Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay sliced and diced the competition as his restaurant yesterday be came the city’s only new eatery to win a coveted two out of three stars in the prestigious Michelin New York guide.
“Gordon’s over the moon,” said Josh Emett, 34, chef de cuisine at Gordon Ram say at The London. “He phoned me from L.A. early this morning when he found out.”
The rating was especially sweet for Ram say, here surveying the restaurant’s kitchen. The eatery had de buted in The London hotel on West 54th Street in November to un enthusiastic re views.
But Emett, a sixteen- year chef who designed the menu with Ramsay, said they overhauled their menu six months ago – and it now seems to be working.
“We completely changed it, many were seasonal changes, but we followed what people liked as we spend more time in New York,” Emett said.
Ramsay – best known for his red-faced outbursts on Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” reality show – has a flagship restaurant based in London that has held a three-star rating since 2001.
On the downside, Tom Colicchio, host of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef,” was cooked in the Michelin review.
Craft, his eatery on East 19th Street that features a “new American” menu, was stripped of the one star it was awarded last year.
A Craft manager said Colicchio was in Texas filming yesterday and couldn’t be reached, but noted that employees were not fazed.
“Business is not on the wane,” the manager said. “We’re taking bookings 28 days in advance and we’re solid for this month. And as of October 15th, we’ll be opening for lunch as well.”
Michelin, which made its New York debut in 2005, awarded three stars to only three New York City restaurants – Per Se, Le Bernardin and Jean-Georges.