Heston Blumenthal Brings culinary flair to Little Chef

26 March 2008

Heston, who owns the Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, will be followed by a camera crew for a Channel 4 documentary, which will track his progress as he brings his unique style and flair to help revamp the iconic Little Chef brand, which celebrates it 50th birthday in 2008.

Cathy Stevenson, marketing director at Little Chef, comments:
"We are absolutely thrilled that Heston will be working with Little Chef to help us relaunch later in 2008.  We know Little Chef inspires fond memories for many people across the country, and we strongly believe we can reposition the brand whilst retaining all the well-loved values and affection that clearly remain for Little Chef.

"We are lucky in that Little Chef is an iconic brand, but we are aware we need to make it relevant to many people again.   Heston's style and flair for food, plus a personal fondness for Little Chef, means that exciting times lie ahead." 

The programme, 'Big Chef, Little Chef' (working title) is set to broadcast later in 2008.

Little Chef cheer up the little ones stranded by the floods!

25 July 2007

Little Chef helped to ease parent’s stress when they delivered kids lunch boxes, puzzle books, toys and crayons to families who were stranded at Oxford United Football ground as a result of the floods in Oxford.

Little Chef Assistant Manager Anne Williams, wife of Oxford United Communications Manager Chris, was called upon to provide ‘goodies’ for the ‘bored’ kids to help make their stay at the shelter a little easier.

Assistant Manager Anne said “It’s the least we could do. Some of these people are regular customers of ours and we felt compelled to help in whatever way we could”.

Several Little Chefs located across the flood stricken areas are also offering free hot drinks to any local people who have been affected by the floods . Restaurants at Oxford (A34) and Burford (A40, Oxfordshire) Buckland (A420 Oxfordshire), Alcester (A46 Warwickshire) and Stonehouse (A419, Gloucestershire).

Left to right:

Thomas way (14), Spencer Smy (10), Lindan Forbes (4), Elliss Forbes (9), Rene Smy (7), Ainsley Richetts (10), Torrin Forbes (6) all of Osney Court, Botley Road, Oxford with Little Chef Managers, Anne Williams and Lorraine Kucuk.

Little Chef Rescue Deal

03 January 2007

On 3rd January 2007, Little Chef secured its future in a deal which saved the majority of the business rescuing over 3,500 jobs.

2006 was a challenging year for Little Chef. Although we made a lot of significant improvements, including launching our new menu and the new website, unfortunately, on 3rd January 2007, The Peoples Restaurant Group went into administration and as a result we’ve had to say farewell to 38 of our restaurants.

We are now a 193 restaurant strong business, owned by PT Specialist Retailing Ltd who has recognised our enormous potential so we’re still moving ahead with plans to develop our much loved brand.

We’d like to thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to Little Chef and we look forward to seeing you in 2007.

View the press release (PDF), recently closed restaurants and have your say.

Little Chef goes Smoke Free

09 November 2006

In the interests of the health and well-being of all our customers and our staff, we have decided ahead of the no-smoking ban that comes into force next year to introduce a no-smoking policy at all of our Little Chef restaurants.