Gordon: 'I've got a new partner'

"How could I?" he says. "I've got too many! I cook at Claridge's and Royal Hospital Road. They're my babies. The others are run by immensely talented people who have worked with me for years. It's their domain but we all have a lot of involvement with each other."

Now we're going through what can only be described as a building site. "This is where the loos will be," he says. Then we swoop into the wine cellar and back through the kitchen, which Gordon says will work on the revolutionary "production-line" method, as in the US.

Then, just as I am about to fall over with dizziness, we come to rest at a table.

Ramsay leans forward, looks into my eyes - his are an intense blue - and murmurs: "What do you think?"

I have had no time to think. I doubt he listens to anyone anyway. "But I do!" he protests. He tells me that he and Atherton, who is in the kitchen cooking up lobster with daikon and rhubarb trifle for me to try (they are both delicious), have just come back from a staff meeting at Ramsay Central HQ. There's a Ramsay HQ? "Oh yes," he says. "It's where we run everything. The reservations system is centralised.

"My father-in-law runs the business side of things. I've never made that mistake of thinking I'm a chef and a businessman at the same time. That way trouble lies. They just don't mix."

Some of the dishes Atherton will be producing at Maze have been developed in Ramsay HQ. "The idea is to do a New York-style restaurant," says Atherton, who has now joined us carrying a plate of seared scallops with cauliflower purée.

"We're not going to do that very formal three-course-meal thing. The idea is that you'll come into Maze, eat good fresh food and be out in under an hour at lunchtime. We're doing unusual combinations that make sense. New Yorkers don't hang around. So we're doing more like a tapas idea, a pick-and-choose type thing, with all dishes under £10. We'll also be changing the menu every three months."

Ramsay has just come back from Tokyo and the US. He loves it in New York and is going to open a restaurant there next year. "I love the buzz," he says. "That's what we're going to have in Maze."

"It's going to be hard, though," says Atherton. "We're aiming to do some very exciting dishes but we'll be really pushed as a table may want eight dishes to try and we'll have to get them on the table within 10 minutes."

They are both very excited about the bar. "We can sit 90 in the restaurant and 50 in the bar," says Atherton. "We've got this great pizza - roasted foie gras and apricot," says Ramsay, jumping up again, "and we're going to serve it in a box!" Atherton blanches.

We are interrupted by Bruno, the truffleman. He appears at Gordon's side and produces some truffles wrapped in a spotted handkerchief. "'Ees the most intelligent cook in London!" he says, motioning towards Ramsay. "Who else is getting truffles?" asks Ramsay suspiciously. "Giorgio [Locatelli] is. Michel [Roux, at the Gavroche] isn't." "Huh!" says Ramsay. "He's got no customers then!"

It's such a small world. Yet Ramsay towers above everyone else. Part of it is to do with his media profile. He's a natural on television because he's so compelling and passionate and unbelievably rude.

He topped the ratings with Hell's Kitchen. What did he think of the second series? "Hmm. I wouldn't have done it," he says. "But I can't stand all those old chefs like Michel Roux [senior] who goes on about how Hell's Kitchen demeans cooking. At least I wasn't producing the kind of Barbie-doll food that most people serve up today. You know, it looks pretty but doesn't taste of anything."

Gosh, he's so competitive. "I don't want to produce clones!" says Ramsay. "Marco [Pierre White] produced clones so all his restaurants served towers of food. I don't want that type of person working for me."

But, surely, Ramsay must be exhausting to work for. "Not really," says Atherton, who seems calm and mild-mannered. "He's brilliant because he's straight-talking and he helps you move up the ladder. I've seen too many people feel threatened by talented younger chefs.

"In the end, chefs start up their own businesses. If Gordon sees a talented chef he takes them under his wing and then, when they're ready to fly, he gives them their own restaurant." But all under the Gordon Ramsay umbrella. "Exactly," he says.

What do they do when they're not cooking? "Looking for a house to buy!" says Atherton "Not cooking?" says Ramsay, looking startled. "I'd be at home with my wife and four kids trying to get them to cook."

His wife of many years, Tana, is famously hopeless in the kitchen. "She's learning," says Ramsay, "and my boy Jack is getting really good. I make him smell herbs blind! It's really important to me that all of them - Megan, Jack and Holly and Matilda - appreciate the magic of food. But I can't cook at home all the time. It's too much."

Well, why don't they all go for a family night out to Maze? "I never eat at my own restaurants," says Ramsay. "I'd be a nightmare!" Atherton, it has to be said, nods in agreement.

Maze, 10-13 Grosvenor Square, W1 (020 7107 0000), will open on 25 May. Average spend: £50 a head.