HE’S a rat, evolving in a festering pot of manure. I jump on his head and kill
him.” There were minutes to go before the toughest move in his career and
Gordon Ramsay was losing his temper as only he can. Dressed in
whites, he leapt up and stamped his feet repeatedly, as if killing vermin.
The glasses, the windows - the waiters – shook.
It was Thursday night in the belle epoque-style dining room of Le Trianon,
Ramsay’s first French fine-dining restaurant, in Versailles. British and
French diners were sipping champagne and joking before sitting down to their
first meal. Behind the scenes, however, the entente was anything but
cordiale.
The subject of the fiery chef’s rage? Not a hapless Parisian sous-chef who had
overcooked the carré d’agneau but France’s vinegary restaurant critic, Le
Figaro’s François Simon. “I’ve been caned and I haven’t even opened yet. You
can kick me in the nuts when I’m open – but before? How is that possible?”
Last week Simon gave the new restaurant nul points before the first
appetiser had been served. After touring Ramsay’s London establishments, he
damned his cuisine with faint praise, describing it as “agréable”.
For Gallic good measure, he went on to accuse Ramsay of spreading himself
too thinly across his burgeoning gastronomic empire, leaving the head chefs
to do the cooking. Going to a Ramsay restaurant was “like going to the
dentist and finding that the dentist’s secretary is pulling out your teeth”,
he sniffed.
Such a frosty reception is probably no worse than he could have expected. No
Frenchman, especially a food critic, likes taking cooking lessons from a rosbif
– especially one who has declared he has had “a bellyful of the French
coming over here and telling us how crap our food is”.
“We have cheese on toast, they have croque-monsieur. They just have posher
names. I think we should have a British stake in Paris.” Well, now he has.
Sitting on an oversized white leather banquette, like Poseidon on his
oyster-shell throne, it’s clear that the 41-year-old Scot wants Le Trianon,
in the Palace of Versailles grounds, to be the brightest Michelin star in
his business galaxy. “Ask any chef and this is where they really want to
succeed,” he said. “This is the one I’ll be judged on. This is the cradle of
haute cuisine. I want three Michelin stars here.”
But the early signs are he has his work cut out. After Thursday’s opening a
number of Paris critics had little praise for the chef. “There are so many
good chefs here, we don’t give a damn about Gordon Ramsay”, said Gilles
Pudlowski, who writes the annual Pudlo guide.
No British fine dining chef has “made it” in France, but Ramsay, who spent two
years learning to cook in the French capital in his twenties, thinks a
combination of his adventurous posh nosh, fine British produce and
aggressive pricing will make him the first.
He pointed to the menu. “We’re serving carpaccio of octopus with some fish
dishes. The French are so arrogant, they’re not interested in that kind of
Japanese accenting. They say: ‘F*** off! We don’t want anything raw.’ Just
wait till they try it. It’s the same with golden caviar from the albino
sturgeon. They all cringe about it, but you’ll see.”
He is importing Scottish lobster and langoustines, Aberdeen Angus beef, and
hand-dived scallops. “When I learnt to cook in France, chefs used to buy
British produce and take the labels off. Well, we’re going to stand British
and proud. When they ask me why I’m not using the scallops from Brittany I
will say because I know I can get better.”
Because Ramsay’s giant kitchen at Le Trianon is providing all the catering at
the 200-room Trianon hotel – including a second restaurant, the 75-seat
Veranda brasserie, room service and banqueting – it will be profitable
enough to enable him to undercut his local rivals. Main courses at Le
Trianon will, he says, be half the price of most of the top French
restaurants.
As the first lobster cooked in lemongrass bisque was served on Thursday, he
flitted from the kitchen to the tables, to his mobile phone, talking fast in
English and French and anxiously shifting from foot to foot. “He’s on the
phone so much, he’s like a woman,” joked his head chef, Simone Zanoni. The
truth is, Ramsay is more nervous than ever – and not just because of
the bad crits.
His £100m, 10-Michelin star empire, which now comprises 20 fine-dining and
mid-market restaurants and pubs in Britain and Ireland, on the Continent, in
the US, Dubai and Japan, is suffering serious growing pains. In the past
year he has been forced to sack his chef in New York after withering
reviews. Two of his London restaurants, the Connaught and La Noisette, have
closed outright and a third is shut for refurbishment.
New ventures, notably Foxtrot Oscar, his first bistro in London, have been
panned. He has lost a coveted Michelin star or two and has been criticised
by influential guides, notably Harden’s, which said he had “run out of
steam”. He was even caught up in the outcry over TV fakery when he was
forced to admit that he had not, as his show, The F Word, suggested, caught
sea bass off the Devon coast.
He conceded that 2007 was his annus horribilis and admitted he hired “the
wrong guy – a cook, not a chef” in his eponymous restaurant in The
London (NYC) hotel in New York and did not spend enough time preparing for
its launch. The criticism was upsetting and taught him a lesson, he said. He
also conceded there were “inconsistencies” at Petrus in London and agreed
with critics who said Foxtrot Oscar was “cold”. Of his TV nightmare, he said
he “apologises to the sea bass of Britain”.
But he insists 2008 will be different. “It’s got off to a cracking start in
France and I’m crossing everything for good luck. I’ve even tied a knot in
my dick.” He insists that in Paris he will not repeat the mistakes of New
York. “I’m going to eat, breathe and sleep Le Trianon. I can be here in an
hour in a helicopter from London if I have to.” He will “rectify” Petrus.
Foxtrot Oscar will be closed and remodelled.
Then he is going to get on with doing what he insists he does best: expanding.
This week his first airport restaurant, Plane Food, opens in Heathrow’s
Terminal 5. This summer Angela Hartnett, formerly his chef at The Connaught,
will open an Italian restaurant, Murano, followed by his first hotel, the
10-bedroom York & Albany, both in London. They will be followed by
Gordon Ramsay at The London hotel in Los Angeles, a branch of his Euro-Asian
tapas-style Maze in Amsterdam and two Maze spin-offs in London. Berlin and
Geneva are also on the menu.
The large hotel deals will, like the Trianon, be joint ventures with
Blackstone, the leading US private-equity firm. Ramsay pays Blackstone rent
but keeps all profits from running the restaurants, room service and
banqueting.
There will be more pubs to add to the Warrington and the Narrow in London and,
once it is fixed, Foxtrot Oscar will become his first £30ahead mid-market
chain restaurant rolled out across Britain and America. He insists that
Gordon Ramsay Holdings, which he runs with his father-in-law, Christopher
Hutcheson, can finance the roll-outs itself. Turnover last year was £48m and
is forecast to reach £74m this year.
The mid-price restaurants and pubs will, he believes, cushion him from the
economic down-turn. “Fine dining is still strong. We’re getting 600 calls a
day at Claridge’s. But you have to move with the times or the times move
you.” With revenue from his television shows in Britain and America growing
fast – “I was offered a show at $300,000 an hour the other day” –
he predicts that the group will double in size in three years.
The expansion will prompt further jibes from critics like Simon. The mention
of the critic’s name prompts another explosion of rage. “He’s a f***wit. I
mean, the last time you went to Nobu, did you ask whether Nobu himself was
slicing the sashimi? No, you didn’t.”
So is Ramsay facing a coronation at Versailles or a beheading? At Thursday’s
dinner, Guy Savoy, one of France’s greatest three-Michelin-star chefs,
nibbled his Granny Smith parfait with bitter chocolate and champagne foam.
“The service is a bit awkward because the chairs are too big,” he said. “But
the food is magnifique. Monsieur Simon is rude about everyone and
he’s wrong about Monsieur Ramsay.”
STAR CHEF’S EMPIRE
RAMSAY has nine outlets open in London. Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road
has three Michelin stars, Petrus in Mayfair two, and Maze and Gordon Ramsay
at Claridge’s one star each. His newest venue is The Warrington pub in Maida
Vale. An outlet at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is opening imminently. In the
London Hotel in New York he has a signature restaurant, which holds two
Michelin stars, a branch of Maze and a wine bar. In addition he has a site
in Ireland, Tokyo, Prague, Dubai, Florida and now Versailles. Venues in
Amsterdam and Los Angeles are on the way.
