Henry Harris cuts ties with The Dog & Badger before launch

Former Racine chef Henry Harris has left his job as chef-patron at The Dog & Badger, the Buckinghamshire bar and restaurant he was planning to re-launch this month due to 'artistic differences' with the owner. 

A spokesperson for the refurbished venture, situated in the village of Medmenham, said Harris was no longer associated with the business, which re-launches with six new bedrooms next week. 

Harris, who closed Racine in Knightsbridge in January last year, had been working with the owners Nick and Jane Robinson to help create the new-look business for the last year and was planning to return to the stove with the re-launch this month. 

It is not known if Harris has taken on another role, although does remain consultant to The Groucho Club in London. 

The Dog & Badger's kitchen will now be overseen by former Bidbendum chef Sam Walton who will continue with Harris's plan to use locally-sourced and home-grown produce from the restaurant's 12 vegetable plots. 

He said: "I will be broadening the menu and extending it with some British and European classics so there will be something for everyone.”  

Walton will be joined by Mo Hoffelner, who has experience at The White Oak in Cookham, The Hand and Flowers and Harvey Nichols' Fifth Floor Restaurant as front-of-house manager. 

"The new team start at a great time: the beginning of the summer season and as the luxurious new rooms open, making this restaurant-with-rooms the perfect spot for an indulgent night or two away," said a spokesperson. 

The Dog & Badger was run as a pub until 2013. In 2014 Nick and Jane Robinson bought the freehold from Enterprise Inns and started work to revamp the building to turn it into a contemporary bar and restaurant. 

Its new bedrooms, located within a neighbouring Grade II listed cottage, have each been named after gin botanicals - Juniper, Angelica, Cassia, Hibiscus, Honeysuckle and Poppy and feature king-size beds Nespresso coffee machines, mini Riva bars and private steam rooms.