TV PRESENTER Jim Rosenthal is on a course of antibiotics after dining at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant.

The Oxford United fan got a stomach bug after visiting the Fat Duck with his wife Chrissy, boxing promoter Frank Warren and three other friends.

About 400 other customers of the restaurant — one of only three in the UK to win three Michelin stars — have complained about being unwell.

Tests have failed to identify the cause of the health scare and the TV chef was said by a spokesman to be upset and frustated at the continuing closure of the restaurant.

About 500 guests have now had their reservations cancelled for the £130-a-head restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, while Windsor and Maidenhead Council checks the results of tests on its kitchen.

Mr Rosenthal, 61, said he was still ill two weeks after his first visit to the restaurant, to celebrate his wife’s 58th birthday.

He said: “We had a wonderful experience on the night, a birthday do for my wife, but subsequently it has been dreadful.

“I saw my doctor on Wednesday and I’m now on antibiotics. My wife was very ill to start with but she is probably getting better quicker than me.

“We are still not right and I feel for everyone who has been through this.

“I had a wide variety of food from the taster menu and there was a four-figure bill for the party of six.

“Obviously I don’t dine out like that every night of the week. I’d have to think about it quite carefully before we went back.”

Mr Rosenthal, a former Oxford Mail reporter who lives near Marlow in Buckinghamshire, said he felt quite angry about the “non-reaction” of the restaurant and added: “I called the Fat Duck to tell them that after eating there all six of us had become ill.

“The manager called me back and told me he took the incident seriously. He did not point out that 40 others had also fallen ill — although he did put me us in touch with Food Alert, a company which asked us to fill in a form.

“Since then we’ve heard nothing. A bowl of flowers for my wife to be sick into would have been nice.”

Shauna Hichens, a spokesman for Windsor and Maidenhead Council, said no timetable had been given for the conclusion of its tests on samples of food and swabs of kitchen surfaces.

She added: “The environmental health department is still waiting for the results of a number of lab tests.”

A restaurant spokesman added: “We have been completely cleared of food poisoning by the council, which is now looking at airborne viruses. We are hoping to reopen next week.”

A spokesman for Mr Blumenthal told The Independent the restaurant had contacted Mr Rosenthal twice following the incident.

The presenter, a lifelong Oxford United fan, said he was pleased to see the team doing well under new boss Chris Wilder and he watched the team whenever he could.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk