Alas, there's been more bad news for Gordon Ramsay over the past week. First off there was the announcement regarding the latest chef to leave his empire. James Durrant, the Executive Chef of Maze has left to "take some time out" according to Caterer Search. A replacement for Durrant is yet to be announced, and the restaurant is still recovering from losing Jason Atherton a few months back.
Next there was the news from Bloomberg that Ramsay is closing the central kitchen that supplies his pubs, GR Logistics. This follows the recent announcement that Ramsay was selling off The Devonshire and certainly puts into doubt the future of his remaining pubs. GR Logistics came in for a scathing attack from the Sun last year.
However, Ramsay can console himself with the upcoming launch of Masterchef in the US later this month. He'll be taking charge of the US show, which starts on July 27th. The recent promos make it a little hard to see if he's his usual sweary self or whether he's toned it down. It's certainly a bit more bombastic than Torrode and Wallace, that's for sure...
One chef who's certainly been having a better year than Gordon is Heston Blumenthal, who's just launched a new range of food with Waitrose, called "Heston from Waitrose" (another straightforward title alongside the upcoming restaurant "Dinner with Heston Blumenthal"). We can expect vanilla mayonnaise, Japanese Ponzu dressing and Salmon smoked with Lapsong Souchong tea. Oddly he's also offering beef and ale pie and other more standard offerings. Given that it's promised to be Waitrose's most expensive range (no small feat, let's face it), one can hope that there's some damned good beef in pie that when it appears in October.
Elsewhere, something that's been getting a fair smattering of attention from the press is the new "trend" of more restaurants allowing BYO - specifically the BYO Wine Club launched last week. The Telegraph seemed to like the idea, but thought it unlikely that you'll end up saving much money at the end. However, David Mitchell in the Guardian was considerably less impressed and bizarrely uses the opportunity to declare that the UK's taste in food hasn't improved at all - only our ability to spend more on it.
And finally, Lee Ryan, ex Blue singer, wants to open a restaurant - ‘Not to cook, but to be front-of-house, wining and dining celebrities. That’s the dream.’ Maybe not for the rest of us, Lee...
