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Jamie's in the dough as Gordon loses his rich list place
Jonathan Prynn24 Apr 2009
For Gordon Ramsay it was the week that started badly - and just got worse and worse.
On Sunday there will be yet more ignominy when he is knocked off his pedestal as Britain's most successful celebrity chef by his younger upstart rival Jamie Oliver.
The latest Sunday Times Rich List sees the man once dismissed by Ramsay as "the darling of the blue-rinse brigade" ranked at 1,348th place, worth an estimated £40 million, the same as last year.
But London's only three Michelin star restaurateur is out of the top 2,000 altogether after last year being valued at £50 million in 1,446 position.
Commentators said that while Jamie Oliver was having "a good recession" Ramsay, 42, was dangerously exposed to the downturn in the City and the chill winds blowing through the world economy.
The compilers of the Rich List are understood to have slashed their valuation of his stable of nine London and seven overseas restaurants and three gastropubs, which turned over £41.6 million last year, because of fears about debt and profitability.
Richard Harden, co-founder of Hardens Restaurant Guide, said: "What this demonstrates is that there is more money in media. Jamie Oliver is almost a pure media phenomenon, while Gordon Ramsay is at least half a restaurateur and a chef.
"Jamie Oliver was catapulted from nothing because he had a pretty face and really he has not put much of a foot wrong since. Any restaurants he is involved with are incidental really. But if you are like Ramsay, you are much more exposed to the vicissitudes of the downturn."
Ramsay's expulsion from the Rich List crowns a week of hellish publicity for the star of Kitchen Nightmares. It started with the tabloid headline "Ramsay's Coq au Van" revealing that his food served at his London gastropubs is mass produced at a site in Clapham and delivered by white van. Another story told of how he fell foul of health inspectors over hygiene standards at Claridge's.
In perhaps the worst setback, Ramsay's eponymous flagship in Chelsea was ejected from the list of the world's top 100 restaurants having been in 13th place the year before. Even more galling, his protégé and former friend Marcus Wareing made his first appearance on the list at 52nd place.
Meanwhile the 34-year-old former Naked Chef has been revelling in his latest incarnation as cook of choice for the world's leading heads of states.
He was chosen to prepare the Downing Street banquet for the G20 leaders earlier this month and his business empire now extends to restaurant chains, TV shows broadcast in 106 countries, wildly successful books, cookery schools and a new monthly magazine called Jamie.
A spokeswoman for Ramsay said he was "totally relaxed and unconcerned about such unscientific league tables and is perfectly happy that his businesses in all areas are doing very well and that his customers love his restaurants."
Reader views (2)
41 million quid turnover for re-heats.....?
- Mark, St Albans, 24/04/2009 13:04
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Perhaps one less foul-mouthed, arrogant chef on telly now?
- K, london, 24/04/2009 11:03
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