Return of the shagging chef

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Who’d have thought? First Rick Stein with a Sydney food glossy’s (Okay Gourmet Traveller) publicist. Now John Burton-Race, the man who had a profound influence on our own star Shannon Bennett turns out to be pretty obnoxious and a potent shagger. Many of us remember Burton-Race on TV from the engaging shows French Leave and the Return of the Chef. As Jay Rayner says in The Observer:

“With Burton-Race it’s always best to check. He attracts dramas and intrigues the way dogs attract fleas. Although he came to public prominence as the devoted family man on the series French Leave and the sequel, Return of the Chef, in which his wife Kim and six of the eight kids they have between them featured heavily, he turned out to be rather less devoted to that particular family than many thought. In March 2007 he left for his lover Suzi Ward, his agent’s one-time personal assistant, and their then two-year-old son Pip, his fifth child, of whom Kim knew nothing.

A long and very public battle over assets between ex-husband and wife ensued which culminated with Kim closing their restaurant, the New Angel in Dartmouth, while Burton-Race was deep in the Australian jungle as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. He knew nothing of it until he was evicted by public vote.”