But survey sparks row with Ramsay over “inevitably negative spin”

Harden’s London Restaurants 2009 has again ranked La Trompette amongst the best gastronomic experiences in town placing it fifth after Gordon Ramsay SW3, Chez Bruce Petrus and Le Gavroche.

La Trompette is owned by Nigel Platts-Martin and Bruce Poole, the partnership behind Chez Bruce in Wandsworth and The Glasshouse in Kew received a Michelin star earlier this year.

Other local mentions included River Café amongst the most overpriced with Gordon Ramsay featuring prominently amongst best, the worst and the most overpriced.

A spokesperson for Hardens said, “It is the disappointing standards at Ramsay’s three most recent ‘mass-market’ openings which are most immediately concerning. Each of them – The Warrington, Devonshire House, and Foxtrot Oscar – is nominated in roughly one in every three of the survey reports they attract in the ‘most disappointing meal of the year’ category. These newcomers are so uninspired in concept and so erratic in performance that – if they were opened by independent operators – they would likely be closed within a year.”

He continued “It is not yet too late for Gordon Ramsay to act to preserve his reputation as a serious restaurateur. What he urgently needs to do, however, is to stop chasing media attention across the globe, and to start putting some real effort into improving standards at the restaurants in his London heartland.”

The comments sparked a row between Hardens and Gordon Ramsay Holdings who have been widely quoted criticising Harden’s for “inevitably negative spin” in the launch of Harden’s London Restaurants 2009.

A spokesperson for Hardens said “We’d like to place on the record that there was and is nothing “inevitably negative” about Harden’s coverage of Gordon Ramsay. In fact, as detailed below, most Harden’s ‘launch’ coverage of Gordon Ramsay in recent years has been positive or very positive.

“In the old days, we used to get an annual call from Gordon thanking us for our support. We always told him not to thank us, but to thank the hundreds of reporters who rated his restaurant so highly. Why his representatives now think it’s time to ‘shoot the messenger’ is not entirely clear.”

August 29, 2008