Great interview with El Gordo in today's Observer Food Monthly in which Gordon and interviewer Simon Garfield go over a number of knotty issues that have beset Ramsay over the last year or so. Reassuringly, the chef is characteristically blunt on all counts.
On losing money with his Paris restaurant: "The reason I lost €1.3m in Paris is because the French have become fucking lazy. They want to work 32 hours a week and they call themselves uniquely talented chefs. We do that work in two days over here."
On the spat with Marcus Wareing: "I actually feel sorry for Marcus – he's dreamt this big explosion up. But I've got nothing to say – I wish him all the best."
On how the critics may view Petrus which opens at the end of this month: "It's very hard when you eat out every day for a living, and a new restaurant comes along and you haven't got that same vigour that you had 10 years ago. I'm not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now. They could pan it, but we'd have to serve some really shitty food."
But it's not all doom and gloom - Ramsay also reveals yet another sign that while the rest of us may be counting the pennies still, some people in London still have plenty to spend on a good night out. Apparently a group of diners racked up a £25,000 bill at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Hospital Road: "They were celebrating something, we didn't ask, but when someone's spending that amount on wine we don't charge for the food. Just out of respect really."
For the full Gordon Ramsay interview, click here.
