Award-winning chef Tim Bilton has quit the kitchen.

The man behind the successful Spiced Pear restaurant in Hepworth and before that The Butchers Arms has walked away from the cooker after a desperate battle with cancer left him with no sense of taste.

“I’ve lost my tastebuds and that’s pretty key to being a chef”, said the dad of two from Holmfirth.

“I haven’t worked in the kitchens for nine months and I cannot see myself going back in there.

“The doctors say I may get some taste back but nothing too major. I’m going to keep battling and work on the business rather than in it”.

Tim, 44, opened the gastropub and tearoom on Sheffield Road three years ago while fighting a rare form of eye cancer.

But when the chef, who appeared on the BBC’s Great British Menu, was recovering from the disease, another tumour was found.

Doctors removed three tumours in a series of major operations and Tim underwent both radiotherapy and chemotherapy. But last summer doctors broke the news that the cancer had spread again, this time to his saliva glands. It was the final straw.

Since then he has seen his weight drop from a little over 16 stones to just over 10 and has had a series of hospital stays and appointments.

At one point he was so ill that he had to be on a drip for several days. That was in Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield and Tim believes the staff there have saved him.

Tim and Adele Bilton of the Spiced Pear, Hepworth.

Now he and his wife Adele plan a major fundraising event to help the hospital’s cancer unit.

Tim described his wife as “my anchor” and plans to spend more time with her and their sons, Henry and Charlie.

He said: “I’m going to try and say healthy and enjoy some real family time, after years of 16-hour days”.

His wife said: “It has been three long and hard years and Tim has gone through so much. Now we want to try and give back to the hospital something to repay them.

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“Customers at The Spiced Pear have already helped us raise more than £3,000 and Tim has set a target of £10,000.

“He is lucky that he has high-profile contacts and four top chefs - Michael O’Hare, James Mackenzie, Kenny Atkinson and Andrew Pern - will help us stage a charity ball at Rudding Park in September.

“It is 10 years since we got married there and now we have ‘Cooking with Cancer’ to help the hospital.

“The cancer and the treatment have really hit Tim hard but we owe so much to the hospital staff”.

Tim studied catering at Huddersfield University and later worked for two years at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, Raymond Blanc’s multi-award winning Oxfordshire restaurant.

He later became head chef at Bibis, the renowned Leeds bistro, before he and Adele took over The Butchers Arms, at Hepworth.

To support the appeal go to www.justgiving.com/thespicedpear