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Battle of the Celebrity Chefs
Category: News
From Gordon Ramsay to Marco Pierre White and Rick Stein, Britain has produced some culinary greats, but which chef reigns supreme?
We took 20 of the most popular British celebrity chefs and pitted their restaurant collections against each other to see who came out on top.
Ranking them on a variety of factors including their average Tripadvisor and Google review ratings, the number of followers their restaurants have on social media, the average Google searches they receive each month and the amount of restaurant closures they have made, we have created a definitive ranking of which chef’s restaurant is the best.
The celebrity chef with the most popular restaurant collection
Masterchef: The Professionals judge and former sous chef to Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing took the top spot for the celebrity chef with the most popular restaurants. Despite only having one restaurant to his name, his Michelin-starred restaurant Marcus in Knightsbridge has an impressive average rating of 4.5 stars on Tripadvisor and 4.6 on Google reviews. The multi-award winning restaurant also garners an average of 6,600 searches per month and an impressive social media following of 67,223 across Facebook and Instagram helping to secure Marcus’ status as the most popular celebrity chef!
In second came Michel Roux Junior who again only boasts one restaurant to his name. Michel’s two-Michelin-starred London restaurant Le Gavroche receives a whopping 33,100 searches a month - making it the most searched for celebrity eatery by some way. With 38,000 followers on Instagram and a 4.7 star rating on Google, this fine-dining restaurant cements Michel Roux Junior’s place in the top three. However, his social media following knocks him from the top spot, with just 5,848 followers.
Heston Blumenthal and Shelina Permalloo ranked joint third. Known for his multi-sensory cooking, Heston Blumenthal’s restaurants averaged a 4.25 rating on Tripadvisor and 4.53 on Google. His eateries also had an average of 130,371 followers on Instagram with only Rick Stein’s restaurants home to more admirers on Instagram.
Although Masterchef winner Shelina Permalloo only has one restaurant, Lakaz Maman ranked highly for all six data points, securing her place in the top three.
Head to Anna Haugh & Phil Vickery’s restaurants for a guaranteed five-star service
TripAdvisor reviews are hugely important in the digital era, with many ratings determining whether restaurant goers will try that restaurant or not.
Anna Haugh’s Myrtle and Phil Vickery’s No.3 Restaurants both top the list on TripAdvisor - achieving a five-star rating each. This is closely followed by Antony Worral Thompson with an average rating of 4.75 for his restaurant, The Greyhound.
James Martin holds the lowest rating on our list for Tripadvisor reviews with his restaurants averaging a rating of 3.5. Marco Pierre White and Rick Stein make up the bottom three with ratings of 3.65 and 3.90 respectively.
Ratings consider a variety of factors from the quality of the service, portion sizes, taste and price.
Shutting up shop, the celebrity chef with the most restaurant closures
Over the years, the hospitality industry has seen an array of restaurants open and close and the recent pandemic has only increased this turnover of eateries.
Despite being a household name and entertaining us on television for years, Gordon Ramsay is the chef who has closed the most restaurants. Over the past 20 years, Gordon Ramsay has closed 12 restaurants in the UK. Most notable was the closure of his sushi-and-grills Mayfair restaurant, Maze in 2019.
Closely following Ramsay is This Morning regular Gino D’Acampo whose restaurant chain, My Pasta Bar went into liquidation in January 2022. In total he has closed eight restaurants over the span of his career.
Antony Worral Thompson has the third worst record for restaurant closures having shut the doors to seven of his eateries. In 2012 he was forced to close six of his restaurants, including Notting Grill in London.
The most searched for celebrity restaurant
Whether you search for local restaurants in your area or want to know which restaurants have the most michelin stars, we rely on google for a lot of our culinary research.
Michel Roux Junior takes the crown for having the most searched for restaurants. In the past year, La Gavroche has had an impressive average of 33,100 searches a month. Labelled as one of the last few remaining places in London to experience French fine dining as it used to be, this two Michelin-starred restaurant has become an institution.
In second is Jason Atherton with an average of 9,185 searches for his restaurants per month. Pollen Street Social, Social Eating House and Little Social are among the chef’s portfolio, delivering high quality food in an informal, social setting.
With 6,600 searches per month is Marcus Wareing. Set within the five-star Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, Wareing’s michelin-starred restaurant, Marcus, offers a contemporary European fine dining experience.
The most popular celebrity restaurant
While Marcus Wareing took the crown for having the most popular restaurants we also wanted to discover which individual eatery ranked highest. Here’s a run-down of the three highest rated restaurants owned by celebrity chefs.
1) Pétrus - Gordon Ramsay
Topping the list was Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus. The modern French fine dining restaurant has a 4.5 star rating on Tripadvisor and 4.7 stars on Google reviews. It also boasts 90,000 Instagram followers and 3,900 searches a month.
Named after the Bordeaux Château Pétrus wine estate, the restaurant’s circular dining room boasts a floor-to-ceiling wine cellar at its heart, offering wines from across the world.
To date, Ramsay’s restaurants have been awarded 16 Michelin Stars in total (seven of which have been retained). In addition to his success in the kitchen, Gordon Ramsay has captured TV audiences across the world, thanks to appearing in 33 TV shows including Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars.
2) Marcus - Marcus Wareing
Having claimed top spot when pitted against his celebrity chef counterparts’ restaurant collections, it is perhaps unsurprising to discover Marcus Wareing’s restaurant, Marcus, takes second position when compared with all of the restaurants on an individual basis.
Set within The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, it offers a fine dining experience with a warm, welcoming setting, sourcing seasonal ingredients to create a menu that applies innovative cooking techniques.
Since opening in 2008, it has received a number of accolades including one Michelin star, five AA Rosettes, Hardens’ Best Restaurant of the Year and Time Out’s Restaurant of the Year.
3) Pollen Street Social - Jason Atherton
In third is Jason Atherton’s flagship restaurant Pollen Street Social with a 4.5 Tripadvisor rating, 118,000 average monthly searches and 12,207 likes on Facebook.
The restaurant has been ranked at number six in The Good Food Guide's Top 50 Restaurants 2013 & 2014 and number three in the 2016 guide. It was deemed London's best new fine dining restaurant in the Time Out Eating & Drinking Awards 2011 and won New Restaurant of the Year at the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards 2012.
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Methodology
We looked at a variety of articles rounding up the most popular celebrity chefs with restaurants in the UK to determine our list of the top 20.
For each ranking factor the chefs were ranked 1-20 based on how highly they scored for the individual data point. A ranking of 1 was given to the chef with the best score and a ranking of 20 for the worst. All of the ranking scores for each data point were added up to determine the chef with the most popular restaurants.
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