In TV review of 3 November last year we stated that Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares programme specialised in cynically faking scenes to make average restaurants look like public health hazards, driving some out of business.
We alleged in relation to the programme on Bonaparte's Restaurant in Silsden, broadcast in 2004, that it was guilty of "gastronomic mendacity" by installing an incompetent chef and fabricating culinary disasters in order to wreck the restaurant's reputation.
We now understand and accept that this was not correct.
In fact, the programme portrayed throughout an accurate picture of the restaurant and its operations.
We apologise to Gordon Ramsay, Patricia Llewellyn, the programmes' executive producer, and to Optomen Television Limited, the producers, for any embarrassment we caused and have agreed to pay each of them substantial damages for libel and their legal costs.

Public Interest
We reproduce the article above because in 2004, we received what we believe was a hoax telephone call made by a person who told us he was a journalist, phoning on behalf of a colleague who he named, another journalist working for the London Evening Standard.
As a result of the telephone call, and as a pre-emptive measure to protect our reputation against possible defamation, we created a web page which contained accurate information and correspondence in support.
We called the attention of both the London Evening Standard and the named journalist to our original web page about this, at the time, asking for comments or corrections, but have heard nothing from either, giving us reasonable grounds to understand that they did not dispute our version of events.
We have recently received a letter from "a consultant acting for" (the named journalist), alleging that our web page articles libel his colleague, and infringe his copyright and privacy. This appears somewhat hypocritical coming indirectly from a source which has just admitted inaccurate, and which has shown itself to be capable of inventing falsehoods.
Had the journalist published a similarly inaccurate article about us, then we would also have had grounds to sue him for defamation. From the tone and manner of the telephone call, it appeared crystal clear to us that here was a person who was not interested in the truth, in accuracy, but trying to twist and spin the facts to create an interesting story. As a company which is proud of its reputation for being fair, honest, and reliable, we were very concerned at the time to protect this reputation against unfair and inaccurate portrayal by the journalist, or the London Evening Standard. As a result, we made number of enquiries, in which we were informed that there was no such person at the London Evening Standard as the named journalist. We were also told by the London Evening Standard that they would pass on our request for their named journalist to contact us. Neither party has yet done so. We also believe that it is in the interest of the general public that they should know how our media operates, and that we have the right both to defend our reputation from unfair and uninformed comment in the media, and to publish the same.

Our original London Evening Standard Gold Bars page.

Gordon Ramsay Awarded £75,000 in Libel Damages Against and the London Evening Standard

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