Top restaurateurs lose their taste for success

The owners of a restaurant described as one of the best in Britain are selling the business because the stress of long days and demanding customers has become too much.

Germain and Annie Schwab announced their departure from Winteringham Fields in north Lincolnshire in the same week as it trumped Gordon Ramsay's Chelsea flagship to be named best restaurant in the new edition of Harden's UK Restaurants guide.

Opened 15 years ago, the restaurant, in a 16th-century manor house on the banks of the river Humber, has garnered many accolades for its impressive French cuisine.

Local produce is the mainstay of Germain Schwab's menu; fish daily from Grimsby, game in season from the local shoots and vegetables and herbs grown in the gardens at Winteringham Fields.

The restaurant is the top-rated eatery in the Good Food Guide 2003, holds a coveted fifth rosette in the AA Restaurant Guide and boasts two Michelin stars.

However, none of the gongs can compensate for the pressure and the Schwabs decided this week that they could no longer stand the heat of the kitchen. The restaurant, including a 10-bedroom hotel, is on the market for £1.3m, and the Schwabs are planning a new life at a more sedate pace.

Mrs Schwab said: "It was a hard decision to sell but we wanted to go out on a high and now we have."