Ramsay To Open In New York

Gordon Ramsay, one of Britain's leading chefs, is to open a restaurant in New York.

He currently runs seven restaurants in in London and one in Dubai.

He will open at the five-star Marriott Rihga Royal Hotel next April. The venture will include a 100 seat restaurant, and a less formal dining area and bar.

Ramsay is quoted as saying:

"It's the burning ambition of every top chef in the world to succeed in New York. To be there among the best in the world is so exciting..I thrive on competition, and New York has restaurants from all the top chefs in the world, from Thomas Keller to Jean-George Vongerichten."

Last year, Ramsay reportedly sent an employee to work as an "undercover" chef at a top New York restaurant to check out the competition.

Blackstone, the investment bank and previous owner of the former Savoy Group of hotels, is leasing the restaurant site to Ramsay; he plans to set up a New York headquarters for the group.

Tim Zagat, the chief executive of the New York-based Zagat Survey, is quoted as saying:

"If anyone can hit a home run it is Ramsay, especially with the powerful backing from Blackstone. He is well known among the sort of New York restaurant customers who think nothing of traveling between New York and London...These are the sort of people who eat out for lunch and dinner on a day-to-day basis and who will go to his new restaurant..The challenge now is to see if he can transfer the personal cooking he is known for to a group of sous chefs. That is always a great risk, but if anyone can do it is Ramsay."

Ramsay also intends to open a restaurant in Miami.

Fox will be running a series shortly, which is described as a cross between Hell?s Kitchen and a sort of "Chef Idol", with the winner getting the keys to a restaurant worth over £1M.

Ramsay is also launching a restaurant in Tokyo