Mark Sargeant, who stepped down as chef de cuisine at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s early last year, has tipped his former brigade to regain the star they lost last month when the 2010 Michelin guide to Great Britain and Ireland was published.
Revealing that he had met with current chef de cuisine Steve Allen soon after the results were announced, he said he had every confidence that the team would win back the star.
“Steve was obviously going to take it personally, but I said he can’t,” he added. “There are lots of elements involved in running a restaurant.”
He said it would be unfair to lay the blame for the loss of the star at Allen’s feet. “He’s worked every bit as hard as I have for that restaurant. He was my head chef for two years before I left, so he was already maintaining that star with me anyway. Now he’s just got to push on.”
Sargeant also revealed that, despite a difficult 2009 for Gordon Ramsay, the chef was still feeling upbeat. “His middle name is ‘Bounce Back’,” explained Sargeant. “In fact, he’s not even down, so there’s nothing to bounce back from, really.”
See the March issue of Restaurant magazine, out on 24 February, for the full interview with Sargeant and to find out what it was really like working with Ramsay.