Ramsay's kitchen nightmares: chef loses court battle over London pub rent

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay just lost a High Court battle for being personally liable to pay a London pub’s rent.

In November, Ramsay accused his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson of “forging his signature” on a £640,000-a-year gastropub lease. Hutcheson was accused of using an autograph-writing machine to reproduce the chef’s signature when he was CEO of the Gordon Ramsay Group.

Ramsay sacked Hutcheson and accused him of embezzling up to £1m. The chef then demanded being freed from the lease of the York & Albany pub as he claimed he was unaware of the personal guarantee.

The judge said: “I find that when Mr Hutcheson committed Mr Ramsay to the guarantee in the lease of the premises, Mr Hutcheson was acting within the wide general authority conferred on him by Mr Ramsay at all times until Mr Hutcheson’s dismissal in October 2010.”