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Gordon Ramsay Loses Michelin Star
The 2010 Michelin Guide is released early….
Gordon Ramsay at Claridges has lost its only michelin star following the departure of his long term star pupil, Mark Sargeant. I thought at the time that Sargeant’s leaving was a telling sign of the bad year Gordon ramsay Holdings had suffered and this has delivered quite some blow to the side of a less than buoyant ship.
The Michelin guide has seen its results announced earlier than expected following Amazon.co.uk sending an early copy to a Scottish chef, himself the new recipient of a star. Thankfully for Ramsay he has held onto his three stars at his main restaurant in Chelsea but rather significantly London has seen a new three star restaurant with Alain Duccasse at The Dorchester. Duccasse is the man to beat in terms of michelin star collections. He has more than anyone and Ramsay with his many overseas openings seemed to be chasing his tail. Now that many of his overseas operations have fared less well it looks as though Duccasse can rest easy for the forseeable future.
So waht now for Ramsay at Claridge’s? This is an expensive restaurant to dine in and only michelin stars can justify meals in excess of £75 per head without drinks. So what does Ramsay do now? Claridge’s hotel guests now have an in house restaurant which, on paper is much the same as any other London five star hotel so how many will choose to eat there or venture out into the capital to any number of excellent restaurants?
I don’t like to see any chef lose an award, it isn’t nice and for many it is truly devestating, enough for Bernard Loiseau to take his own life in fact. The abscence of the incumbent head chef means that restaurants come under greater scrutiny from the inspectors and this is the chance you take in Ramsay’s position. What would be nice would be for ramsay to show some humility and stop these ridiculous UK/US kitchen nightmare programmes where he is the great saviour of a failing restaurant and inflates his ego at the expense of some poorly trained chef on minimum wage.
Perhaps Channel 4 will commission a programme for Alain Duccasse to visit Ramsay’s restaurant’s and show him how to run a successful global business. Now that would be a TV chef programme I would watch.
Miles,
I wonder if this will now start something of a slide, now they’ve broken the ice with him.
I wonder whether he’s been treated slightly ‘easier’ than others in the past with inspectors knowing what a big deal would be made of any downgrading.
Interesting you mention the price of a meal there, I believe the man himself blames it all on the fact they’ve used cheaper ingredients in order to give better value to people suffering in the credit crunch ! ! !
I wonder whether the menu prices are down on say last year !
Best
Rod
January 17, 2010 @ 10:10 am
Rod,
He keeps bouncing back despite it all. I do hope 2010 is a year for change in the celebrity chef culture and a return to fewer, better quality programmes. It’s long overdue.
Miles
January 17, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
Miles,
Must be difficult to make new tv shows that appeal to everyone since the public is easily bored and we’ve seen so much already. Some are still struggling with the concept of frying an egg, others are way ahead and creating multi course dinner parties. Expect to see some ‘old’ recycled chefs like Delia, the rest might have to consider skating or heaven forbid, being incarcerated in a tv set house or eating grubs in the jungle. Could you spend a couple of months under the same roof as Gordon for instance?
Cid
p.s. before tackling the pickled pears I made a batch of general purpose detergent from soap nuts…. the two liquors looked strikingly similar
January 17, 2010 @ 10:29 pm
As usual, the I Ching says it all . . .
“Arrogant dragon will have cause to repent.” (1st Hexagram, top line)
I have no tears for Gordon Ramsay. He’s a git who has gotten rich by treating people like dirt.
Like your idea for a Duccasse show, Miles. . .
Laura
January 18, 2010 @ 3:52 am
Laura,
Nicely put! Do you know anyone on the American tv networks? We could be rich
Miles
January 18, 2010 @ 8:22 am
Cid,
If they can’t think of anything original then they should leave it alone. 98% is just rubbish.
Can’t say that I miss Delia though
Miles
January 18, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
I can’t believe all the hate mongers on this site. Every business in the indusrty is hurting at this time when unemployment and the recesseson is happening. Gordon is a passionett carring person when it comes to helping restaurants come back from the grave. It seems he has to almost every time bust the owners or the chefs pride that is causing the business to fail. He has saved many businnesses and has been very successful in owning 28 on restaurants of his own most which have many awards. The only negative thing I can say about the man is that he curses to much. He treats his employess with the utmost respect that is why so many great chefs work for him.
May 20, 2010 @ 2:36 am
Steve,
Welcome to the site and thanks for taking the time to comment. I don’t wish Gordon any ill at all, he has achieved a great deal in his career and deserves the merit. When he first started cooking at Aubergine I was a great admirer of his work, I still am but he has been guilty of hypocrisy on a number of occassions and that is the only thing I don’t like.
I would however urge a sense of optimism about what you perceive to be his ability to save restaurants from going under…
He is paid an awful lot of money by the American networks for what are, ultimately television shows with lots of careful research and editing. The question I would ask is how many have remained open since the programme aired?
Yes he has opened (and closed) many restaurants and I admire him for that. But, by his own admission he made basic errors of judgement in his perception of the American and French public which had more to do with the closures than the recession.
I have read that he is trying to curse less often on television which is a good thing and no doubt a relief to some of the chefs who work for him and I have known on a personal basis.
I hope he does bounce back and that the staff who have lost their jobs and the suppliers who have lost their business as a result of his business failing find luck in the very near future.
Thanks again, Steve
Kind regards
Miles
May 20, 2010 @ 9:50 pm