Momma Cherri's, the restaurant that shot to fame on TV's Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, has gone into administration.

Mounting debts of £200,000 and spiralling costs with the lease of her Big House restaurant have forced owner Charita Jones to put her company into administration to keep creditors at bay.

The restaurant has been closed over the festive period as the details of the handover have been put together.

Mrs Jones said she had been a victim of her own success since the original Soul Shack, in Little East Street, Brighton, appeared on the Channel 4 show in 2004.

The company expanded too quickly into new bigger premises called Momma Cherri's Big House to cope with the number of bookings and extra demand from customers.

Mrs Jones, 52, said: "The building is costing us too much in that we never ever got a loan from the bank when we took on the property.

"We were running the Shack and the Big House for a whole year. We had a building for a whole year that we couldn't sell. We still had to pay the rents and the rates. We were paying for a building that was closed.

"We went from ten employees to 30 and the building that we took on had so many hidden problems.

"It was bigger and better though and I just wanted to be able to feed as many people as I could. But with the book deal, the television and all the promotion I was doing I took my eye off the ball and was not available at the restaurant.

"We took professional advice and decided that the best way forward would be to place the company into administration.

"However, the restaurant will re-open on January 5 run by a new company owned by my daughter, Katryna, operating under licence from the administrators, with a view to achieving a sale of the business."

Ms Jones bought the lease for the Big House 18 months ago with the hope of securing a bank loan to help with start-up costs for the new restaurant.

The banks however failed to lend the money meaning she had to take out several smaller loans to pay for new equipment, decor and furniture at the Big House.

She was also unable to sell the Soul Shack which could have reduced her costs.

Paying back these loans on top of the £7,000 a month lease cost has proved too much of a financial burden.

Ms Jones, who was named 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Sussex Business Awards and has become a local celebrity on the back of her TV appearances, said the business was also hit with maintenance and equipment problems.

She added: "We were plagued with bad luck."

Accountants Andrew White and Susan Maund, from the Crawley office of Baker Tilly, have been appointed as joint administrators of the company while Mrs Jones's daughter Katryna looks after the running of the restaurant with all future bookings being honoured.

Ms Maund said: "It's very important that the restaurant continues to trade and we hope the local community will support the management team as we work behind the scenes to find a suitable purchaser who can take the business forward."

Mrs Jones added: "We still want to serve the community. I'm just sorry for the disappointment that this has caused but I am going to do my best.

"Momma Cherri's ain't disappearing. We ain't going nowhere."

What do you think about Momma Cherri's Big House?

Let us know by leaving your comments below.