I’m fed up with chefs who are all celebrity and no cook

Achill wind is blowing down the high Street, where celebrity chain restaurants are in big trouble, suffering financial misfortune nearly all of their own making. in recent months, Jamie Oliver has closed 12 (out of 37) of his Jamie’s italian outlets, following an emergency deal with his landlords to stop his business going into administration.

carluccio’s is entering into a similar arrangement that could see a third of its 103 branches across the country close. And Gordon Ramsay is shuttering Maze, a flagship venue in the london Marriott Grosvenor Square, amid losses of nearly £4 million in his restaurant group.

This turndown is hardly surprising. The public are utterly fed up with posturing television celebrity cooks who are all celebrity and no cook. They have had it with overpriced and underwhelming experiences at their myriad restaurants.

They can see — and taste — that the figureheads are too busy focusing on the huge financial rewards of their TV careers to bother sufficiently with the wilting side salad and the lukewarm welcome.

The chefs blame Brexit, they blame rising rents, they blame the Government, they blame anyone but themselves. But the truth is that some restaurants are doing well in the (admittedly crowded) mid-market dining sector.

TheSe are the ones that have embraced the new economic climate and kept their focus on simple food at a reasonable price for families and couples on a budget.

Who would buy a £13 ‘posh pepperoni’ pizza at Jamie’s if you can get a chorizo one for £7.70 at Franco Manca?

Antonio carluccio was still involved in the chain that bears his name until his death last year. When it opened its first cafe in 1999, it at least had a spirit of authenticity and generosity. Now, the usual corporate greed bleeds across the brand like a thin and bitter tomato sauce.

What once felt big-hearted and properly italian now feels mean; each portion of pasta meticulously controlled, every last borlotti bean counted out by, well, bean-counters.

celebrity chefs are not alone is this economic meltdown.

The Restaurant Group — behind chains such as Garfunkel’s and Frankie & Benny’s — plans to sell off some branches. italian chain Prezzo is more than £200 million in the red and closing 94 of its 300 UK branches.

hamburger chain Byron is closing 20 restaurants, while pizza restaurant Strada has shut more than a third of its outlets. Sandwich chain eat has lost its appetite and faces restructuring, while the firm that owns cafe Rouge, Bella italia and las iguanas had annual losses of £60 million.

What happened? Britain is supposed to be in the grip of an eating-out boom, but the truth is we are as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more. Diners are fed up with being taken for mugs.

We realise restaurants are cutting their margins to the bone and the cheapest of ingredients are used. Bosses cut corners by not hiring properly trained staff.

in the kitchens there are few proper chefs who understand ingredients, provenance and recipes. in front of house, waiters and waitresses who are not paid or treated terribly well by their employers will hardly be motivated to make your experience one to remember in a positive way.

No wonder people are turning away in their thousands. But those ailing establishments owned by celebrity chefs? Their sin is far greater, because they have exploited a relationship with the public for their own greedy ends.

Once, chefs were just people in a kitchen who knew how to chop a carrot and get the main courses out on time. Then suddenly they were being feted as rock’n’roll stars, earning millions from shows, books and crockery ranges.

OPeNiNG more and more restaurants — or lending their name to franchises — they used their highly seasoned celebrity to get customers across the threshold.

We saw them on television, using fabulous ingredients and being passionate about food. customers believed they would get the same thing in their eponymous restaurants — only to be greeted with pale, overpriced imitations with charmless service. it wasn’t always like this. Thirteen years ago, almost to the day, Gordon Ramsay opened his first Maze restaurant in central london. it was exciting and new, with a cream leather bar and a small plates menu. Small plates! They were a novelty, just like the lobster in sweet-and-sour sauce and the spicy marinated peaches.

Back then, Ramsay was the most ubiquitous chef on Planet Foodie. The nation had to cower from a blizzard of Gordon cookbooks, Gordon TV shows and Gordon opinions on everything from christmas turkeys (rub them with five spice) to vegetarians (rub them up the wrong way).

Meanwhile, Jamie was opening his restaurants and it all seemed new and exciting. But how naive we were. in the space of a few years, Jamie and Gordon became ruled by profit margins and expansions. Their restaurants became concepts to be rolled out like pasta, becoming thinner and less satisfying with each new pressing.

They will commit no more culinary crimes, and for that i am glad. let’s hope something new and fresh will rise from the ashes — something that won’t leave abused diners with such a bitter aftertaste.