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Four people are dead, including the Michelin Star chef Jason Atherton, and two more are seriously injured after the South African restaurant where he worked caught fire in London early on Saturday morning. The restaurant was reportedly undergoing renovations when the blaze started, bringing the closure of the popular venue in Buckhurst Hill to an early end.
Atherton, who is the chef de cuisine at Number One, is well known for his stunning dishes and honed and precision cooking technique. The chef was a spokesman for campaign group Food Tube, which aims to encourage greater access to healthy food in London and the U.K. via a bike sharing system, sharing transportation that usually operates solely in the city’s other centers. He has also hosted shows on the Food Tube, the online magazine behind Food Tube.
A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said that the restaurant was not fitted with sprinklers and it is believed that they had been turned off due to budgetary constraints. Police are investigating the cause of the fire but it is not believed to be suspicious. Atherton himself expressed confusion over the fire, saying in a statement, “I am currently on a bike ride in France, completely clueless and struggling to process all of this. It seems the best course of action for me to return to London immediately and retrieve my belongings before the fire brigade arrive.”
Read the full story at The Telegraph.
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