Burnt

Celebrity chef, television star and maverick businessman. Hilary Biller cooks up a theory on why Gordon Ramsay's Maze restaurant bombed in Cape Town

The five-continent chef is much shorter in real life - and slimmer. Craggy faced? Yes. Ramsay describes it as "squashy" just like his mum's. Well-chiselled with deep grooves. Good eye candy, he has an athletic build - unlike most chefs - but today it's covered with a pristine chefs jacket and not his signature tight T-shirt.

There's no missing those piercing blue eyes though. They're sharp and unforgettable and he ain't missing a thing. The trademark blond locks (definitely highlighted) bob up and down as he hotfoots it out of the loo, heading down the passageway towards his latest venture: Maze at One&Only at Cape Town's Waterfront.

It's April 2009 and Ramsay's first taste of restaurant ownership on the African continent. A one-on-one with the notoriously fiery celebrity chef is limited to 15 minutes. I'd waited three hours for the opportunity.

It gives me a chance to brush up on my homework. I'm warned that he is a stickler for detail - and does not suffer fools easily. A little apprehensive about our meeting, I wonder if I'm going to be another of his casualties? In his frank autobiography, Humble Pie, Ramsay describes his father, Gordon, as a "hard-drinking womaniser".

Growing up was tough as his father rarely held down a job for longer than a couple of months and the family moved from place to place. He physically abused his wife and children and it's no secret that his brother, Ronnie, is a drug addict and has spent time in prison. It's clear that Ramsay's loyalties lie with his mother, Helen, with whom he has a strong bond. "She had the ability to keep going no matter whatever life throws at you. I have her strength too."

It seems ironic that at a time when Ramsay's restaurant empire appeared to be floundering and playing second fiddle to his celebrity television career, he was opening the showpiece restaurant of a new hotel. Judging by the wall to wall international celebrity launch, it had all the hallmarks of a potentially lucrative collaboration between hotel owner Sol Kerzner and Gordon Ramsay Holdings. Ramsay is in business with his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson.

This was the fourth Maze outlet after London, New York and Prague and, unlike the other three, Ramsay's new venture was to be run on a consultancy basis.

"Sol Kerzer is a Rottweiler and knows exactly what he wants," Ramsay tells me candidly.

Maze, which closed down two weeks ago, offered a mixed menu featuring tapas, seafood, salads and light dishes. A speciality included the talk of the town Australian 9th-grade Wagyu steaks which sold for R750. (Apparently 10th grade is the very best.)

Ramsay had assured me it was his intention to use nothing but South African ingredients, "to pay homage to the region" - but in 15 months he had paid just three flying visits.

But back to our interview, the chef is a fast talker who commands attention. I find it difficult to ask my questions. Part of the game plan, I suspect.

I ask him if Maze SA fits one of the world's most-famous chef's script? "We've spent a year working on this project," he tells me, rubbing his fingers through his hair. Our interview is off to a lukewarm start.

Peppered with the trademark expletives, the smooth talker is restless. The father of four, married to Tana Ramsay, had for a couple of months before our meeting been accused of having an affair. Clearly, he is twitchy. Ramsay provides the perfect fodder for a tabloid frenzy and his seven-year affair with forty-year-old Sarah Symonds was not likely to pass under the radar. Symonds, who described Ramsay as "flash Gordon" is about to spill the beans in her new book, Memoirs Of A Mistress: My Time With Britain's Most Fiery Chef.

I can't wait.

I ask Ramsay why he pursued a South African venture when in the same year he was forced to close Maze in Prague? The question rankles the celebrity. His face reddens and his voice raises by a couple of octaves. I begin to feel uncomfortable. Shades of Hell's Kitchen flash through my mind.

"Because of the global recession, we have canned many partnerships but we're not closed," he barks. "There is so much fodder and factually incorrect statements out there. It's lazy journalism," he says, looking deeply into my eyes.

I dare to ask if he is not perhaps taking on too much? "Are you asking or telling me," he blurts angrily. "Asking," I say politely, trying to ease the tension. But his tirade continues unabated and then he tells me that he has a fortune in the bank made through hard graft. So what? But I dare not utter a word. And then follows a rant about how he had laid all the foundations for his business, telling me how he planned ahead.

"Six months ahead of you," he points at me "and the customer," he says. "I don't pick Muppets to run my restaurants. I'm a control freak and need to know where we are (in our business). I'm not a television chef," he snaps.

In my desire to ease the tension, I pick on one of his favourite subjects - marathon running. It's obviously the way he eases his tension and his personality changes as he describes his five Comrades Marathons.

"Three up and two down runs," he says proudly, going on to tell me that his brother-in-law lives in Joburg. This leads him on to another favourite bug bear: fat chefs. "I don't think chefs should be fat," he says, casting his beady eyes over my well-cushioned frame. "It's the best job in the world to have when you are good at it, but the shittiest job when you are not very good at it. It's a tough game; one helluva exciting one."

A year later and Gordon Ramsay Holdings shows that his newer restaurants have a combined loss of £4.3-million.

Ramsay, never far from controversy, sparked an outcry on his last visit to Maze in May this year. Billed as the ultimate chance to dine with Ramsay (and clearly to boost a fledging restaurant), the organisers of the Cape Town Good Food & Wine Show sold tickets at R1500 for the event, which sold out in hours. Failing to live up to the prescribed expectations, diners snatched a glimpse of the celebrity when he opened the evening and shared an explanation of the menu. They never saw him again.

Wine shortages and lacklustre food failed to impress - or to plaster over the disappointment of people who really had come for Ramsay. The organisers fuelled the fire with their explanation that the celebrity was "tired" and had gone to bed.

And fanning the flames of fury, the media coverage the following day of Ramsay's night out on the town and a midnight frolic at a Cape Town night-club did little to comfort the fans who felt cheated. Many demanded their money back.

Gordon Ramsay had done it again. Two months later his Maze at One&Only has abruptly closed.

Ramsay through the years

1966

Gordon Ramsay is born on November 8 in Scotland to parents Gordon and Helen.

1987

An injury puts an abrupt end to his football career and he completes a course in hotel management at North Oxon technical catering college.

1989

Ramsay trains under culinary luminaries Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux at their London restaurants.

1993

He becomes head chef at White's Aubergine and within three years the restaurant is awarded two Michelin stars.

1996

Ramsay's first cookbook, Passion for Flavour, is published. In December, he marries Cayetana Elizabeth Hutcheson (known as Tana), a Montessori-trained schoolteacher.

1998

Aged 31, he sets up his first wholly owned restaurant, Gordon Ramsay, in Chelsea. The Ramsay's first child, Megan, is born in May. He settles a £1-million court case after walking out of Aubergine restaurant.

1999/2000

Twins Jack and Holly are born to the Ramsays on Millennium Eve.

2001

Ramsay opens Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, which wins a Michelin star in 2003. Later that year, Gordon Ramsay Holdings opens its first international restaurant, Verre in the Dubai Hilton Creek Hotel.

2002

Ramsay opens in St James and within seven months it wins a Michelin star. It won its second Michelin star in January 2007. The Ramsey's fourth child, Matilda, is born.

2003

Gordon Ramsay re-launches The Savoy Grill and the restaurant is awarded its first Michelin star in 2004.

2004

Ramsay makes his television debut in a series called Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. He is later awarded a BAFTA. This is followed by the Hell's Kitchen series.

2005

His television career gains momentum with a second series of Kitchen Nightmares, followed by The F-Word. The launch of Gordon Ramsay's eighth UK restaurant, Maze, in London's Grosvenor Square and the opening of Gordon Ramsay at The Conrad Hotel in Tokyo follow.

2006

Ramsey makes his restaurant debut in New York with the opening of Gordon Ramsay at The London in The London NYC Hotel. His tell-all autobiography Humble Pie is released. Dedicated to his mother, Helen, he writes: "To Mum, from cottage pie to Humble Pie - you deserve a medal." It becomes a bestseller. Tana Ramsay launches her first cookbook, Family Kitchen.

2007

Tana Ramsay launches Real Family Food.

2008

Gordon Ramsay opens Gordon Ramsay Plane Food at the newly built Heathrow Terminal 5. In November, he issues a vehement denial about a reported seven-year affair with Sarah Symonds. Tana Ramsey launches Homemade.

2009

Gordon Ramsay Holdings is reported to be in severe financial difficulty after a reported slump of 90%. Maze Prague is closed in February, and Ramsay opens at One&Only in Cape Town in April.

Four of Ramsay's restaurants are listed as the most disappointing in a British restaurant guide. Gordon Ramsay loses its Michelin Star at Claridges.

2010

Tana Ramsay publishes her fourth cookbook, Kitchen Secrets. In April, Jason Atherton, executive chef of Maze restaurants worldwide, resigns. In early August, Maze at One&Only in Cape Town is abruptly closed.