Melbourne Dinner by Heston goes into liquidation

23-Dec-2019 - Last updated on 27-Apr-2021 at 08:05 GMT

Dinner by Heston in Melbourne has entered ‘voluntary administration’ following an investigation by Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman that found the restaurant had been underpaying its staff.

The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges that workers were not being paid weekend and public holiday penalty rates, as well as annual leave loading and overtime rates and that previous information provided by the company indicated that it owed millions of Australian dollars to its workers.

Despite being conceived by Heston Blumenthal, Dinner by Heston Melbourne is owned by Tipsy Cake Ltd. and is not connected to the London Dinner by Heston.

A spokesperson for Heston Blumenthal said the situation “will not affect the UK operations or employees.”

BRI Ferrier has been appointed the provisional liquidators and it ‘seeks to maintain the running of the business as normal without disruption for diners’.

“The voluntary appointment of the Provisional Liquidators will enable appropriate actions to continue the restaurant’s current successful and profitable trading and to fulfil its obligations,” says a spokesperson for Tipsy Cake Ltd.

“The Provisional Liquidators role is a caretaker capacity, maintaining the status quo of the restaurant and they intend to continue to operate the now profitable business with the anticipated co-operation of Crown Melbourne.”

Dinner by Heston has been trading at the Crown Melbourne casino and hotel complex since 2015.