Kitchen Rat

So it’s official – Gordon Ramsay Holdings has closed its Michelin-starred restaurant La Noisette just 18 months after its opening.

The decision to close La Noisette won’t come as a surprise to the industry as rumours about its closure have been circulating for months. The restaurant hadn’t been performing well, particularly at lunchtime, despite chef patron Bjorn van der Horst doing a sterling job in the kitchen.

But it seems like there’s no one to blame for the failure of the Knightsbridge-based restaurant but rather that La Noisette was the victim of a jinxed space. After all it’s not the first restaurant that shut shop there: Ramsay’s joint venture with Ian Pengelley closed less than a year after opening in 2005, while private members’ club Monte’s struggled to establish itself as a long-term dining brand despite the involvement of Alain Ducasse in the 1990s and Jamie Oliver in 2001.

A spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay Holdings said the company would now use La Noisette as a space for private dining and events, accommodating some of the lost space in the now closed Savoy.

Meanwhile Bjorn is leaving Gordon Ramsay Holdings to set up his own restaurant. Kitchenrat wishes him all the best of luck.