In a Radio Times interview, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay stated that the Covid-19 pandemic effectively saw the end of “crap restaurants” “in a prime location.” He saw this as a silver lining of the pandemic but not in the way you’re thinking.

Ramsay told Radio Times that the last two years have been “devastating” to the hospitality industry in general. While that itself is bad, what it does mean is that as a result of this, he expects to see an improvement in the overall quality of restaurants. As he states, “It’s wiped the arrogance from the industry.”

Not to say that Ramsay himself wasn’t affected by the pandemic and now he’s just being smug. No, Ramsay told The Guardian last year that his restaurants were reporting huge losses, missing out on “£57.5 million worth of turnover down.”

He also faced an even larger nightmare when he had to fire 500 members of his staff due to the Covid restrictions in place in the UK, according to Squaremeal. In response, Ramsey’s restaurant group told The Daily Mail that they had worked “tirelessly” to ensure that they retained as many employees as possible. Whatever the real reason behind those lay-offs, it’s clear that Ramsay’s business wasn’t immune to the pandemic.

Did Gordon Ramsey survive because he has fantastic food? It’s hard to say because Ramsey’s personal wealth is over £140 million, and he is quite a famous man. It seems likely that he would have survived regardless of restrictions, and it sounds arrogant to simply say, “the crap’s gone.” However, Gordon Ramsey does know what he’s talking about, and he didn’t get to his level of fame without knowing a thing or two about food and the hospitality sector.

What do you think?