Chef Gordon Ramsay says the silver lining to Covid is the closure of bad restaurants

“The shit is gone,” Ramsay told the British magazine radio times in a recent interview.

“Just s***holes in a prime position and taking advantage because they are in a great location and have the cadence [have closed].

“But now we’ve wiped the slate clean, which is good.”

In the interview is the hell kitchen The host, who is known for being fiery in the kitchen, admitted the last two years of the pandemic have been “devastating” for the UK hospitality industry.

He said the industry was “fucked but getting better”.

“The last two years have been devastating. Landlords don’t say, ‘Take a two-year vacation.’ But I think what was obvious to all of us is that crap is gone.”

Last year, the restaurateur himself estimated his restaurants in England lost more than $100m in the first year of the pandemic due to lost business during lengthy lockdowns in the UK.

“I get criticized for being rich, but the responsibility on my shoulders – the livelihoods that are at stake – is huge,” Ramsay said The sun back then.

“I feel pressured to give some hope, especially to my younger staff, and a sense that we’re getting out of there. So many tears have shed, people are at their wits’ end.”

At the start of the pandemic, in April 2020, more than 1.5 million hospitality workers in the UK were furloughed. It accounted for a quarter of all furloughed staff across the UK.

And last year, in the week leading up to Christmas, as the Omicron variant swept across the UK, pubs, bars and restaurants each lost an average of $18,000 in what was arguably the busiest trading week of the year.

In the last interview with radio timesthe 55-year-old said during the pandemic, restaurants have had to “up their game” to stay alive.

He said that a positive result over the past two years means that customers are getting better quality from the restaurants.

“Customers have gotten so much smarter in the last two years,” he said.

“They know a lot more about food than ever and they make their own sourdough so everyone is taught [in the restaurant industry] to increase their game.

“It wiped the arrogance out of the industry.”

Ramsay takes on Jamie Oliver’s ‘failures’

the MasterChef Australia The guest judge took advantage of a recent business closure when he took over a location formerly owned by fellow celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in Liverpool, England.

“It’s sad Jamie didn’t make it here – the site is fantastic,” he said Liverpool echo.

“It was never my intention to take Jamie’s Italian. Jamie and I are buddies – everyone thinks we’re not, but we are. Two summers ago we sat in the garden with our children and had a great evening of talking, drinking, laughing, crying and just a real heart-to-heart conversation.

“It had nothing to do with it being his old side. Whether Marco Pierre White or Jamie Oliver, it didn’t matter who had the house before. The location was absolutely fine.

“Where Jamie failed, there’s a big learning curve for all of us. The failure of one is the success of the next.”

The site is the new home of Ramsay’s 35th restaurant – the Liverpool Bread Street Kitchen & Bar.

“Everyone thought we were crazy putting restaurants back on the map so close to the end of the pandemic, but we have to come back strong,” he said.

“This restaurant has a lot to offer and many families are involved in running it. We need to put the pandemic behind us and move on. What everyone has been through psychologically in recent years is devastating.”