St. John Hotel: Loh Lik Peng takes over Fergus Henderson’s hotel

News that a Singaporean hotelier has taken over popular London chef Fergus Henderson’s latest venture, the St. John Hotel, has become the talk of the town in the British food world.

The 15-room hotel is now under the ownership of Singaporean hotelier Loh Lik Peng. Loh is the owner of New Majestic Hotel (where Majestic Restaurant resides) and Wanderlust.

While the restaurant’s head chef Tom Harris will remain at the helm, Caterer and Hotelkeeper report that Henderson will no longer be involved in the hotel he founded, stripping the establishment of much of its starpower and spurring at least one Twitterer to tweet, “Travesty.”

Known as the ‘king of offal’ for pioneering the nose-to-tail concept of dining in London, Henderson opened the St. John Hotel in Leicester Square in April 2011 after the project suffered a series of setbacks that put the hotel in the red by millions of pounds, reports The London Evening Standard.

Henderson’s St John Hotel restaurant earned its first Michelin star a year after opening and offers whole, roasted suckling pig and roast chickens dinners.

Meanwhile, the change at the helm is getting added attention with word that a roster of celebrity investors such as visual artists Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Peter Doig, gallery owner Sadie Coles, American painter Elizabeth Peyton and writer Guy Kennaway may be set to lose their investments.

Other St. John outposts include locations near Smithfield Market, Spitalfields Market and a standalone bakery on Druid Street.