- guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 April 2010 18.53 BST
Ian Pegler has left his job as chief executive of Little Chef but intends to pursue a similar role. Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Ian Pegler, the chief executive of Little Chef who brought in top chef Heston Blumenthal to revamp the chain of down-at-heel roadside diners, has parted company with the business.
Pegler, whose collaboration with the proprietor of the celebrated Fat Duck restaurant was filmed for Channel 4, emerged as a David Brent-style master of management-speak in the series, called Big Chef Takes on Little Chef.
A statement from Little Chef confirmed that Pegler had left, explaining that his departure followed "delivery of the initial two-year plan for the regeneration" of the chain – most famous for its Olympic breakfast fry-up and Fat Charlie logo.
Pegler and Blumenthal clashed repeatedly in the TV series as Pegler urged the experimental chef with three Michelin stars to try some "blue-sky thinking". One TV critic said that the Little Chef boss could "barely open his mouth without expelling some flaccid executive cliché".
During the series Blumenthal was handed the Popham restaurant, near Basingstoke, to refurbish and to experiment with a more upmarket menu. The chef was horrified to discover that the restaurant had no chefs and no saucepans, and made most of its meals in the microwave. The mood turned angry when Blumenthal discovered that Pegler had replaced his ingredients with cheaper alternatives.
But eventually Popham reopened with a new look and new menu, and sales soared by 500%. The restaurant made it into The Good Food Guide and trade is still up 150% on previous levels.
Two more restaurants, in York and Kettering, were given the Blumenthal treatment. On the Little Chef website Pegler promises to invest £2m "in rolling the Heston concept to a further five locations".
That plan will now be reassessed. A Little Chef spokeswoman said: "The management team are working out exactly what they are going to do. New plans will be revealed." A new chief executive is also being sought.
The spokeswoman said she had "no idea" where Pegler had gone and could not explain his departure.
Asked about his decision, Pegler said: "It's private, really. But the job was done. The business was turned around. I have no idea what I am going to do. I'm taking a little time off then I will look in earnest for something similar." He said that he would be prepared to make another TV series "if the business case warranted it".
Pegler started his career in 1970 as a management trainee at Marks & Spencer, which he said had given him "a grounding in holistic management" and taught him that "the standard you set is the standard you get". He later worked for Dixons, the electrical retailer, before moving into the catering business.
He rejoined Little Chef in 2008, having previously run the business and its sister restaurant, Happy Eater, when they were part of the Forte empire in the 1990s. He left after a management clearout in 1994.
The roadside restaurant group has had many masters since then: Granada, Compass, the private equity group Permira, and a couple of entrepreneurs under whose guidance it collapsed into administration. Its current owners, RCapital, another private equity group, bought the 200-diner business for £9m in 2007.
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