Global recession yet again demonstrates its powerful effect even on a well known and highly paid celebrity chef.
Big words like "bankruptcy", "$50 million dollar debt ", and "Gordon Ramsay" surfaced online earlier this month. Speculations about the issue circled instantaneously, making people wonder what the "hell" is going on.
Chef Gordon Ramsay is a well-known gourmet chef, business owner and host of a few cooking-related shows like "Hell's Kitchen", "Kitchen Nightmares", and "Masterchef" (alongside Joe Bastianich and Gram Elliot). Added to this list is "Hotel Hell" running on a couple of episodes.
He also owns around 30 gourmet restaurants world wide-UK, North America, Europe, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Qatar and Dubai. So how come we're hearing $50 million in debt news about Ramsay?
Reports say that in 2013, although Kavalake Holdings (Ramsay's umbrella corporation) may have made $36.5 million in profits, the company still owed $50.5 million in debt.
According to www.dailymail.co.uk, Ramsay has spoken out about the issue admitting that he does experience hardships as a business owner, and that his restaurants are indeed largely affected by recession.
Understandably, as necessities become priority during hard times, customers weren't able to dine in his luxurious restaurants as much as they did before.
In an interview on a US TV show, Ramsay shared, "Customers just disappeared. Those that were in the restaurants weren't drinking wine. All were on tap water. Then we had a huge downturn, Monday to Thursday. Your staff costs are the same, your running costs are the same. It was a nightmare."
However, the entire bankruptcy issue has been exaggerated. He was only advised to file bankruptcy by the bank he loaned from, an option he refused to take. Remember this guy has a lot of tricks up his chef's sleeve.
Ramsay uses his own money to keep his business afloat, even sold his silver Ferrari for the money. He cut cost and let 15% of his 1,200 staff go. He says, "I'm not a businessman, but I certainly don't walk around with my head tucked up my backside. For me, it was a learning curve."
