Masterchef star Monica Galetti has announced she is closing the central London restaurant she opened with her husband in 2017.
A notice on the website of Mere, based in Charlotte Street, said the decision to close had been made “with heavy hearts” and went on the thank its “loyal patrons and dedicated staff”
Samoan-born Galetti trained as a chef in New Zealand and moved to London in 1999 where she worked at Roux’s Michelin starred restaurant Le Gavroche until 2015.
Galetti ran Mare, which was named after her mother, in Fitzrovia with her husband David who was previously the sommelier at Le Gavroche.
The closure comes two years after she announced she was stepping back from her role as a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals for her own mental health after finding she “cannot manage the balance”.
She spent around 14 years on the popular show, joining the initial line-up of Michel Roux Jr and Gregg Wallace, and then from 2014 with Marcus Wareing after Roux left.
Speaking at the time on the BBC’s The One Show, Galetti said: “I’ve only been able to commit time to the show for three months when my team are strong, and I can have the balance of family, the restaurant and all my other commitments.”
She added: “When I’m filming, people don’t realise I do a 12-hour day of filming, and then I will get back to the restaurant in the evening.
“But at the moment, things are just out of sync, things are tough at the moment.
“I’m trying to spend time with my family, I have an ill nephew that I try to get back to see and filming was all starting at the same time.”
