Ramsay’s nightmare over loan

The loan was given when the chef was at the height of his popularity and set about a massive expansion programme with new restaurants opening all over the world.[>

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Financial sources say RBS made ­recent enquiries about calling in the loan to Gordon Ramsay Holdings, which is run by Gordon Ramsay, 41, and his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson.[>

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Neither Mr Ramsay nor Mr Hutcheson was available to comment last night on the claims and explain what measures are being put in place to keep the business moving in the right direction.[>

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City sources said the directors could seek loans from another bank, ­although all leading banks are facing the same difficulties as RBS.[>

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Both men are independently wealthy and would be able to draw on substantial cash reserves if they chose to go down that route.[>

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The situation has put a question mark over the expansion of the business, which had been on target to make £100million by next year.[>

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The credit crunch is already having a damaging effect across the whole restaurant industry, particularly at the top end of the market with fewer people being able to afford fine dining.[>

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Accounts to the year ending August 2006 show RBS provided the company with an overdraft and loans facility worth a total of £10.5million.[>

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The company offered as collateral against this “debenture over the present and future assets of the company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings International Limited, and its subsidiaries and personal guarantees from directors”. [>

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In the worst case scenario, the bank could end up owning Ramsay’s restaurants and some personal assets belonging to the celebrity chef and Mr Hutcheson who are both directors of the firm.[>

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RBS declined to comment as did Mr Ramsay’s PR company, Sauce Communications.[>

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The company is due to file accounts by the end of the month and has ­already been fined £1,500 by Companies House for not filing on time.[>

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Gordon Ramsay is said to earn about £2million a year for his television ­series with Channel 4 and earns substantial sums from sales of cookery books and television shows in the US.[>

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Mr Hutcheson, 61, is the chief executive officer and was already independently wealthy before going into business with the husband of his daughter, Tana.[>

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He has a 31 per cent stake in the company with Mr Ramsay apparently holding the rest, giving him enormous financial responsibilities.[>

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Last week there were signs of problems when Gordon Ramsay Holdings parted company with its long-standing PR Gary Farrow, a highly respected figure in the industry credited with ­increasing the popularity of the restaurants and successfully firefighting scandals surrounding the television star.[>

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The sudden departure of Mr Farrow was put down to money, a surprising reason given that the success of ­Ramsay’s restaurants are in large part dependent on him staying constantly in the media limelight.[>

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Questions have been raised about whether the company will keep hold of a restaurant in Ireland and how any expansion can succeed in the global downturn.[>

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One sign of cracks appearing was the decision to shut one of the main London restaurants, Foxtrot Oscar, for two days a week, a slowdown introduced in the normally busy run up to Christmas.[>

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Ramsay himself is currently in the US in the seemingly endless drive to open more restaurants and get more exposure on television.[>

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He admits that while he excels at the cooking and fronting the shows he leaves the complex financial side to his father-in-law, an urbane businessman with a multi-million pound flat in London’s Mayfair.[>

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The relationship was tested last year when author Sarah Symonds, 38, gave a graphic account of an alleged seven year affair with Ramsay.[>

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When the scandal broke in a downmarket newspaper, the Hutcheson family had what was described as a “council of war”.[>

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Chris Hutcheson, his wife Greta and their sons Adam, 38, and Luke, 31, met in a restaurant near their Mayfair home to consider how to respond to questions about Ms Symonds’ ­allegations.[>

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Silver-haired and impeccably dressed, Mr Hutcheson is seen as the financial brains behind the Gordon Ramsay business which has more than 20 restaurants around the world with most in London.[>

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A successful businessman in his own right, he has reportedly said he initially took on the job as a hobby after his daughter Tana married Gordon in 1996.[>

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Tana herself makes money writing cookery books and has also presented a cable TV cooking show, but now spends most of her time taking care of their four children at their home ­overlooking Wandsworth Common in London.[>

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Her father helped Ramsay launch his first restaurant at Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, which went on to win three Michelin stars.[>

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Mr Hutcheson was a key figure in negotiations to set up the acclaimed Petrus and Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s which rapidly rose to make £2million a year.[>

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As the restaurants prospered, Ramsay’s TV career proved even more ­lucrative. His popularity spread to America where Fox pays him an estimated £1million a series for Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares.[>

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The downside of exposure in the US has been that fewer fans have seen him at his restaurants. As Michael Winner said: “If I buy a Canaletto, I ­expect it to have been painted by him and not his students.”[>

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Accounts show that Gordon Ramsay Holdings made a pre-tax profit of £816,717 in 2006, reversing a loss of £2.6million in 2005.[>

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In 2006 it had a turnover of £38million, but this year’s figure had been­ ­expected to be closer to £100 million.[>