TV chef rates low in Scores on the Doors

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has blasted the council responsible for awarding one of his gastropubs just one star out of five under hygiene scheme Scores on Doors.

South Oxfordshire District Council said the Greyhound in Henley-on-Thames had "poor" hygiene with "generally low" standards.

Worrall Thompson, who owns two restaurants and a delicatessen, said it was a failure to fill out necessary paperwork that led to the low score.

He told the BBC that food had been found beneath the fridge and oven during the inspection, but said that people would have to be on their "hands and knees with a torch" to find it.

He said the public "don't care" if the paperwork isn't done.

"It's treating everyone as if they haven't got a brain," he added. "It's got absurd, the amount of paperwork you have to do.

"There's this inbuilt hatred between Environmental Health Officers and chefs. We should be working together."

Council cabinet member for health Dorothy Brown said: "Mr Worrall Thompson is mistaken that our Scores on the Doors scheme is overly bureaucratic and driven by paperwork, when it is in fact driven by the need to improve food hygiene standards.

"We think residents have a right to know the standards of places they choose to eat at.

"The Greyhound's one-star rating reflects the need to improve not only their food safety management, but also their hygiene standards."

The inspection was carried out in February.