Overall ranking: 4
Chef ranking: 2
Snapshot
Gordon Ramsay is perhaps the most influential and high-profile chef-restaurateur to emerge in recent years. Hailed as a culinary genius, he is as well-known for his expletive-fuelled TV series and his inspirational cook books as for his empire of restaurants.
Gordon Ramsay Holdings currently comprises seven London restaurants, all but one sited in hotels that are or were part of the Savoy Group (now called Maybourne).
Career guide
Born in Scotland in 1966, Ramsay gained top-notch experience between 1986 and 1989 at Maxim’s de Paris, Harvey’s (alongside Marco Pierre White) and Le Gavroche (with Albert Roux). From 1990, Ramsay spent three years with legendary French chefs Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon.
He came to prominence in late 1993 as head chef of Aubergine in London, which he co-owned with A-Z Restaurants. Following a litigious break with A-Z in 1998, Ramsay opened his eponymous restaurant in Chelsea. In 1999, he launched Pétrus in St James Street with Wareing as chef-patron, while 2001 brought three new ventures – Amaryllis in Glasgow’s One Devonshire Gardens hotel, Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, and responsibility for food and drink at the Dubai Hilton Creek.
In 2002 Ramsay took over the food and beverage operation at London’s Connaught hotel, installing Angela Hartnett as chef-patron. A frenetic 2003 saw Wareing take over the Savoy Grill, open Banquette above it, and move Pétrus into the Berkeley hotel while Ramsay opened his Boxwood Café (styled after a New York café) at the Berkeley.
What we think
A knee injury thwarted a promising football career with Glasgow Rangers but it catapulted a star player into the culinary field. Ramsay is one of only two British chefs to currently own a three Michelin-star restaurant and his group is the only one in the UK to hold a total of seven Michelin stars. A 2003 Caterer survey of Michelin holders identified Ramsay as the third greatest living chef (after the Roux brothers and Marco Pierre White). Harden’s restaurant guide voted him the capital’s top chef in 2004 for the ninth year running and his standalone Chelsea restaurant was the only one to score 10/10 in the Good Food Guide in both 2003 and 2004.
Ramsay’s eponymous Chelsea restaurant went from nought to three Michelin stars in just three years – a prize achieved by just five British restaurants and which won Ramsay the Catey Chef Award in 2000.
Ramsay’s seven cook books have proved equally essential to professional chefs and lay cooks while his three TV series– Boiling Point, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and Hell’s Kitchen – have etched him firmly in the nation’s consciousness.
This media work has boosted his fortune to an estimated £20m, but he has also proved that fine dining can bring home the bacon as well as the plaudits –in the year to 31 August 2004, Gordon Ramsay Holdings turned a £1m loss into a £3.8m profit. This was despite losses of £800,000 from the closure of Amaryllis in December 2003, which has proved his only failure to date (La Fleur, the more accessible successor to Pétrus in St James Street, closed in early 2004 because its lease expired).
This year, Ramsay will add two new hotel-based restaurants to his burgeoning empire – Maze at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square and a fine dining and casual all-day dining venue at the new Conrad Tokyo, which opens this summer.
Further reading
Latest news on Gordon Ramsay >>
Hospitality jobs with Gordon Ramsay on CatererSearch >>
Gordon Ramsay Recipes on CatererSearch >>
Gordon Ramsay website >>
Gordon Ramsay’s TV Show The F-Word >>
Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares >>
Gordon Ramsay – wikipedia Profile >>
Gordon Ramsay’s recipe books >>