Gordon Ramsay Might Be Worth $220 Million, But He Reveals That Landlords Always Have The Upper Hand In The Restaurant Business

The house always wins. While that adage is often used in casinos, it also holds true for one of the biggest gambles in business: restaurants. Ask Gordon Ramsay, the global culinary icon with an empire of 88 restaurants, eight Michelin Stars, and a slew of top-rated TV shows. The Scottish-born chef was recently interviewed on the First We Feast YouTube channel. He was unequivocal when host Sean Evans asked about the hidden costs of running a restaurant.

“Yeah it’s called rent and labor costs — two big key factors in running a successful business,” Ramsey said. The media icon, known for lambasting hapless cooks with a tirade of expletives, said, “Landlords — they win either way. So the more successful you are, the more rent they ask for. The less successful you are, the more demanding they are after the rent.”

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Other than the quality of the food, location plays a prime role in determining a restaurant’s success. Landlords can charge top-of-the-market rents for prime locations. Regardless of the business’s success or failings, the cost of rent remains constant. Unlike many chefs, however, Ramsay’s business is bolstered by his star power and global recognition, resulting in a steady stream of customers wanting to eat at his establishments. The strategy has paid off. Ramsay's net worth is around $220 million, according to the Daily Mail.

Masterchef Salary

According to Monthly Finance, Ramsay is served a bountiful $225,000 per episode of Masterchef (that he hosts), which has multiple versions around the world in which Ramsay often appears. His TV success has been a steady climb after starring in the British cooking shows, “Boiling Point” (a documentary), “The F-Word,” “Hell’s Kitchen,” and “Kitchen Nightmares,” before debuting in 2005 with “Hell’s Kitchen,” on Fox, followed by “Kitchen Nightmares,” in 2007. By 2020, Forbes reported that Ramsay’s shows generated $150 million in yearly ad sales for the network and that his net worth was $70 million. 

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Deepening The Fox Relationship

In 2021, Ramsay and Fox announced a joint partnership with Fox for Studio Ramsay Global to produce new Ramsey featured shows, including “Kitchen Nightmares,” “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars,” and “Next Level Chef,” along with shows featuring other chefs, such as National Geographic’s “No Taste Like Home.”

In 2024, Ramsay and Fox launched Bite, a global food brand and platform offering a range of online digital content, products, and live global food experiences.

“Bite is an innovative fusion of my nearly 20-year collaboration with Fox, blending all the experiences, excitement, competition, and personality we’ve created together under this original, singular food and lifestyle venture,” said Ramsay. “This new brand will cater to every flavor of food fan with an enticing array of original series, compelling food stories, and endless digital content that audiences everywhere will eat up!” 

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Restaurant Empire

Ramsay’s knowledge of dealing with landlords is well-founded. His restaurant empire has grown in tandem with his TV success. In 2018, he began opening a series of US-based restaurants, Hell's Kitchen, named after the TV show, one of the most successful being the flagship in Las Vegas. It also made the No. 3 spot on Yelp’s list of the most photographed restaurants of 2024. To date, there are seven Hell's Kitchen restaurants across the US.

In 2019, Ramsay signed a deal with private equity firm Lion Capital to form Gordon Ramsay North America. The deal was worth a reported $100 million, with Ramsay and Lion having an equal stake in the subsidiary. Though initially planned as a venture to open 100 restaurants in the United States by 2024, the COVID-19 pandemic dampened those ambitions.

Although Ramsey has claimed to have lost $80 million in revenue in the UK during the pandemic, he appears to have bounced back since. According to the Daily Mail, Ramsay recently opened four new restaurants in the same London building.

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Other Entrepreneurial Spin-offs

Ramsey opened a cooking school in 2021 in Woking, England for half and full-day courses, with a second location due to open in London in 2025, according to Business Insider. In addition, Ramsey has a wine brand, Gordon Ramsay Signature Wines, is a partial owner of the HexClad cookware line after Ramsay Global $100 million investment in the brand and has a line of frozen entrees.

Ramsey is also a shareholder and brand ambassador in Boraelis Foods, a food tech innovation company behind the popular Chef Woo and Ramen Express ramen meals, which went public last year. Ramsay began a partnership with THOR Kitchen last year for a range of high-end kitchen appliances. 

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