Ramsay’s right-hand man becomes a restaurant rival
GORDON RAMSAY’S former right-hand man is planning to open a rival restaurant business just months after quitting the celebrity chef’s empire amid speculation of a rift.
Stuart Gillies ran Ramsay’s restaurant group until he left in January after more than 15 years with the company.
Documents filed at Companies House show that Gillies, a former chef, is sole director of a new restaurant business called Alfa-Zero Limited. A trademark filing made by Gillies last month suggests his new venture could be called Wood & Wood.
While at Gordon Ramsay Group, Gillies helped launch the Boxwood Café, Plane Food at Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Savoy Grill. Ramsay rewarded him with £2.7 million worth of shares in the firm, and promoted him to chief executive in 2016.
But Gillies resigned as a director of 28 companies in the group in February. A spokesman for Ramsay declined to explain his exit, or say whether his contract had a non-compete clause.
Gordon Ramsay Group was previously run by Ramsay’s father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, who was jailed for six months last June after admitting conspiracy to hack the company’s computer systems.
Ramsay, whose group posted a £3.8 million pre-tax loss for the year to August 2017, is now shutting his Mayfair restaurant Maze.