THE owners of one of North Yorkshire’s top restaurants have blasted “damaging and totally unfounded” rumours they are selling up to celebrity chefs.

Andrew and Jacquie Pern, who have run the Michelin-starred Star Inn at Harome, near Helmsley, for the past 14 years, recently announced they are splitting up after 14 years of marriage.

But they insist they still have an excellent business relationship, are totally committed to working together and are not going to “abandon” the Inn now.

Jacquie said: “We are totally fed up with hearing the most outlandish stories about our beloved Star.

“We keep hearing we are selling up to a celebrity chef, sometimes it’s Gordon Ramsey and sometimes it’s James Martin.

“These rumours are totally unfounded and complete nonsense.

“They are also very upsetting and damaging. We have put our heart and soul into the Star and we are not going to abandon it now. Also, if people think we are leaving, they might feel our standards would slip. Nothing could be further from the case.”

She said she and Andrew had had an “amicable parting of the ways” and were hardly going to throw away everything they had worked for, just because they were no longer together personally.

Andrew said: “My aim is to make the Star the first two-starred Michelin pub in the world and nothing will deflect me from that.”

The Perns, who also own the Corner Shop and the Pheasant Inn in Harome and Perns delicatessen, butchers and wine merchants, in Helmsley’s Market Place, together with the fishmongers, Star Fish, next door, say they have the huge responsibility of employing a total of 120 people.

Andrew said: “To secure everyone’s future, we have just invested £750,000 in extending and upgrading the Star and we have also renovated and extended Perns and opened Star Fish.

“That doesn’t suggest we are selling up, does it?”