New restaurant sabotaged: Ramsay

LONDON - The food business is highly competitive and no one knows that fact better than Gordon Ramsay.

But the celebrity chef, who is known worldwide from the television series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, said that a rival went too far by "sabotaging" his new restaurant.

The Briton, whose restaurants have been awarded a total of 15 Michelin stars, claimed that a rival made 100 fake online bookings on the opening night of his new establishment, Heddon Street Kitchen, reported British newspaper The Independent.

Speaking on ITV's The Jonathan Ross Show, Ramsay was asked by the presenter: "Is there a rivalry within the industry you suspect that people want to undermine you?"

The chef replied: "I think there's all that level of envy. Saturday was our first big day opening (of Heddon Street Kitchen). We had 140 on the books and we had 100 no show. So someone's literally online..."

Ross asked whether it was deliberate and Ramsay replied: "Yep, sabotage. It's bad spirit and you see the staff and they are down and frustrated. I was there to pick them up and make sure we stay focused. Now we're going to reconfirm every table."

The chef, who is set to open a restaurant in Singapore called Bread Street Kitchen at Marina Bay Sands next year, did not say which restaurant rival he thought was to blame.

His new London restaurant is based in Regent Street's Food Quarter and the Gordon Ramsay Group now has 12 restaurants in the British capital. The group has 24 restaurants worldwide.

Earlier this year, Ramsay had revealed that his reality show Kitchen Nightmares was set to come to an end after the latest series.

The show first aired in 2004 and in a statement in June, he wrote: "I've had a phenomenal 10 years making 123 episodes, 12 seasons, shot across two continents, watched by tens of millions of people and sold to over 150 countries. It's been a blast but it's time to call it a day."

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