A celebrity chef is set to make his return to the seaside town where he made his name as boss of a flagship restaurant.

Former Rocksalt head chef Mark Sargeant will be launching a new venture in Folkestone at the former premises of the Italian restaurant Tavernetta which has been a fixture in the town since 1965.

A former protege of Gordon Ramsay, Sargeant was the figurehead of a Kentish culinary empire that included Rocksalt on Folketone harbour as well as Wife of Bath in Wye and The Duke William in Ickham.

But that ended in October last year, when he announced he would be stepping away from his restaurant and pub empire, citing "unresolvable differences" with his business partner Josh De Haan.

He is now taking on the Clifton Gardens venue from husband-and-wife team Tommaso and Kirstine Borrello, who have decided to retire after more than 15 years at the helm.

Speaking to KentOnline after announcing the decision to sell up, Mrs Borrello expressed the couple's immense gratitude to all their regular customers who have dined with them down the years.

"It's sad because there's loads and loads of memories there for everybody," she said. "We know a lot of our customers really well, you know know what they like, where they want to sit, the drinks they are going to have. But it is time to retire.

"We'd like to say a really, really big thank you to everybody that came, especially during lockdown when we did the takeaways. Thank you so very, very much."

The future for the restaurant will be as Brasserie MS – which will offer "classical French cuisine" in Art Deco surroundings when it opens in May.

"Mark has always believed in serving classic dishes that diners love, sourcing the very best ingredients and preparing them so that they are as good as they can possibly be," a spokesman for the project said.

"As such, Mark is going back to his roots, offering classical French cuisine at Brasserie MS, a speciality that he cut his teeth on in the formative years of his career.

"Mark will be bringing some reimagined classic dishes back, alongside more contemporary ideas."

A highlight of the new restaurant will be a 'kitchen table' in the heart of the venue where up to eight guests can experience a "fully-immersive experience" while enjoying an eight to 10-course tasting menu.

Sargeant hit the headlines in May last year when he issued an apology to an American Airlines flight attendant who had accused him of sexually assaulting her during a work trip.

He told KentOnline he had apologised to Kimberly Goesling, from Texas, after "misreading the situation" but denied allegations of sexual assault during a visit to Germany in 2018.