TV Chef Heston in Courtroom Battle

It's meat cleavers at dawn as TV Chef Heston Blumenthal and Cork based butcher Jack O'Shea battle it out in the courtroom in a messy row over meat.

The Daily Mail has reported that Mr O'Shea claims popular celebrity chef Blumenthal owes him a mammoth £35,000 in unpaid meat bills supplied to the Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire.

With O'Shea's solicitors preparing their case, litigation seems inevitable as Blumenthal has strongly refuted the claims, calling them 'Bonkers'.

The Irish-born butcher was the supplier of choice to Heston's restaurants including 'Dinner' and 'The Fat Duck' over a period of five years from 2006 to early 2012. 

41 year old O'Shea sold top cuts of meat from County Cork until he claims, Heston froze him out following the Foie Gras scandal at Selfridges in 2011.  O'Shea was found to be selling the controversial delicacy under the counter at the top department store with the code name 'French Fillet'.

As Jack O'Shea alleges the chef still owes him £35,000 for deliveries made to his restaurant during 2011, the businessman says "Heston washed his hands of me after the Selfridges problems because he didn't want the bad PR'.  He goes on to tell the Daily Mail, "But he still owes me, I used to make deliveries to his restaurants twice a week and staff signed for them".

Blumenthal's lawyers dispute the allegations claiming the reason O'Shea was dropped was because "He no longer had suitable premises from which to prepare meat or means of delivering meat via refrigerated transport".

Let battle commence…..

If you need the advice of an experienced litigation solicitor then call Mandy Peters on 020 8297 4000 or email advice@mandypeterssolicitors.co.uk.

Mandy Peters

London Litigation Solicitors

Tel: 0208 297 4000