Just over two years ago and after a taste of global fame as a contestant on BBC’s MasterChef: The Professionals, Keelan Burton's life began to spiral. In 2018, his hopes of glory on the show were extinguished at the first heat.
By the end of 2019 his personal life was in tatters following the break-up of his relationship with the mother of his two children. As the pandemic hit, he was unemployed after working in top kitchens across the country.
He had lost his senior chef job at La Rock in Sandiacre because of drugs, and for turning up late. "That's when it all started to go a bit pear-shaped," he told Nottinghamshire Live on Wednesday (September 21). His drug habits began.
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Being a chef, it is hard to keep a girlfriend and keep off drugs, he says of what he was up to as the country entered it's first national lockdown in 2020. In the job, chefs typically work 10 to 15-hours days and he said "you need drugs to crack on".
Using cannabis relaxed him and helped him in his chaotic lifestyle at the time. "Drugs make you feel great but also ruin your life," he said. "In this trade, they ask for everything, take everything and give you nothing."
Burton is no stranger to a busy kitchen where speed and perfection is of the essence. But a crown court building is an alien environment to the father-of-two and somewhere he never plans to return.
Sitting waiting in the confines of the crowded corridors of the Canal Street courthouse on Wednesday (September 21), brushing shoulders with defendants and their families, was enough to make him think just how far he had come - now a shareholder and executive chef at two thriving and popular Nottingham restaurants.
But back on May 9, 2020, his whole world shattered when he stopped for police. A man and woman were passengers in his car.
Police could smell cannabis in his Mercedes. A quick check in the boot turned up a bag of nearly a quarter-kilo of the Class B drug with Burton's incriminating left palm print on the bag.
It was enough for Burton, now 28 and from Walbrook Close, Cinderhill, to be charged. It was also a huge reality check. A wake-up call.
He was hauled before the magstrates' court for drug driving after testing positive when he stopped in his Mercedes and remains on a driving ban as a consequence.
But the more serious element of his activities were linked back to the block of £2,486 worth of cannabis in his boot and further evidence of drug dealing on his phone. He pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply and was handed a eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Speaking afterwards, Burton said it was his brief stint on MasterChef which opened doors for him. He was approached by someone to open a restaurant but that fell through.
Then he was asked again - an opportunity to help a failing business. He saved the business and today it is Canning Circus's trendy Sans Patrie. Beeston's new Italian restaurant Ottimo - meaning "great" in Italian - swiftly followed.
The business pulls in more than £150,000 a month and dishes out 1,000 covers a week. "Life is very good for me," he says. Christmas bookings are "through the roof". He is a shareholder and executive chef at both restaurants and works 17-hour days, split between both.
But he admits the court case was hanging over him for so long. He doesn't take drugs anymore and has a new girlfriend. He has mended his ways.
"I'm very, very sorry," he reflects. "I'm sorry but I'm not sorry! Because it has been a learning curve and it pushed me to do better. I shouldn't be here".
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