Bites: A harsh dose of restaurant reality

Reality seems to have caught up with Jane and Jeremy Hooper, winners of the first series of the BBC2 restaurant-running reality show The Restaurant. Just seven months in, the Hoopers have stepped away from Eight at the Thatch in Thame, Oxfordshire, the running of which was their hard-fought prize for beating eight other wannabe restaurateur couplings.

With auditions for the second series, fronted by Raymond Blanc, having already taken place ahead of the show's return to BBC2 this October, nobody is dwelling on what happened in Thame. Which is a shame because, unlike The Restaurant, that might actually make good TV.

Meanwhile, Elliot Ketley, last seen on these shores as head chef at the distinguished London fish restaurant J Sheekey, has made it back to Blighty via a glamorous three-year stay at New York's Soho House. It's a long way from Tribeca to Trebetherick, where you can now catch Ketley's way with fish in the restaurant at the new St Moritz hotel and spa in Cornwall.