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Mark Sargeant, Gordon Ramsay's right hand man and former head chef at his Michelin-starred restaurant at Claridge's, has resigned from the celebrity chef's restaurant group.

Sargeant, who has worked alongside Ramsay for 13 years, will leave Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) at the end this month to join pub group the Swan Collection as creative director.

His resignation follows months of speculation after his departure from Claridge's earlier in the year and a rumoured fall out with Ramsay.

It also comes just months after GRH head of operations, Gillian Thomson, left the group to join contract caterer Company of Cooks. And let's not forget the high profile fall out with Marcus Wareing.

Sargeant first joined Ramsay at Aubergine in the 1990s. He went on to work as sous chef at Gordon Ramsay's flagship restaurant on Chelsea's Royal Hospital Road before becoming head chef at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, where he won a Michelin-star in 2002.

He will join the Swan Collection next month. The company currently runs the Swan at the Globe Theatre, London, and the Swan, West Malling, Kent.

It seems Ramsay's original stable of faithful protégés is getting smaller and smaller, with only Mark Askew, Jason Atherton and Angela Hartnett left. Let's hope for Ramsay's sake there won't be any more high profile departures...

Mark Sargeant, known by many as Gordon Ramsay's right-hand-man, has left his position of chef de cuisine at Claridge's.

Sargeant, who is competing on the BBC's Great British Menu against former Gordon Ramsay stable mate Tristan Welch this week, apparently left the Michelin-starred restaurant some time ago.

He has been replaced by chef de cuisine Steve Allen, who has been head chef at the restaurant since 2007.

Ramsay and his team of PRs have been keeping the move under tight wraps, which is unsurprising as "Sarge" is very much represented as the head chef of Claridge's on the Great British Menu.

The official line from Ramsay is that Sargeant left Claridge's to allow him "more time to concentrate on the demands made by Gordon's publishing and television commitments".

He remains involved in the group's London pubs, the Narrow in Limehouse, the Warrington in Maida Vale, and the Devonshire in Chiswick, which he has overseen since the start. Sargeant also co-wrote many of Ramsay's cookery books including the most recent one, Gordon Ramsay's Great British Pub Food.

But with the pubs having been rumoured to be on the market for months, could this be the beginning of the end of yet another beautiful relationship?