Does London's Freshly Fab Foodie Scene Really Need Gordon Ramsay?

by  Tova Piha | Mar 27, 2009
The Berkeley Hotel in London
The Berkeley Hotel in London / Photo courtesy of the property

If you've watched Gordon Ramsay's cutthroat competition show Hell's Kitchen, currently in its fifth season on Fox, you know the celebrity chef has a knack for pissing people off. Last summer, a public falling out between Ramsay – the only three-Michelin-star chef in London – and his protégé Marcus Wareing prompted The Berkeley hotel to change the name of its Ramsay-affiliated restaurant Pétrus. Now called Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, the restaurant may have lost its association with Ramsay and gained a rather unoriginal name, but the fact that nothing else has changed – not the chef, his team, the elegant simplicity of the deep purple décor and circle motif, nor its two-Michelin-star rating – means that it still ranks as one of London’s top dining spots. Expect modern European cuisine with dishes like poached Scottish lobster with braised trotters and vanilla butter and roasted Cumbrian lamb with green olives, fennel, and smoked lamb bacon. Pétrus, meanwhile, is due to reopen (minus chef Wareing, of course) in a new, as yet undisclosed, London location later this year.

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