Free Gordon Ramsay by Neil Simpson

assault after a row that left Leslie with a black eye and facial bruising. She took out a restraining order against him after he followed her to the home of fellow actress Caroline Quentin. Then, in 2004, Leslie ended up in hospital after suffering injuries that both sides said had been sustained during a bout of ‘rough sex’.
    Back at Aubergine, the news was much, much better.Within 12 months of opening, the restaurant wasn’t just making money – it was winning awards. First came the news that Gordon was being named ‘Newcomer of the Year’ by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine – which is a lot more important than it sounds. Winning a ‘Catey’ is seen as the restaurant business equivalent of getting an Oscar. And in a year with tough competition Gordon had apparently won his by a mile. ‘His was simply the most stunning meal I have had in the past 12 months,’ said judge David Young, an area manager for AA Hotel Division who practically ate out for a living.
    Aubergine itself got some great press at the same time. ‘Unlike some new ventures which peak early and then fail to get any better, the judges felt that Ramsay was still improving. He is not someone who is just sitting tight and marking time,’ said fellow ‘Cateys’ judge Michael Raffael. And there was even better news to come. Gordon had always said that, if he couldn’t get an FA Cup Winners’ medal from football, he wanted to collect some Michelin stars for his cooking. With Aubergine he got one. Then another.
    Michelin stars continue to be the gold standard for chefs and they are the holy grail for newcomers like Gordon wanting to make their names. Printed in secrecy each December and released every January, Michelin’s restaurant guide has been going for 105 years – and has been entirely independent and unbiased for each of them. Restaurants are visited by totally anonymous inspectors who turn up or book tables like any other customer and pay their bills in full without saying who they are. There are no favours, no freebies and no clues about who is doing the judging or when a restaurant is being scrutinised. What inspectorsdo offer is experience. They each visit an average of 240 restaurants a year (and sleep in around 130 hotels) and any restaurant can receive up to 12 random checks in any given year before it is rated.
    Input and opinions from Michelin’s readers can also be taken into account before a restaurant is graded, with the next wave of inspectors told to check up on any areas which are giving others concern. ‘The mystery of Michelin is what makes it so important,’ says Gordon. ‘You don’t know the criteria that have been set, what the inspectors are looking for or when. That’s why every December is hell in every kitchen in Britain. We all go through a nightmare of guesswork and gossip trying to work out who will be in and out of the next guide.’
    Of the several hundred thousand restaurants in Britain, fewer than two dozen are awarded a first Michelin star each year – and they know it can be taken away at any time if their standards slip. Even fewer restaurants gain a second star, which shows the food, the service and the overall feel of the room has reached another level. At the very top of the tree is a tiny band of chefs whose restaurants have been deemed the very best in the world – these are the illustrious holders of three Michelin stars.
    No one knows when or how often Gordon Ramsay’s Aubergine was visited by Michelin inspectors. But, within 18 months of opening his doors, Gordon found out that their verdict on him was good. That first vital star was awarded in January 1995, when he was just 28. Over the next two years, the cooking and the overall standards at Aubergine would not just hold steady but actually improved, and the second star was awarded in 1997.
    By then the great and the good were flocking to find out what was going on. Celebrities in particular had fallen in love with the restaurant and its