MasterChef winner Kenny Tutt’s restaurant business has gone into liquidation owing more than £1 million.

Pitch and Bayside Social in Worthing both folded in recent months with employees at Pitch saying they were owed a month’s wages.

A statement of affairs filed by Pitch Foods Ltd, the business behind the restaurants, confirmed that employees were owed a total of £35,689.37.

The statement shows that Pitch has less than £18,000 available to pay the debt.

Pitch Foods Ltd is being wound up in a creditor's voluntary liquidation. Overall the company has an estimated total deficiency of £1,055,249.06.

Pitch, in Warwick Street, and Bayside Social, in Beach Parade, were closed within months of each other with the former MasterChef winner citing the “current economic struggles”.

Pitch was opened less than a year after Kenny won the BBC competition in 2018.

Despite the shortfall in funds Tutt previously told The Argus “the team will be paid in full” and he was doing all he could to make that happen.

He said: "I understand this is a difficult time for all people involved and we have done everything in our power to reach out to local businesses in need of good staff and assisted in their re-employment.

“We have been in contact personally with all suppliers to inform them of the situation and work together for the best solutions possible.

"We first hand experienced the change in trading conditions on the high street in the last few months. Bookings reduced by over 65 to 70 per cent due to the very real cost of living crisis.

"This along with the continuing rising costs of a large four-storey building. Our electricity bill alone was £5,000 last month, just to give some context of the rising costs we have endured."

Kenny and his wife Lucy, who is his business partner, are set to open a cafe in Worthing's historic Dome cinema after a licensing application was approved by the borough council.