AWARD-winning chef Tom van Zeller, who has worked in some of the world’s top restaurants, has returned to his North Yorkshire roots to open his own restaurant in Harrogate.

The restaurant, in Montpellier Street, has the backing of Michelin-starred restaurateur and culinary expert David Moore and creates eight jobs.

The launch of Van Zeller restaurant over the weekend represents a six-figure investment by Tom, London-based Moore and a number of other private individuals Mr Moore is one of the two inspectors in Raymond Blanc’s popular BBC2 programme The Restaurant, and founder of London’s acclaimed Pied a Terre restaurant.

Tom, 32, previously head chef at the Hotel du Vin in Harrogate and Malmaison Brasserie in Leeds, already holds two AA rosettes and now strives for a Michelin star.

He said: “This is an opportunity to open what will be a truly top-class restaurant.” He plans to combine the highest standards of French cuisine and service with Yorkshire personality. “Provenance is very important to me, which is why we will be using ingredients from Yorkshire whenever possible.

“I have a deep knowledge of the local market and we know we are offering something very different that has a place in the market regardless of the current economic climate.”

Tom’s first job after leaving school was as a teenager in the kitchens at Bettys tea rooms in Harrogate. Aged 18, he became an apprentice at Rudding House restaurant and since then he has been working for and with the restaurant industry’s elite, including Raymond Blanc, Tom Aitkens, Pierre Koffman, Eric Chavot and, closer to home, Simon Gueller at the Michelin-starred Box Tree in Ilkley.

Internationally, he has worked in the kitchens of Papillion in New York’s Greenwich Village and the Café-Sydney restaurant on Sydney Harbour.