In the space of just two years Ramsay has lost his three most gifted — and previously loyal — chefs, who had won him five Michelin stars. 

The acrimonious split between Ramsay and his former right-hand man Marcus Wareing was the result of a dispute over the restaurant Pétrus. Wareing refused to expand its "brand" and wanted more recognition for the restaurant in which he had — as executive chef — worked 16-hour days for a decade to cement Pétrus's place as one of the world's best dining experiences. It is Wareing who earned its two Michelin stars, not Ramsay. It was Wareing who prepared those menus. In an act of puerile petulance, Ramsay (who was best man at Wareing's wedding) threatened to take legal action to prevent Wareing using the Pétrus brand name, despite the fact that the Berkeley Hotel, where the restaurant was situated, decided to continue with Wareing as its onsite chef. 

Now we have the bizarre spectacle of Marcus Wareing's restaurant, renamed Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, on the site of the old Pétrus, while a stone's throw away is Ramsay's newest London venture called (you guessed it) Pétrus. Wareing has — rightly — retained his two Michelin stars (and is tipped for a third next January) while Gordon's new incarnation was roundly panned by the critics.

Another of Ramsay's former disciples, Jason Atherton, probably had even greater creative control as executive chef of the innovative restaurant Maze. On the back of the restaurant's popularity, Ramsay intended to create an international chain of Maze eateries. One suspects it was never Atherton's intention to dilute the concept of Maze into a worldwide brand consisting of six restaurants on five continents. Last April he quit from the holding company.

Mark Sargeant fell out with Ramsay last year and resigned as executive chef of Ramsay's one-star restaurant at Claridge's — a star that was won by Sargeant; an inside source confirms that the menus "were all Sarge". Last January, Claridge's, under new kitchen stewardship, predictably lost its Michelin star.