Superchef's plate piled with debts

THE business empire of flamboyant chef Marco Pierre White, whose friendship with financier Robin Saunders has left his wife distraught, is weighed down with debts.

White's culinary skills are not in doubt. He is involved in some of London's finest restaurants, including the Mirabelle and the Criterion.

Although they have made him a wealthy man, some wonder whether he has a foolproof recipe for financial success. Yorkshire-born White has not ventured on to the stock market, preferring to finance his restaurants by borrowing.

His interests are scattered among an array of companies, making an overall assessment of his finances difficult.

OTA Resources Development, which operates the Mirabelle, disclosed more than £10m debts in last year's accounts.

White and his long-term partner, financier Jimmy Lahoud, stepped down in 2001 as directors of the company, which had negative net worth of £2.86m. They are still listed as shareholders of the company, which despite its debts, made a profit of £1.1m on sales of £5.4m.

Two of White's other restaurants, the Oak Room and Titanic, closed owing large sums.

Along with the Criterion in Piccadilly, they came under the umbrella of a company called MPW Criterion, a joint venture with catering group Compass.

In 2000, the latest accounts available, the firm lost £2.2m and had negative net worth of £5.39m. Compass said the venture has now been dismantled.

White is a director of a string of dissolved companies, and of a firm called Sellican, for which no figures are available.

His partnership with actor Michael Caine in The Canteen restaurant in Chelsea Harbour imploded in the Nineties. That firm is listed as having negative net worth of £244,000.

Soho eaterie L'Escargot is listed as having negative net worth of £626,000 in 2001.