http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,25354152-5013560,00.html



    * Pub meals pre-prepared in "food factory"
    * Transported to establishments by van
    * My food hell is any ready meal, chef said
    * Pictures: Ramsay serves it up

GORDON Ramsay is serving his pub customers ready-meals prepared in a London "food factory" - and sold with a mark-up of 586 per cent.

Dishes such as pork belly, coq au vin, braised pig cheeks and orange and bitter chocolate tart are prepared in bulk and then transported in plastic bags by unmarked vans to several of his London restaurants.

The celebrity chef - who runs a number of three Michelin-starred restaurants - uses the central kitchen, near railway arches and a council estate in Clapham, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

It provides food for his three gastropubs and Foxtrot Oscar, his bistro in Chelsea.

The Narrow in Limehouse, the Warrington in Maida Vale and the Devonshire in Chiswick are also supplied by the food factory.

Ramsay's team admitted that 50 per cent of the menu at the gastropubs and Foxtrot Oscar was prepared off-site, but said no fresh produce - such as cuts of meat - are prepared at the Clapham facility.

Fishcakes sold by the central supplier for £1.92 ($3.94) are then priced at as much as £11.25 ($23) the gastropubs - a mark-up of 586 per cent.

Diners pay £3.50 ($7.18) for sausage rolls that cost 75p ($1.50).

Ramsay has said in the past: "My food hell is any ready meal. It's so easy to prepare a quick meal using fresh produce ... but people still resort to ready meals that all taste exactly the same.''

The food factory is owned and operated by GR Logistics, the catering production arm of Ramsay's umbrella business, GR Holdings.

The facility's head chef, Darran Ridley, is quoted telling an undercover reporter about the meals.

"We provide the majority of the food for Foxtrot Oscar - everything from coq au vin, starters, terrines, snacks, salmon rillettes, various desserts, braised beef in red wine.''

Richard Harden, who runs Harden's restaurant guides, said it explained why the standard was down at the eateries in question.

"This does explain what we have always said - that the gastropubs and Foxtrot Oscar are mediocre to poor,'' he said.

"There is normally nothing wrong with prep kitchens. Except I am not sure there has ever been a prep kitchen that (will get) top-class standards.''

A spokesman for Ramsay said the gastropubs and Foxtrot Oscar were too small and reheating the food, by a method known as "sous vide'', was tried and tested by the world's best chefs.

He said: "The central kitchen is a state-of the-art-facility run by Gordon Ramsay chefs. It is a Gordon Ramsay kitchen run by Gordon Ramsay chefs cooking Gordon Ramsay food.''

The food is supplied to "to those kitchens with limited cooking space'', including Foxtrot Oscar and The Narrow, the spokesman added.

"These are sealed and transported daily in refrigerated vans and all menu dishes are then cooked in the individual kitchens.

"This is only for the supply of Foxtrot Oscar and the three pubs and allows each establishment to control the consistency and the quality of the food served.''