http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/01/25/crisis-for-gordon-ramsay-s-restaurant-empire-as-credit-crunch-bites-115875-21070078/

Bookings hit, 'nightmare in kitchen'.. amid fears he's gone too far, too fast

Gordon Ramsay is facing his very own kitchen nightmare as the credit crunch takes its toll on his global empire.

Bookings at his restaurants have slumped... sparking fears his business is in the soup.

Last night one of Ramsay's former managers put the knife in, saying the celebrity chef is more interested in being on TV than cooking at his restaurants.

David Ratcliffe says morale among 42-year-old Ramsay's army of chefs and waiters has plummeted amid fears that the world's highest-paid chef has overstretched himself just at the wrong time.

Ratcliffe, who used to run Ramsay's Banquette at the Savoy in London, said: "Gordon wants to take over the world with his restaurants and it has become an obsession to open more and more. The brand has become devalued because he has expanded too fast.

"There are only so many Gordon Ramsay restaurants you can open before it becomes boring for customers, rather than special.

"The warning signs were there last year that the economy was heading for problems and that people would have less cash to spend in top restaurants.

"But Gordon was determined to plough on with his expansion and maybe now he is feeling the effects of that." Ratcliffe added: "With more and more restaurants, the only time we were guaranteed to see him was the Christmas party."

The boss's absence often led to scenes that wouldn't have looked out of place on his hit show Kitchen Nightmares, said David, 32, from Clapham, South London.

"There was a sense of a loss of control. We had to put a padlock on the cellar because thousands of pounds' worth of wine was going missing. And we had to call in the police because food and kitchen equipment had been nicked."

A Sunday Mirror investigation this week reveals you can book a same-day table in any of Ramsay's 25 restaurants around the world. In the past, only a celebrity pulling strings would be able to get a place so quickly.

On Thursday afternoon we rang all Ramsay's restaurants - which charge up to £88 for a three-course meal from the main "a la carte" menu - and were able to get a table for two that evening.

The manager of Ramsay's Foxtrot Oscar in Chelsea said: "I have space at six, six-thirty, seven, seven-thirty, eight, nine. You can come any time, really." At the Boxwood Cafe in Knightsbridge, a worker taking bookings said: "It is short notice but I do have tables left for 8.30pm or 9pm."

And it was no problem booking a table at Ramsay's new pub The Devonshire, in Chiswick, West London. The pub's boss admitted: "We have plenty of room - the credit crunch has hurt us like everyone." The pub has just started closing on Mondays and Tuesdays sparking rumours that Ramsay wants to to sell. In The London in Los Angeles, where David and Victoria Beckham regularly dine, half of the restaurant is shut off behind a temporary wall. A waiter said: "Nobody likes to walk into a half-empty restaurant. The wall is there so you can't see the empty tables."

Father-of-four Ramsay, who had to fend off allegations that he cheated on wife Tana with blonde Sarah Symonds, has also failed to submit accounts on time for the second year running.

His most recent records, filed in 2007 for trade up to August 2006, give a clear hint his company would struggle in a long credit crunch.

The directors say: "The health of the UK economy and its influence on consumer spending is important to the company's success. A prolonged downturn in consumer spending would be a risk."

His firm's loan facilities were extended to £10.5million by Royal Bank of Scotland. Ramsay faces having to repay £1.6million if his firm goes bust. Its credit rating is nil, making it hard to borrow. These worrying prospects are a far cry from 1998 when he launched Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London with help from his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, who now runs his empire.

The following year he opened his second restaurant, Petrus, where bankers spent £44,000 on wine in one sitting. The Scots ex-footballer won his third Michelin star in 2001 at Royal hospital Road.

But he became a true household name in 2004 with his hit TV show Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

That led to multi-million-pound deals for Hell's Kitchen and the F-Word, and he opened more restaurants. He now earns around £15million a year.

A spokesman for Gordon Ramsay Holdings said they will be filing their 2007 accounts at the end of this month at the latest - and that Companies House are not intending to prosecute for the late filing.

She added: "All restaurants are feeling the strain in the current economic climate. But all of Gordon's restaurants are performing well. Customers can often get a table if they phone on the day because there will sometimes be cancellations."