http://www.hardens.com/restaurant-news/uk-london/12-02-09/new-york-post-ramsay-cuozzo-zagat/12th February 2009
RAMSAY SAVAGED IN NEW YORK
In New York, sentiment seems to be turning radically against Gordon Ramsay, with what can only be called a withering attack in the NY Post being quickly endorsed by the city’s leading critic, Frank Bruni of the – rival! – NY Times.
Steve Cuozzo’s piece in the Post pulls no punches.“Gordo was once a great chef”, he says. “Then he became a great businessman. Today he's more like a great big clown with daily headline embarrassments of one sort or another – from a blabbering ex-mistress to an infantile feud with Mario Batali [co-proprietor of one of NYC’s most consistently successful restaurants, Babbo]”.
And, in case we didn’t get the point, he carries on: “If globetrotting, ‘rock-star’ chefs have become a joke, Ramsay is becoming the ultimate punch line.” “[T]acky allegations and revelations about Ramsay don't seem to end. Recent headlines have made him a public spectacle like Donald Trump, but without any buildings to show for it.”
In common with some other top-end Midtown eateries, it seems, Gordon Ramsay at the London stopped serving lunch a few months ago, but “when one of the world's reigning culinary gods - a household name with a batch of Michelin stars, three TV shows (including Fox's popular ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and ‘Hell's Kitchen’) and a zillion revenue streams - can't fill a 14-table room for lunch a few days a week, look out.”
Most amusing for those of us who follow these things is the commentary of leading NYC guide book publisher (and London competitor of Harden’s), Tim Zagat, who is quoted as saying: “I thought [Ramsay] was going to be a major player here. But I think his restaurant has become essentially a cipher in the New York dining community.”
Gosh what can Gordon have done to upset Tim, who until very recently had appointed himself some sort of cheerleader for the Sweary One? Mr Zagat’s 2009 New York guide, published just a few months ago, hypes* the “phenomenal” cuisine and “world-class” service of Ramsay’s NYC restaurant in unconditional terms, and – as recently as September last year – Mr Zagat went out of his way to criticise Harden’s in offensive terms for making criticisms of the under-performance of some outposts of the Ramsay empire.
Perhaps they’ll have kissed and made up in time for the launch of next year’s London Zagat – it’s always so helpful if you can have the Sweary One present for your photocall!
* We have noted before that Mr Zagat has, or rather had, quite a track record of promoting Gordon Ramsay to an extent far beyond that which the results of Zagat’s own survey could support.
This pattern is particularly striking in the 2009 New York Zagat. The service, for example, is described as “world class”. What would most people think “world class” means? Best in the Big Apple? In the top five? Perhaps, at a real stretch, in the top ten? Well, Zagat claims to base its views on the survey of restaurant-goers it conducts every year and, thanks to the table on page 24 of the guide, we know that the survey concluded Ramsay’s service was… 38th best in New York!
But what about the “phenomenal” food. Given the prices and aspirations of the establishment concerned, the survey suggested that the performance of Gordon Ramsay was phenomenal only in the sense that it was phenomenally run-of-the-mill. For the second year running, in fact, Zagat’s survey results didn’t even put Ramsay’s food in the top 50 in the Big Apple (which are listed on page on page 13 of the guide).
In fact, Ramsay’s food rating, stated to be 25 points, would appear to put the restaurant at somewhere around 70th position or below in the survey’s overall food rankings, leaving it trailing its most obvious Midtown competitors by an amazing 60 or so places (see Footnote).
FOOTNOTE
The point ratings of the four top French restaurants in the 2009 Zagat, and of Gordon Ramsay, are as follows:
• Name of establishment (price) – Points for Food/Decor/Service
• Daniel ($137)– 28/28/28
• Le Bernardin ($139) – 28/27/27
• Jean Georges ($127) – 28/26/27
• Bouley ($98) – 28/-/27
• Gordon Ramsay ($130) – 25/24/24
The top points-rating bracket in the Zagat system is 26-30 points, which is described as “extraordinary to perfection”. In spite of the terms in which the review is expressed, there is not one respect in which the Zagat survey found Gordon Ramsay to have achieved performance in this top bracket.
