Gordon Ramsay: hospitality roles have been ‘underpaid for a long time’

Gordon Ramsay has said hospitality roles have been underpaid for some time, and his group has got “smarter” about managing costs.

 

The chef has just launched two restaurants, a bar and a cookery school in a major development at 22 Bishopsgate, the tallest building in the City of London.

 

He told the Evening Standard the project faced “tough running costs”, given rising wage and National Insurance Contributions, but admitted some increases had been a long time coming.

 

“It’s an industry that’s been underpaid for a long time,” he told the paper. “Chefs, sommeliers, maître d’s, mixologists … they’re like athletes, they want it, they’re in demand. You need to understand their worth.”

 

When asked whether this would mean price rises for customers, Ramsay said his restaurant group was shifting its operations: “We’re diminishing the front of house in fast-casual and going to online ordering because the generation now don’t want to talk and order.”

 

The 22 Bishopsgate project is the subject of an upcoming Netflix documentary series that will follow Ramsay in the run-up to the opening.

 

The site launched this month with a cookery school, an Asian-inspired Lucky Cat restaurant, a Lucky Cat Bar and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High, a 12-seat chef’s table that pays tribute to the original Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, which has held three Michelin stars for 23 years.

 

The final stages of the project, the Lucky Cat Terrace and an outpost of the chef’s casual Bread Street Kitchen restaurant, will open later this year.

 

The chef said almost 500 cat figurines were stolen from Lucky Cat in its first week.

 

Ramsay told the Evening Standard he spent over £20m on the project. “Every single heavyweight in the restaurant scene was desperate for it,” he added.

 

The chef has also secured a 15-year lease on the former Le Gavroche site in Mayfair and is backing Matt Abé, who spent five years as chef-patron of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, to open a restaurant on the site.

 

“Matt is absolutely ready to make his mark with his own restaurant,” Ramsay told the Evening Standard. “To secure Brook Street for him is pretty special, and he’s under no illusion that opening up on the site of Le Gavroche, those are big shoes to fill, let me tell you.”

 

Ramsay’s UK and US business recently merged into one company headquartered in London after securing fresh investment from private equity firm Lion Capital.

 

The chef’s UK restaurant arm includes over 30 sites, ranging from casual dining chains to Michelin-starred restaurants.