Gordon Ramsay sells Paris and Los Angeles restaurants

LONDON - TV chef Gordon Ramsay has sold his only restaurant in France a week after selling the Los Angeles outpost he opened just one year ago.

Ramsey, who recently became the first British chef to win two Michelin stars in France, has scaled back his overseas empire, selling the Paris-based Gordon Ramsay au Trianon to the American owners of the Trianon Palace Hotel.

However, he will retain his name on the restaurant and work for it as a consultant, taking a share of the profits.

When Ramsay first revealed his intention to open a restaurant in France he said: "I've had a belly-full of the French coming over here and telling us how shit our food is."

Ramsay concluded similar deals last week for his Los Angeles restaurant Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood with the owners of the hotel, and in February for his Prague restaurant Maze at The Hilton with The Hilton.

A source at the Los Angeles restaurant told the Daily Mail: "When it opened, we were told that he wanted to dominate the Hollywood restaurant scene because that would lead to his conquering America.

"In Hollywood, everyone expects the star chef to be there. Gordon was simply stretched too thin with his television commitments and his other restaurants.

"People would come in and ask for him and it was embarrassing to have to tell them he wasn't here."

The holding company for his 25 restaurants around the world, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, was eight months late in publishing its 2007 accounts.

The accounts showed GRH had breached its bank loan covenants though it had made a pre-tax profit of £3.05m.

Ramsay has paid himself a total of £7.5m over the past five years.