Ramsay to keep his Ritz Carlton restaurant open

Eimear Rabbitte

CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay will keep his Irish restaurant at the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt Hotel open for business, despite uncertainty surrounding the hotel's future.

An interim examiner was appointed to the five-star hotel in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, on Monday after it emerged it owes NAMA debts of €47m.

But staff at the hotel are remaining upbeat and according to a spokesperson, "it's business as usual".

"There's definitely no change, it's business as usual in the hotel," Sinead Cox, a spokesperson for the Ritz Carlton told the Herald.

"Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt is still here and still open and it's all still the same.

"The restaurant will remain an integral part of the hotel and this will not change," added Ms Cox.

When contacted by the Herald, Freud Communications, who represent Mr Ramsay, confirmed the restaurant will stay in operation for now.

But the agency refused to comment any further, saying: "It's not something that we would comment on while the hotel is in consultancy."

The restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, officially opened in 2007 and had a re-launch in 2011.

The acclaimed restaurant is situated on the third floor of the hotel and overlooks the Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Ramsay (46), best known for fronting television cookery programmes such as The F Word and Hell's Kitchen, invested in an Irish restaurant for the first time with the opening of the Co Wicklow eaterie five years ago.

This is Ramsay's only restaurant in Ireland -- he has other establishments in the UK and in the US.

There are 293 employees at the hotel, 155 of which are full-time staff.

The High Court was told by an independent accountant this week that the hotel has a reasonable chance of survival if granted protection by the High Court.

hnews@herald.ie