Ramsay row sparks kitchen nightmare

Gordon Ramsay. Photo / Supplied

Together they turned Gordon Ramsay into a global brand synonymous with the highest cuisine and expletive-strewn kitchens but the fiery 12-year relationship between the chef and the father-in-law who masterminded his business empire has gone off the boil.

The Glasgow-born restaurateur and broadcaster announced yesterday he has parted company with Chris Hutcheson, the father of his wife, Tana, and the man who as chief executive of Ramsay's restaurant group helped to steer the multi-millionaire chef through several financial and personal crises.

Tana Ramsay, 37, who two years ago swatted aside claims her husband had pursued a seven-year affair with Sarah Symonds, was said to be "distraught" at the split between Ramsay and her father, who has stepped down from his position as head of Gordon Ramsay Holdings.

A source close to Ramsay says the split followed a row. It comes after a bumpy 18 months during which part of the chef's restaurant chain came close to falling into administration.

Hutcheson, 62, and his son-in-law each had to pump £5 million ($10.5 million) into Gordon Ramsay Holdings International, after it lost more than £8 million in 2008 by rapidly expanding just as the global economy crashed.

After selling restaurants in the US and France, the subsidiary was later folded into Ramsay's main company while the chef continued to make about £7 million a year from his television contracts in Britain and America.

The chef's very own kitchen nightmare continued last year with the revelation that four of his London restaurants were selling pre-prepared and frozen meals.

His company said the food was still being freshly prepared in a central London kitchen before being distributed to the restaurants.

The loss of his father-in-law will be a blow to Ramsay, who once described the decision of his wife's father to oversee his financial affairs as his first "real break".

- INDEPENDENT