At 8pm the day before yesterday, chef Gary Usher of Heswall's Burnt Truffle fame launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £150,000 in 30 days.

His business, Elite Bistros, needs £300,000 to launch a new operation built on the foundation of an unforeseen success that materialised during the pandemic.

Like many companies, Elite had to diversify in order to try to make up for revenue shortages caused, at worst, by restaurants being closed, or, at best, running on limited capacity.

Elite launched Elite Bistro at Home, devising and delivering meal kits that enabled customers to recreate their favourite dishes wherever they happened to live in the UK.

The concept took off and has generated £80,000 which will be injected into the start-up company.

Elite decided to raise some of the £220k shortfall with the crowdfunding appeal.

Cash injected will help power a new operation combining the cook at home business with a new events offering which will be based in Chester and cater for weddings and other functions, as well as supplying meal kits.

"We've set ourselves a target of £150,000 in 30 days," said Elite Bistros of the Kickstarter campaign. "We're putting the £80,000 from Elite Bistro at Home in, and our friendly Barclays bank manager has agreed to cover the rest to reach the £300,000 we need to get running."

This is the sixth crowdfunding venture from the Elite team, giving customers the chance to pledge money in return for rewards like meal vouchers equal to the value of the donation.

So if you stump up £50 you will receive a voucher for that amount to be spent in an Elite restaurant.

Pledge more and you may find Elite team members cooking something special in your own kitchen.

To say the campaign has exceeded expectations is an understatement - 24 hours after people began pledging the £150k barrier had been broken.

On twitter Gary Usher thanked his colleagues and all who pledged: "Its been a terrible 18 months but in our darkest times the team started @Elite_Bistros AT HOME, as I personally gave up all hope. I looked at folding Elite. Everyone disagreed & the teams running it turned @Elite_Bistros around. Today you just secured its/our future thank you X

In 2015 Burnt Truffle opened in Heswall after a similar fundraising venture - 891 backers contributed more than £100,000.