Gino D'Acampo's My Pasta Bar restaurant brand wound-up by liquidators

Gino D’Acampo’s My Pasta Bar restaurant brand has been wound up just over a decade after it launched.

The celebrity chef put the business into liquidation in December 2021 after the pandemic impacted trade.

My Pasta Bar, which served casual pasta dishes, launched in London in 2013 and grew to three sites in Fleet Street, Leadenhall Market and Bishopsgate.

The company owed £4.8m to 47 unsecured creditors, as well as £113,575 to HMRC and £37,887 to employees when it was put into liquidation, documents show.

Liquidator Annette Reeve wrote: “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.”

D’Acampo addressed the closure of the brand in 2022 and said none of his other restaurant businesses were affected.

He said: “About 10 years ago I opened a business called Pasta Bar, which is serving Italian food very fast in the centre of London, three little shops.

"We tried for 10 years and then Covid came around and I thought, ‘you know what, we have to close, there's no point pursuing the idea', which, by the way, I absolutely love, and I will continue with that with another business.

He added: "This is what business is all about. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose."

D’Acampo’s restaurant business has continued to expand since the closure of My Pasta Bar. In 2021, the chef signed a deal with Spain's largest hotel group Meliá International and has since opened restaurants in its INNSiDE by Melia hotels in Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester.

He also launched Luciano, which is pitched as a higher-end Italian restaurant, at the ME London hotel on the Strand in 2021.

The Gino D'Acampo restaurants brand is part of the Upmarket Leisure group, which was founded in 2021, and is set to open three further UK restaurants in 2024.