Industry reacts as Jeremy King loses battle over Corbin & King

Leading figures in the hospitality industry have described Jeremy King’s failed attempt to take control of restaurant group Corbin & King as “terrible news”.

Shareholder Minor International seized the business in an auction on Friday (1 April) and King announced in a newsletter that he no longer held any equity in the company and assumed Minor will proceed to take control of the group's restaurants.

Mail on Sunday critic Tom Parker Bowles said on Twitter: “This is very, very sad. Corbin and King are restaurant masters, and the Wolseley one of the world’s greatest. This group is nothing without them.”

Inception Group co-founder Charlie Gilkes described it on Twitter as “absolutely terrible news”, adding: “fast forward a year and Minor will realise @CorbinandKing doesn’t work without Corbin and King, customers will gradually stop going and Jeremy and Chris will be back with yet another exceptional and hugely successful restaurant”.

“Is it always going to be a world where the good guys lose and the greedy, soulless and mean win out?” tweeted actor and television presenter Stephen Fry.

Meanwhile, Observer critic Jay Rayner wrote: “In the midst of a cost of living crisis, when energy prices are going through the roof, a boardroom battle over a bunch of apparently fancy restaurants, with menus full of steak tartare and îles flottantes, may seem less than important. But what has happened to the much-loved group led by the Wolseley, on London’s Piccadilly, speaks to a faceless corporatisation of hospitality which has little to do with being hospitable and everything to do with profit above all else.”

Restaurateur Neil Rankin posted on Instagram: “I have no quarrel with chain restaurants. In fact I just wrote a piece about their benefits for my article in @thecaterermag. However some things are not supposed to be chain restaurants. Some things are supposed to be kept special. Top of my list are anything this man touched. His restaurants are the epitome of everything I’ve ever aspired to build as a restaurateur but never quite achieved. I love them all. How does someone roll out that love ? They can’t and they shouldn’t try. Much of this reasoning is why I don’t have any restaurants today or aspire to anymore but I really wish he still did and I hope he does again soon.”

Restaurant PR Hugh Richard Wright said he was "personally and professionally sad and appalled". He said on Twitter: "Jeremy WAS the restaurants; having him stop by your table felt a little like being touched by royalty. Which in hospitality, he is."

Meanwhile, Pig hotelier Robin Hutson described Corbin and King as "legendary restaurateurs, running beautiful restaurants, with a beautiful team, offering the best service to beautiful people".

King founded the company, which operates nine standalone restaurants including the Wolseley, the Delaunay, Brasserie Zédel and Colbert, with business partner Chris Corbin. On Friday morning, all of the restaurants’ social media pages posted a black and white photo of the founders with the caption ‘THIS is Corbin & King’.