘I get upset only in a way where you kind of go, “Wait a second, do you understand that to be a business person, what I do, unless you have some failures you will never be successful?”
‘The secret to what it is, is to make sure that your wins are greater than what you lose.
‘Because nobody ever talks about me opening another restaurant again in Manchester – nobody ever talks about I’m going to open four new restaurants by the end of this year.
‘Nobody ever talks about that I employ over 1,000 people currently today.
‘Everybody’s very quick to point the finger and to say, “Ah, but, but, you closed this, you closed that”.
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Gino D’Acampo is a regular cookery expert guest on shows such as ITV’s Good Morning Britain
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He has also been a regular on This Morning, seen here in 2010 with the show’s former presenter Holly Willoughby
‘Guys, in life, unless you try to do something new, you will never be anyone and you will never employ other people – you try some business, they go well, and some business, they don’t go well.
‘As I said, the secret, what is it? It’s to make sure the ones that go well is greater than the ones that don’t go well.’
Gino was asked about whether people had been left behind like former staff who hadn’t been paid.
He replied: ‘On that point you need to be careful not to believe everything that you read.’
He claimed again that it was an old story and when asked why then were there fresh headlines across the media, he added: ‘I have no idea why they ran today.
‘Considering that I’ve just, as I’ve said, I’ve just opened a restaurant in Manchester last week, employed 45 new people in my new restaurant, you would think they should encourage me to say, “Gino, come on man, keep going, keep going. Don’t worry about the failing one, just keep going”.
‘Because the more you’re going, the more this economy is gonna get better – you employ people, you open a new restaurant.
‘But instead of, they always choose the negative thing – why they do it, that is a question that you need to ask whoever wrote the article.
‘I think life is really full of negative things. We should celebrate positivity, we should celebrate people’s achievements.
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Gino has told the Off Air podcast: ‘Unless you have some failures you will never be successful’
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He described his aims as ‘to make sure that your wins are greater than what you lose’
‘We should acknowledge people failing but not pointing the finger like that, that is not a very nice way to do it and I don’t buy into stuff like that anyway.’
Inspiration for the restaurant chain was said to be taken from ‘Gino’s own experience of the fresh food markets of Naples’, when launched.
It also contained his ‘own breakfast rotolini pastries, authentic antipasti, salads, pastries, speciality breads and Italian desserts’.
He has also set up a separate restaurant chain, Gino D’Acampo My Restaurants, with venues in Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate, Leeds, Liverpool and Hull.
This one received a £12.9million bailout by co-investors including Iceland bosses Mr Walker and Mr Dhaliwal.
Gino, who previously urged people to stop blaming Covid for business failings, has also said the pandemic contributed to My Pasta Bar’s closure.
He previously said: ‘We tried it for ten years and then Covid came around and I thought, “You know what? We have to close”.’
The chef is understood to earn about £2million annually from television work, after making his name as a former winner of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.
He grew up in Naples before moving to the UK and opened his first restaurant at 21.
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Gino, 47, is pictured here with his wife Jessica Stellina Morrison at the 2015 BRIT Awards
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All three of the My Pasta Bars were located in London – with the first opening in Fleet Street in 2013, followed by Leadenhall Market and Bishopsgate
He told The Daily Mail in 2022 how important it was to bank memories, rather than 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.’
