CELEBRITY chef Tom Kitchin has failed his fourth restaurant hygiene inspection in nine months.
Kitchin’s £40-a-head gastro pub in Edinburgh has become the most recent eaterie to fail to come up to standard.
The Southside Scran, which only opened last December, was visited in November and failed a hygiene inspection.
The chef’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Leith, The Kitchin, failed in June this year after inspectors found mould and mouse poo on the premises.
And The Scran & Scallie, another gastro pub, awarded a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand this year, failed in March and September this year.
Inspectors from Edinburgh Council visited the Southside Scran on November 13.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) website shows that Kitchin was told “improvement required”.
No further details of why the premises failed are currently available.
Inspectors look at a restaurant’s handling of food, the preparation of the food, how it is stored, how they manage food safety and the cleanliness of facilities.
In October this year a picture emerged on TripAdvisor which showed child high chairs stacked within feet of the disabled toilet at Southside Scran.
Pinkgirl 2019 wrote about the “average food, perfectly nice but expensive for what it is” but added: “I was however horrified to find the baby high chairs stored right next to the sanitary towel bin and the toilet itself.
“Never seen anything like it. Absolutely hideous. I pity the babies who have to use them to eat from.”
A visitor to the gastro pub on Thursday, who wished to remain anonymous, said it appeared lessons had been learned.
He said: “The toilets had been scrubbed to within an inch of their life. It was spotless. It smelled of disinfectant to the point where it was pretty horrible.”
Edinburgh Council’s June visit to The Kitchin noted that mouse droppings had been found under the pastry section, wash hand basin and in the raw meat area.
They also ordered the restaurant to clean out patches of mould they found in the ice machine.
Tom Kitchin Ltd, according to Company House, saw a slight drop in profits for 2018/19 to £823,000 compared with £874,000 the previous year.
The Kitchin itself enjoyed another record year with profits rising by 11% to more than £440,000.
A spokeswoman for Tom Kitchin said: “The premises were inspected on 13/11 by Environmental Health Officers who highlighted some procedural issues. The report was not received until 2/12 and all items have been addressed.
“We have not yet received a revisit from the EHOs regarding this matter.”
Mr Kitchen, 42, trained at Gleneagles Hotel and worked under chefs including Pierre Koffmann, Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse, learning his trade in London, France, Monaco and Scotland.
In 2006 he became the youngest chef in Scotland to receive a Michelin star six months after opening The Kitchin. He has gone on to publish several cookbooks and has appeared on television programmes such as Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen.
