Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in hot water for flouting coronavirus lockdown

Gordon Ramsay. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Gordon Ramsay. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Published May 2, 2020

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London - He has already drawn heat for isolating at his second home in Cornwall with his large family, and was criticised after being spotted apparently running a red light on his bicycle.

Now TV chef Gordon Ramsay has landed in the soup with the coastguard, who are said to have issued an official warning to him over his apparent flouting of lockdown guidelines.

Sources indicate that Ramsay, 53, has been seen in Rock, Fowey, Port Isaac and Newquay – some distance from his £4 million home in Trebetherick. Somewhat embarrassingly, he is the face of a ‘Stayhome’ initiative on YouTube which he has been plugging on his ten-minute cookery shows, filmed in ‘isolation’ in his Cornwall kitchen.

A source at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, whose officers and volunteers carry out regular patrols of the beaches and coastal paths, said: ‘We have reports of him being seen in dozens of different places since lockdown started.

‘He does not seem to be obeying the rules regarding social distancing, exercise and staying at home. We are aware of him having travelled to Port Isaac, which is eight miles away from his home, to Newquay, which is 23 miles away, and even at his third Cornish home in Fowey, which is 25 miles away and a 45-minute drive on a good day.

‘One of our staff spoke to him about the frequency with which he was being seen out and about, and the significant distances. After a period of reflection, he seemed to calm himself and took on board what was being conveyed in a most polite manner.’

Ramsay said on a radio show last month that he was going to the butcher’s near his Cornwall home ‘every day’ for provisions to cook for his family, who include wife Tana, 45, one-year-old son Oscar, daughters Tilly, 18, Holly 20, Megan, 22, and son Jack, 20.

He has also posted on social media about going for bike rides of 26 miles to train for an Ironman triathlon for charity.

The family arrived in Cornwall on March 20, three days before lockdown officially began.

Friends of Ramsay, who ‘temporarily closed’ all his London restaurants at the start of the pandemic, making 500 members of staff redundant rather than furloughing them, say that the family has done nothing wrong.

They added that the house in which they are now residing in Trebetherick is ‘where they spend all their family time together’.

It is not, though, their primary residence, which is a £3 million home in South London.

Gordon Ramsay’s spokesman did not respond to our requests for comment.

Daily Mail

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