A highly-regarded boutique country house hotel in North Yorkshire owned by rock legend Eric Clapton has scored one-star for food hygiene, meaning ‘major improvement necessary’.
However, the Burythorpe Country House hotel says it has undertaken a range of work to ensure it will score well in a re-inspection.
Inspectors from North Yorkshire Council visited the hotel, a few miles from Malton, on July 7.
The 4-star hotel offers 14 bedrooms, it has the Priory restaurant and it can host events, including weddings for up to 150 people.
The venue attracts rave reviews, with Google awarding 4.7 stars out of five, based on 192 Google reviews.
Tripadvisor awards 4.5 stars out of five, based on 761 reviews.
The website of the Food Standards Agency says that for hygienic food handling, it was a matter of ‘improvement necessary.’
The inspection found that the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and the building was ‘generally satisfactory.’
The hotel exterior
(Image: Newsquest)
However, for management of food safety, it was a matter of ‘major improvement necessary.’
The hotel’s general manager Alison Gaskell told the Press: “As a dedicated and diligent manager, I was, of course, initially very upset after the initial inspection.
“To clarify, the house dates back to the 18th century and is a listed building. This can make planning essential works trickier as we have to be mindful of the internal structure.
“Following our last inspection we were given advisory notice of work that should be completed, in particular the floor and the storage cupboards although the majority of this was completed in time, we unfortunately could not get the required tradesmen that we needed for such a large area times passed and I admittedly let too much time slip.”
Alison continued: “All the required work to the kitchen has now been completed including a brand-new floor, the cupboards mentioned were replaced last year.
“The other issue was misuse of kitchen equipment; the equipment was removed on the day of the inspection.”
She added: “After our initial disappointment we are feeling extremely positive now all outstanding work has been completed and are very much looking forward to our reinspection and hopefully restoring our previous rating of four , or even better, the maximum score of 5.
“EHO (Environmental Health Office) have been extremely supportive and both my head chef and I feel extremely grateful for the input and guidance they have provided, hospitality is very challenging right now and it is important to ensure we continue to learn and improve.”