Ramsay restaurants still threatened by tax debts

Ramsay restaurants still threatened by tax debts
Ramsay restaurants still threatened by tax debts (Image credit: Press Association Images)

Gordon Ramsay could face the closure of two of his prestigious restaurants over unpaid tax debts. HM Revenue and Customs applied to the High Court for winding-up petitions for three London restaurants and a fourth at Heathrow - two of which were subsequently thrown out. The TV chef, 43, who did not attend the hearing, was handed a two-week reprieve to pay debts on his Plane Food airport restaurant while he waited for a cheque to clear and 63 days on his Maze restaurant in Mayfair. The judge had dismissed two of the petitions, against The Narrow in Limehouse and The Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, because debts had already been paid. Ramsay's management said: "In the summer, Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) announced a restructuring of the businesses' finances following short-term cash-flow problems. "The company announced it was repaying debts, but it would be a process that would take several months. In the High Court... the judge accepted this was the position and dismissed two of the petitions on the basis the debts had been cleared." It added: "She also gave GRH further time to settle the other two debts." It has been a turbulent business year for the chef. In July it was announced profits from Ramsay's UK restaurants plunged by nearly 90 per cent. Company accounts showed his restaurant empire came close to the brink as revenues collapsed while debt and tax bills mounted up.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.