'Coq au Van' on the menu at celebrity chef's gastro-pub

Diners in Gordon Ramsay's Chiswick gastro-pub, The Devonshire, might now be questioning the prices they were asked to pay after it was revealed that it sources its meals from a central kitchen.

The Sun newspaper, which uncovered the arrangement, led with the story under the headline 'Ramsay Serves Up Coq au Van.'

Undercover reporters had discovered that food for the Devonshire and three of Ramsay's other restaurants in London was actually prepared at a production site in Clapham. A fish-cake portion costing the restaurant £1.92 was sold at restaurants at a price of £11.25.

Gordon Ramsay was quoted only this week in the Times as saying, "My food hell is any ready meal. It’s so easy to prepare a quick meal using fresh produce, such as a simple stir-fry, but people still resort to ready meals that all taste exactly the same."

The production site is run by a Ramsay owned company called GR Logistics. The head chef of the depot told a sun reporter that all the kitchen's at the restaurant site had to do was put the food in a pan of boiling water.

A GRH spokeswoman responded by saying, “The central kitchen is a state-of the-art-facility. It is a Gordon Ramsay kitchen run by Gordon Ramsay chefs cooking Gordon Ramsay food - it just happens to be off site.”

April 17, 2009