Dinner by Heston in Melbourne enters voluntary liquidation

Dinner by Heston in the Crown Casino complex in Melbourne, Australia has entered voluntary liquidation.

The move follows a failure to comply with a statutory request by the Australian Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) to calculate and pay back payments for staff.

The restaurant is owned by Tipsy Cake Ltd and uses celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's name under license but is not owned by him.

Fair work ombudsman Sandra Parker said: "Tipsy Cake was aware that a significant amount of wages and entitlements were owing to many workers who had been underpaid. The circumstances of this matter are disappointing. The Fair Work Ombudsman will liaise with the provisional liquidator and other relevant stakeholders in order to assist the employees to recover their entitlements."

BRI Ferrier has been appointed the provisional liquidators and it seeks to maintain the running of the business as normal without disruption for diners.

A spokesperson for Tipsy Cake Ltd said: "The voluntary appointment of the Provisional Liquidators will enable appropriate actions to continue the restaurant's current successful and profitable trading and to fulfil its obligations.

"The Provisional Liquidators role is a caretaker capacity, maintaining the status quo of the restaurant and they intend to continue to operate the now profitable business with the anticipated co-operation of Crown."

Dinner by Heston is a restaurant concept conceived by Blumenthal. The first site opened in London's Mandarin Oriental in Hyde Park, London in 2011.

A spokesperson for Heston Blumenthal said: "The situation will not affect the UK operations or employees."