Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is celebrating 22 years since it first opened and Gordon Ramsay announced on Social media he would be making Matt Abé, co-chef patron.
The restaurant has maintained three Michelin-stars for 19 years, something Gordon says he couldn't have done without his team.
Matt joined the team 12 years ago and 'took over the reins' 5 years ago, he said: "In the past ten years I've grown as a chef, my palate has developed and I've grown in confidence."
When The Staff Canteen spoke to Matt and Gordon two years ago, Gordon said:
“Without your team, you’re nothing."
"It’s not an overnight success,” he continued. “And keeping that team together and inspiring them to push even further – that’s the key.”
There have been just three head chefs over the years; Mark Askew, Clare Smyth and Matt, which Gordan said ‘is pretty incredible’.
Talking to The Staff Canteen at the time he said:
“Matt knows me inside out. I’m honest and I’m straight to the point with no bullshit. Taking the reins of this business, it’s not something I would pass down easily and it’s not a position which got handed to him on a plate.
“You spot talent like that and you nurture them and support them. You improve their weaknesses and highlight their strengths. That sort of raw talent is a dream for me.”
Matt, who is originally from Australia, first worked for Gordon at Claridges, he had the desire to work in fine dining early on in his career and said ‘watching programmes like Boiling Point’ really inspired him.
He spent four and a half years working at a restaurant in Sydney called Aria under a chef called Matt Moran. From there he moved to Melbourne at the age of twenty one where he worked for a chef called Shannon Bennett at a restaurant called Vue de Monde as a chef de partie.
Then in 2003 he moved to the UK and got a job as chef de partie at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s through Matt Moran, who was a good friend of Gordon’s. He was there for about two and a half years before moving to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2009 where he started as a chef de partie.
On working with Gordon he said:
“My relationship with him is a mentorship and a friendship, he always guides me and it’s a two-way thing so I always feel free to express myself. I can talk to him and he listens to me, just as I would listen to him. There is no enforcing from either way, it’s a joint effort.”
(Photo : Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Chelsea)
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