Michelin's verdict in on Gordon Ramsay's nightmare kitchen
The quality of the food was erratic, the service was inconsistent and it was hard to know what was going on in the kitchen: it sounded like one of the verdicts Gordon Ramsay delivers, with curses, to the proprietors of diners and bistros in far-flung parts of America on his television show Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.
Yet this was the director of the Michelin Guides doing the criticising, and the restaurant that was the subject of his disdain was Gordon Ramsay at The London, the establishment in Manhattan that the chef opened in 2006 as he sought to make his mark on the American restaurant scene.
In the latest edition of the prestigious book, published today, The London has been stripped of its two Michelin stars and relegated from the top division of New York City restaurants. "There's been quite a bit of instability at the restaurant, quite frankly," said Michael Ellis. "We've had issues with consistency."
Ramsay sold the restaurant in 2009, following financial difficulties and some rather damaging statements from its assistant manager, who spoke of a fruit fly infestation, a dead mouse in the air conditioning unit and cost cutting that caused bar staff to mix together and serve to diners the remnants of different bottles of wine.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has made a TV career telling other chefs how to run their kitchens. Now a restaurant bearing his name has been stripped of its Michelin stars.
In response to more recent scandals, a spokeswoman for Ramsay's holding company has said that he no longer bears "any responsibility for the operation of the restaurant" - yet the establishment still carries his name, and boasts of "innovative cuisine from the culinary team of Gordon Ramsay". That culinary team may be hearing from the chef shortly, once he has digested Michelin's verdict.
"We don't really know what's going on in the kitchen," Mr Ellis told Bloomberg News. "It was a difficult decision. I personally went there; we've had some very erratic meals. We thought it was the right thing to do."
Management at the restaurant did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
Some have regarded the travails of The London as symptoms of Ramsay's transformation from chef to multimillionaire television personality and business mogul. His one-time mentor, Marco Pierre White, once lamented that Ramsay's thumbprint could no longer be found on the plates of his restaurants, nor did his sweat garnish the soup.
More recently, a commentator on the online publication Slate declared that "his name is no longer synonymous with sublime cuisine, but with throat-shredding tantrums bouncing off the walls of a disgusting pantry full of moldering food in the bowels of an exurban strip mall's second-most-popular family restaurant".
The Ramsay name is now spread more thinly than prosciutto across at least 27 restaurants and a clutch of time consuming television shows.
In the most recent episodes of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, the chef who once pursued three Michelin stars with all-consuming passion could be seen advising a middle-aged belly dancer in Washington state who believed that "fresh means it's not frozen".
Then he was on Junior Masterchef, telling an aspiring cook that he was "not here to wipe your bottom".
His path from respected chef to villain of his own television shows has proved vastly profitable, however. Forbes estimated that he earned at least $US38 million in 2012.
Source: The Australian, 3 October 2013
