Aussie rules: the chef responsible for retaining Ramsay’s three stars

Boiling Point - the 1999 Gordon Ramsay documentary, not the recent film starring Stephen Graham - was criticised for putting people off the idea of a career in a top-flight kitchen. But the testosterone-fueled Channel 4 series - which depicted, warts and all, Ramsay opening his debut solo restaurant and pushing for three stars had the opposite effect on some, not least the Australian-born Matt Abé.

“I must have been about sixteen as it aired a bit later back home,” says Abé. “I remember my dad asking me if I thought I could work there. I said, ‘of course I could’. You think you’re bulletproof at that age. I could see how tough it was, but I still found it inspiring.”

Two decades or so later the now 38-year-old is running Ramsay’s three Michelin star flagship as co-chef patron, having spent the past 16 years climbing the ladder at Gordon Ramsay Group.

A calmer environment

Though it remains a serious and necessarily disciplined environment - not for nothing has the Chelsea restaurant held on to its full set of stars for 21 years - the kitchen is a more peaceful place these days. Like Clare Smyth before him, the seemingly-unflappable Abé likes a quiet working environment, especially during service. “Every kitchen that operates at this level has its moments,” he says. “But we like a calm kitchen during service. Chaos breeds chaos. A quiet environment allows for more focus.”

And focus the team must. Unlike a lot of restaurants working at or close to its level, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay continues to offer a la carte alongside its tasting menu, which makes service far more intense and unpredictable. Two different tasting menus are available, with prices starting at £185.

So, what’s it like to be charged with protecting the world’s most famous chef’s reputation and, in some respects at least, his legacy? Ramsay has to all intents and purposes hung up his whites and taken the bulk of his restaurant portfolio in a more casual direction - including the rapidly expanding Gordon Ramsay Street Burger - but having a three-star within his group remains a badge of honor. One presumes that losing such status would be devastating for the 56-year-chef.

“I don’t think about the enormity of the situation. I just get on with it,” Abé says matter of factly. “I feel proud of my team and what we do every day. There's no other way to describe it really.”

A ‘task-focused' upbringing

Abé grew up in Sydney. His parents weren’t gourmands but their involvement in community and sporting events saw him encounter catering at an early age, and his interest grew from there.

“My family is big on routine. Both my parents are task-focused and have a very strong work ethic. Because of this I’ve always been attracted to discipline and attention to detail. If it hadn't been cooking it would have been the armed forces,” says Abé, who left school at 16 to pursue his dream of becoming a chef soon after dazzling all concerned at a high school work placement at a local restaurant.

“I’m the first person in my family to have gone into hospitality. My dad came from a tough background but ended up putting himself through university and getting a good job - he worked for Sydney Water for the whole of his career. He was therefore not too pleased about me not going on to higher education. In fact, he initially said ‘no’.”

But his father relented, with Abé taking the route of most ambitious Australian chefs in signing up for a largely vocational TAFE (Technical And Further Education) course having already studied hospitality for a few years at high school.

Learning on the job

Australia’s chef education system is respected around the world for putting on-the-job training ahead of classroom learning, its rigorous approach to assessment and the length of the course, which is typically between three and four years, depending on how quickly cooks progress.

The other great thing about the Australian model is that employers effectively pay for their apprentice’s education. “That means they are more invested and therefore more supportive. I learnt 1,000 times more at work than I did at my one day a week at college. But the things I learnt at college gave me the basic understanding and fundamentals.”

Abé completed the course in a little over three years, entering the industry proper in the early 2000s as a reliable chef that was able to hold down a section. He immediately found work at some of his home country’s best restaurants, first with Mat Moran in Sydney and later with Shannon Bennett at Melbourne’s renowned Vue de Monde.

Expanding horizons

When Abé looked to gain experience outside Oz he was granted full access to Bennett’s international contacts, with options including Spain’s Mugaritz, and The Fat Duck, but he opted for Gordon Ramsay Restaurants (as it was then called), which in 2007 was at the height of its powers in terms of top-end restaurants with a string of Michelin-starred venues across the capital including Angela Hartnett at The Connaught, Petrus (then under Marcus Wareing), Maze (then under Jason Atherton) and Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s.

Attracted to the idea of working within an iconic London hotel, Abé opted for the latter. He says he was instantly struck by the level of professionalism on display in the kitchen, which was then under the auspices of Mark Sargeant.

“In some respects, the work felt similar to when I was with Mat at Aria back in Sydney because the kitchen was very busy and offered both a la carte and a tasting menu. But the discipline and attention to detail was far greater than what I had experienced in Australia. There were a lot more processes, for example checking sections before service to make sure things had been prepared properly.”

Abé impressed enough for Gordon Ramsay Restaurants to sponsor him (at the time, Australians weren’t allowed to work in the UK for more than a year) and promote him to junior sous chef. After two years at Claridge’s, Abé accepted a demotion back down to chef de partie in order to be transferred to the group’s flagship.

Hallowed ground

“When I walked in through the back door it was daunting. It felt like holy ground,” recalls Abé, clearly still humbled by the experience all these years later. “The vibe in the kitchen was different to anything I had experienced before. The level of focus and determination, and the sheer number of things that were going on around me. I could have spent all day watching.”

When Abé started to be given tasks to do it became even more apparent that the restaurant was operating at a completely different level. “The attention to detail and what was expected of you was insane. It was hard but I fell in love with it straight away.”

Smyth – who had recently returned to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay as head chef – moved Abé through nearly all her kitchen’s sections and soon promoted him back to junior sous chef. In 2013, as the restaurant reopened following a refurbishment, Abé was promoted to head chef at just 28 years old.

A few years later, in 2016, Ramsay handed over the kitchen to Abé as Smyth left to launch her own restaurant, Core. At that point Abé was already responsible for the day-to-day running of the kitchen, but taking on the business as a whole was still a big step.

“There was pressure. But it was what I had been training for my whole career. I'm never one to shy away from responsibility. I enjoy coming up against adversity and navigating through it, whether it’s a tricky customer, a tricky order or a tricky service.”

Ramsay advised Abé to go slow and not look to shake up the menu until he felt ready. It proved to be some of the best advice he’s ever received. “Initially it was a case of keeping up standards and gradually elevating things. It’s wrong to change things for the sake of changing them - it’s better to wait until you’re actually inspired.”

In 2020 Ramsay promoted Abé to co-chef patron. Not a huge amount changed in terms of his role but being put on an equal footing to the restaurant’s namesake is clearly a big deal (towards the end of her tenure, Smyth was also elevated to co-chef patron).

Abé now has complete autonomy when it comes to the menu and indeed all other aspects of the operation. There is no official oversight from Ramsay, but the pair are in regular informal communication about what’s going on at the restaurant, either by phone or direct messaging.

“Gordon does give me his opinion about what’s on the menu and the dishes he tries when he comes into the kitchen. He has so much experience to bring to the table. He will make suggestions and get me thinking about things but he’d never say ’I don’t like it, take if off’. We bounce off each other. It’s a conversation.”

Cooking for Ramsay

Ramsay once claimed he never ate in his own restaurants, but this policy now appears to have been dropped (at least in the case of his flagship). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the level-headed Abé does not consider his boss coming in for dinner a kitchen nightmare.

“He’s been in three times. It’s not been nearly as stressful as I thought it would be. On the one hand it’s Gordon Ramsay but on the other he’s just another guest. We do the same thing for everybody.”

Abé’s kitchen operates in roughly the same way it did when he first joined but there have been a few important changes following a complete refit in 2018. The kitchen is now fully electric and all the equipment above head height has been removed to increase visibility.

“It feels much bigger and more spacious now despite occupying the same footprint. The person in charge has much greater visibility, which means less talking during service because you can see whether or not people are ready on things. In general, the kitchen worked really well so I was a bit apprehensive about changing things,” says Abé, who also split fish and meat out into two distinct sections to better divide the workload.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is open for more services than most restaurants at its level offering lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday. There are currently 22 chefs in total with each service run by between 16 and 18 chefs depending on how busy it is (everybody is on the rota on Tuesdays, a key day for prep).

Succession planning

When Abé is not there the kitchen is run by head chef Kim Ratcharoen, who joined the restaurant as an apprentice in 2015. In the rare instances that neither of them are present, running the pass falls to one of two sous chefs.

Staff retention and succession planning are a big deal for both Abé and the wider Gordon Ramsay Group. “I let a lot of the more senior chefs run the pass on occasion under supervision. One of the current sous chefs started with me as a commis six years ago and has worked his way up. Growing from within is key at this level. I’m focused on bringing people up through the ranks, it’s the only way to succeed.”

While Abé is likely to stick around for some time yet, he will of course eventually fly the nest. “Some chefs are happy to work for other people their whole career, but one day I would like to go it alone and see what I can achieve. It’s a dream of mine to set up my own business and it would be in London; I’ve spent nearly half my life here. It’s now my home. But I'm super content and happy with where I am right now.”

In many ways Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is Abé’s restaurant, with the chef having had far more latitude than other senior chefs within the group.

“I have a lot of freedom to grow and to keep pushing the restaurant forward. Alongside looking after the team, the most important thing for us is to keep the restaurant relevant by analysing what we are doing and what’s happening at our level in both London and the rest of the world.”