Gordon Ramsay's

After a year in which his global restaurant empire almost went bankrupt, the bad boy of British cuisine is serving cheaper cuts of meat and focusing on the richer rewards of TV stardom. By WILLIAM GREEN Photograph by PHIL RISK

n a gray morning in October, bursts into the kitchen of his south house, pop music blaring from the radio. At the heart of the room stands a 67,000 pound (Sill,000) French cooking range that weighs 2.5 tons and had to be lowered by crane into the 's home. Ramsay, who is 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 meters) tall and weighs 215 pounds (98 kilograms), is wearing jeans, a tight black T-shirt that accentuates his muscles and a Bell & Ross watch—a Swiss brand marketed to soldiers, bomb-disposal experts and other "men facing extreme situations." The 43-year-old Scot pours himself a juice, sits at the Idtchen table and looks back on his own extreme situation: a year in which his global restaurant empire al most went banlmupt.

In the fall of2008, his London-based father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. In late Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd. breached December, Ramsay says, KPMG recom the covenants on a £10.5 million loan mended that the company declare bank and overdraft facility from Royal Bank of ruptcy, fire hundreds of people and close Scotland Group Pic. The bank hired all but its best-performing restaurants. talking with Hutcheson about how to save KPMG to perform an independent re "Everything was on the line," he says. their business. The stress was so intense, view of the firm, 69 percent of which is "December, January, February and March he says, that he'd go for runs in Malibu at owned by Ramsay and 31 percent by his were the most highly pressurized, s—tiest, 4:30 in the morning, wearing a black vest most awful four loaded with 20 kilograms of weights. "I months I've ever just ran and ran and ran," he says. had in business." For Ramsay, bankruptcy was unthink Ramsay was in able even if it made financial sense. Hollywood for "There was no f—ing way that was ever most of the first 12 going to happen," he says. "That was w e e k s o f 2 0 0 9 never even an option." shooting the U.S. Ramsay's fame would have made it the version of Hell's most public of failures. "He's one of the Kitchen, the reality great chefs," says Jean-Luc Naret, Paris- show he fronts for based director of the Michelin Guide se t h e F o x n e t w o r k . ries, which awards the stars that are the After a day of film Oscars of the food world. Restaurant ing, he'd often be Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road on the phone for is London's only dining spot with three hours at night. Michelin stars. In all, Ramsay boasts 12

64 BLOOMBERG MARKETS jANUARY 2010 sxaxuvw ouaBMooia oioz ^uvnNvl

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"He took classic French cook don, as a wife-beating alcoholic and thief, ing and modernized it," Hartnett says. whose favorite punishment was to thrash Friends say Ramsay is hard-wired for the back of his son's legs with a belt. Ram perfection. "If he were in a line of washer say's mother, Helen, raised their four uppers in a prison, he'd want to do it the children, baking bread when she couldn't best and fastest," Llewellyn says. afford to buy it and cooking them dishes Aubergine won two stars in 1997, and such as ham hock soup or sausages and Ramsay decided he deserved more than beans. His father'sview, Ramsay writes, the 25 percent stake its owners had given was that "only poofs cook." him. Ramsay quit, triggering a lawsuit for A knee injury wrecked Ramsay's breach of contract that the parties set dreams of a soccer career. So he stumbled tled out of court. into a hotel management course before Ramsay had just married a school taking a series of junior cooking jobs. teacher, Tana Hutcheson, with whom he now has three daughters and a son be N 1989, HIS fascination with tween the ages of 7 and 11. Tana's father, haute cuisine was awakened at Chris, who owned a printing company, Harvey's, a London restaurant risked £1 million in cash and loan guar run by , the antees to bankroll the Royal Hospital first British chef with three Mi- Road restaurant in 1998. He and Ramsay chelin stars. Ramsay then moved to have been partners ever since, and their London's top French restaurant, Le bond goes beyond business. "He's my Gavroche, as an apprentice chef. Mi son-in-law but, actually, he's my son," chel Roux Jr., now its head chef, says Hutcheson says. Ramsay was arrested in his first week The Royal Hospital Road restaurant, after jumping over a London under with signature dishes like lobster ravioli ground turnstile to avoid the fare. in a lemon grass and chervil sauce, won While Roux says Ramsay was un its third star in 2001. By then, Ramsay ruly, he made up for it in the kitchen. was as famous for his temper as his cook "He was beautiful to watch," Roux ing. A British TV documentary called Boil says. "He's a very naturally gifted ing Point showed him spitting out food chef. He has the taste, the eye of an and firing a waiter for serving the wrong artist, the efficiency, and he's ruth appetizer. Ramsay even ejected restau lessly hardworking." rant reviewer A. A. Gill—along with his Ramsay spent three years in guest, actress Joan Collins—for criticiz France, including a stint with ing him in print. "I've become more ma Robuchon, where he mastered the ture," Ramsay says now. "I wouldn't say essentials of French cuisine. Then, mellow. I still get incredibly frustrated." in 1993, he became head chef at Many employees defend him, saying Aubergine in London. "He was an he's generous and loyal. "He's definitely animal, a monster; he was horrible," says not malicious," says Josh Emett, head , who worked with him chef at Gordon Ramsay at The London in there. Hartnett says Ramsay once threw New York. "He's passionate." oysters at her after she'd opened them Ramsay's breakthrough came in 2001, imperfectly. "He'd always say, 'Why are when private-equity firm Blackstone you diluting my standards?"' Group LP asked him to run the restau Nonetheless, Hartnett has worked rant at Claridge's, one of four landmark with Ramsay for 16 years and is currently hotels it had bought in London. Since head chef at , one of his London the 1850s, Claridge's had been patron restaurants. One ized by famous guests ranging from The combative chef reason she stayed Queen Victoria to Cary Grant. "1 in action on Fox TV's Hell's Kitchen reality quality of thought it would be clever to have a bad show in 2009 his cuisine, which boy there, and Gordon was the baddest," 66 BLOOMBERG MARKETS JANUARY 20)0 geographically diverse, you can't give Epicurean Empire them all proper attention." Gordon Ramsay has expanded his Jay Rayner, restaurant critic for the restaurant business from the Ofocfrer newspaper, says Ramsay's food U.K. to jive continents. is "out-of-date" as he doesn't have time to create new dishes. "It's no longer top- O Michelin rating notch," Rayner says. 1. London While Ramsay bristles at such criti Restaurant Cordon Ramsay at Royal cism, saying consistency is more impor Hospital Road tant to him than being avant-garde, he 000 makes no apology for spending less time Cordon Ramsay atClarldge's O at the stove. "You tell me a chef anywhere Murano O in the world that's prepared to turn down Maze O quarter of a million dollars for an hour's Boxwood Cafe work on TV, and they're the biggest lying Petrus r > 1 ^ . bastard that ever put on a chef's jacket," Savoy Crill 2. Enniskerry, Ireland he says. Cordon Ramsay <1 at Powerscourt 3. Versailles, France Cordon Ramsay taurants in London. Ceriale au Trianon OO then asked him to create res 4. Castel Monastero dell'Ombrone, Italy taurants in Blackstone's Cordon Ramsay overseas hotels, too. Ramsay at Castel Monastero By2006,RAMSAY had nineres 5. Santa Margherlta 7. Boca Raton, Florida S. Cape Town 11. Tokyo opened in New York that year; Prague dIPula, Italy Cielo by Angela Maze Cordon Ramsay and Boca Raton, Florida, in 2007; and Cordon Ramsay Hartnett 10. Dubai at the Conrad O at Forte Village Hollywood and Paris in 2008. He rented B. West Hollywood, by Cerise by Cordon 6. New York California Cordon Ramsay Ramsay the properties from Blackstone and used Gordon Ramsay Cordon Ramsay at 12. Melbourne his nonrestaurant earnings to equip the at The London OO The London O Maze Maze kitchens—a strategy he says made sense Petrus and the Savoy Grill In London and iv.aze In lulelbourne are scheduled to open in 2010. Not sH restaurants are included. because it deployed income that would Source; Gordon Ramsay Holdings have been taxed at 40 percent in the U.K. says John Ceriale, Blackstone's senior in MasterChef, an American version of the Every one of these overseas ventures adviser for the lodging industry. British cookery contest. "He can't walk has lost money. In New York, where he Ramsay's arrival attracted a thousand the streets of New York without people opened two restaurants in Blackstone's calls a day for dining reservations, Ceri shouting and screaming," Darnell says. London NYC hotel, Ramsay says losses ale says, and the restaurant has since "He's like a rock star." reached $4 million a year, with a union made Gordon Ramsay Holdings as much The TV work, along with his interna ized staff costing 80 percent of revenues. as £2 million a year. In 2002, Ceriale also tional restaurant expansion, has trig Hutcheson says he and Ramsay didn't put Ramsay in charge of all food at the gered accusations that Ramsay is spread think locally. For example, they neglected Connaught and installed him at the Sa too thin. Richard Harden, co-founder of to take into account how little alcohol voy Grill, a 120-year-old restaurant in the the guidebook Harden's London Restau New Yorkers would order at lunch. once run by French culinary rants, says he was the city's best chef for Ramsay's foray into Prague failed in early legend Auguste Escoffier. Ayear later, 10 years. "Many of his restaurants have 2009. He also tripped up in France where Ramsay opened two restaurants in the lost their way," Harden says. "If you've he opened at the Trianon Palace Versailles, Blackstone-owned Berkeley hotel. got so many interests that are so on the outskirts of Paris. Hutcheson says In 2004, Ramsay's debuted in the U.K., making him a house hold name. Mike Darnell, Fox's president TVe become more maipre,' Ramsay says. 'I wouldn of alternative entertainment, saw him in a reality series. Hell's Kitchen, and signed him to make U.S. versions of both shows. According to Hutcheson, Ramsay earns about $250,000 per episode. On Nov. 3, Fox announced that Ramsay will also star

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JANUARY 2010 BLOOMBERG MARKETS they lost as much as 200,000euros ($300,000) a month there in 2008, with wages consuming 90 percent of revenues. Ramsay's ambitions in France were fu eled by ego, Ceriale says, as he dreamed of Ramsav's cookbooks winning three stars in the home of haute feature signature cuisine. "I totally agree," Ramsay says. dishes such as lobster ravtoii and tarte tatin. "The French have been brilliant over the last 20 years at coming over to our coun try and tellingus how crap ourfood is." Hutcheson says this emotional ap company would go bankrupt un proach became a liability once the credit less they could renegotiate crisis struck. In late 2008, when RBS t h e i r c o n t r a c t s w i t h B l a c k - wanted to assess whether its loan was at stone. "Shuttering the risk, he says his accounts department restaurants would not couldn't provide the relevant financial have been the best data. The company was also £7.2 million outcome for us or Gor in arrears on U.K. taxes. At the time, don," Ceriale says. "They Ramsay and Hutcheson had 1,250 em needed to restructure the business, ployees, up from 45 in 1998. "The com and we were the key to restructuring it." pany just grew too quickly and no one kept on top of it," Hartnett says. FTER WEEKS OF negotia To avert bankruptcy, Ramsay and tion, Blackstone agreed to Hutcheson poured nearly £9 million of assume ownership of the should generate £7 million to £8 million their personal savings into Gordon Ram restaurants in Hollywood in earnings before interest, say Holdings in 2009,69 percent of it from A and Versailles, paying taxes, depreciation and amortization Ramsay. They worked out an extension of Ramsay a consulting fee to run them. The in the fiscal year ending in August. The tax payments with the British government restaurant in Prague was closed in Febru company is also moving ahead with two and cut the staff at their London head ary. Ramsay would retain ownership of new projects in 2010: Petrus, which had quarters to 58 from 86. the New York restaurants. "Financially, two Michelin stars, will relocate in Hutcheson says he told Ceriale the we weren't going to come out with London's Belgravia neighborhood in much," Hutcheson says. "Butyoujust January, and the Savoy Grill will reopen want to stop these apparently end after a renovation. less losses." Still, Ramsay will focus as much as In Ramsay's remaining restau ever on TV. "I want a life out of my rants, everything now was about kitchen," he says. cost control. The pricier of his In the future, Hutcheson says restau two Manhattan restaurants rants may become even less of a priority stopped serving lunch and opened for Ramsay. "I can run the business in for dinner just five nights a week, en Gordon's name," he says. "TV is his forte. abling Emett to cut his staff from two That's what he likes doing." kitchen brigades to one. Ramsay says his restless ambition In London, Ramsay's bistro stems from his childhood. He sometimes Foxtrot Oscar closed on Mon forces himself to recall those days as a re days and Tuesdays. Stuart Gil minder of how far he wants his life to be lies, his head chef at Boxwood from that misery. "Trust me," he says. Cafe in The Berkeley, has saved "That's enough to keep anyone f—ing £1,500 a month by no longer or moving a thousand miles an hour." B dering flowers, and he now uses William Green is an editor-at-iarge at cheaper cuts of meat, such as Bloomberg News in London. beef shoulder, that he says require [email protected] more skill to prepare. Hutcheson says the worst is To write a letter to the editor, send an e-mail to [email protected] or over and Gordon Ramsay Holdings type MAC . 68 BLOOMBERG MARKETS JANUARY 2010