A CELEBRITY chef’s cookery school in Brighton has closed.

Jamie Oliver’s Recipease store in Western Road, Brighton, has shut down after more than five years in the city.

His company said the Brighton site and a sister store in Clapham Junction had closed to allow the brand to “focus its energies” on its flagship Notting Hill branch.

A spokesman for the company said efforts were being made to relocate the ten staff at the Recipease store to other roles within the celebrity chef’s business empire in a bid to keep redundancies to a minimum.

The 39-year-old TV star’s other restaurant in the city, Jamie’s Italian in Black Lion Street, is unaffected by the changes.

The Recipease shop, restaurant and cookery school opened in the former Field and Track and Carphone Warehouse shops in March 2009.

It was renamed Jamie Oliver’s Cafe and Cookery School following a rebranding.

At its launch, Mr Oliver said the store was something special he had been looking to open for a long time and added that he hoped it would assist residents who had “never been taught to cook at home or in school”.

The closure comes less than a year after Brighton and Hove City Council approved an application to give the store a makeover.

The application, which was approved in March, sought to remove the shop part of the store which had been suffering from “a distinct lack of custom” and to devote more space to the successful cookery school.

A spokesman said: “Staff are being re-employed wherever possible within the Jamie Oliver restaurant and retail businesses and we will be working hard to keep redundancies to a minimum.

“All suppliers will be paid their outstanding bills and customers with lessons booked or vouchers bought will be able to redeem them in our London Notting Hill store or get their money back by contacting us.”

The company’s customer services team can be contacted via 0203 375 5398 or contactus@recipease.com