Chef Russell Norman, aged 57, took his own life after a drunken argument with his girlfriend, inquest told

Celebrity chef Russell Norman hanged himself after he had a drunken argument with his girlfriend, an inquest has heard.

The award-winning chef and restaurant owner, who regularly appeared on BBC's Saturday Kitchen and also presented The Restaurant Man, was found dead in the garden of his Kent home on Saturday November 18 last year.

"It is with the greatest sadness that I announce the loss of my best friend Russell Norman. After a short battle in hospital, he died surrounded by family and friends,” said Russell’s long-time business partner Richard Beatty at the time of his death.

His girlfriend, Doctor Genevieve Verdigel, and medical staff attempted to perform CPR on him, but he suffered severe brain damage and died five days after the incident, on Thursday November 23, in hospital, surrounded by his family and friends. He was 57-years-old.

"Suicidal tendencies"

The inquest at Oakwood House in Maidstone heard yesterday (Friday February 9) that Norman had twice the amount of alcohol in his system than the legal drink-drive limit, and a conclusion of suicide by hanging was recorded.

Norman had gone into the garden of his home in Pluckley after arguing with his Verdigel. She then found him lying unconscious and tried to save him. In a statement read by Coroner Katrina Hepburn, Dr Verdigel said: "I ran back inside to call 999. I was trying to do CPR. I was screaming and the people next door came round."

Norman was taken to the William Harvey Hospital in nearby Ashford, after his pulse was detected during resuscitation attempts by paramedics. Doctors revealed, however, that he had suffered brain damage and placed him on end-of-life care. The inquest heard he had been displaying "suicidal tendencies" before his death.

The cause of Norman's death was given as a brain injury caused by hanging, with Ms Hepburn recording a verdict of suicide, as reported in the Daily Mail.

Norman leaves behind three children and Verdigel, who is an art historian specialising in Italian Renaissance. Before his death, the couple were due to travel to Venice to celebrate the publication of his new book, ‘Brutto: A Simple Florentine Cookbook.’

"Once it is gone it is gone"

Following the inquest, Verdigel shared a picture of herself and Norman and wrote a tribute to him. She wrote: "Isn’t it odd how the epilogue is often the part of a novel that provides the most clarity. The passages that all wish they could have flicked forward to without having to read the prose inbetween.

"Well, the epilogue here is a simple one. Because Russell wrote it himself: ‘Always keep your counsel. (And) Trust yourself because no-one else will. To enter into a soliloquy on what Russell meant to me, what a character he was, or what I learnt from him, would be banal.

"Those words have already been said, written and published by others. I won’t talk about the torture I have undergone at the hands of brutes; those who need to know already know. And I have no intent to add words to that noise.

"When all is said and done, what you come to realise are the most important words are those that remain, and will remain, a conversation between two people and to which the rest of the world will never be privy.

"And, at the end of the day, is that not the most important thing about the spoken word… it can never be emulated nor replicated. It is a moment in time. And once it is gone it is gone. Like a candle, eradicated in a puff of smoke. Yet the smoking tendrils remain."

In a previous post, uploaded the day after Norman's death, she wrote: "Goodbye my darling. Venice will cease to exist for me without you", alongside another photo of the pair together.

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