As Tatler pans his restaurants and Time Out passes on his pubs

It would seem that Gordon Ramsay has fallen further from A-list grace after society magazine Tatler panned his flagship restaurant in their 2008 guide for having “duff service”.

These contemptuous comments come soon after Time Out passing over his new trio of gastro-pubs, including Chiswick’s The Devonshire, in their 2008 awards, but will the kitchen ogre ever admit he’s bitten off more than he can chew?

The charge that Gordon Ramsay Holdings is too ambitious and is growing too fast is regularly levied by those who believe the group to be ‘untenable’.

Over-expansion has been mentioned in many of the negative ratings Ramsay has received from critics in recent months, including Zagat and Harden's guides, which are among the most respected in the industry.

Harden’s Guide co-editor Richard Harden commented, “With Gordon spending so much time on television, both in the UK and the US, various aspects of his empire are beginning to show signs of stress.

"It is not only at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay that standards have declined, but also at his other ‘name’ restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, where the survey [Harden’s Guide 2008] now finds the cooking to be mediocre.”

When asked by a journalist if he thought people expected him to be in the kitchen cooking when they visited his restaurants, Ramsay responded, “When you bought that Armani suit, did you ask if Giorgio stitched it?”

Ramsay’s third gastro-pub The Devonshire opened at the end of 2007 with little hype from the far-from-publicity-shy chef and no fanfare and has received a number of less than favourable reviews. However, the kitchen is under the capable direction of Chiswick resident Mark Sargeant, one of Ramsay’s top chefs, not the man himself.

Gordon Ramsay is currently appearing alongside Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall in C4’s The Big Food Fight.

January 14, 2008