Ramsay rages over restaurant guide

Even in the pressure-cooker world of London's restaurants, the row that has erupted between chef Gordon Ramsay and the AA Restaurant Guide takes some beating.

It has already led to the guide's editor resigning in protest at the actions of his boss, AA managing director Roger Wood. Now Ramsay is seeking a court injunction to stop the guide publishing its 2003 edition after it failed to award a coveted fifth rosette to his Petrus restaurant in Mayfair.

The allegation is that although the AA food inspectors and guide editor Simon Wright were unanimous that Petrus deserved a fifth rosette - making it only the second restaurant in London with five - Mr Wood stopped them after a row over which table he could sit at.

Mr Wright, who resigned on Monday, said at his home in South Wales: "It has been fairly traumatic but I had to resign on a point of principle. I felt I could not continue as editor of the AA Restaurant Guide since this rosette issue and the intervention of AA MD Roger Wood.

"I'm hugely disappointed and obviously I didn't want to give it up because I have nothing to go to, but I felt I had no choice. It is very sad.

"I'd like to see the decision overturned. You owe something to the chefs to stand by these decisions.

"I'm happy to stand by what decision the inspectors make as long as they are made fairly and are not interfered with by people who are not qualified."

Mr Wright, 38, said a number of visits had been made to Petrus by the AA's qualified food critics, who were unanimous that chef Marcus Wareing deserved the coveted fifth rosette - to go with his Michelin star - for the highest quality of food preparation, consistency, service, ambience and innovation.

But then MD Mr Wood, previously managing director of British Gas Services, decided to visit the restaurant himself.

All parties are agreed that Mr Wood booked a table at Petrus at short notice and went to the premises the day before his booking to check where he would be seated - but they differ about what happened next.

Restaurant staff claim Mr Wood, 60, became "extremely rude" when they told him they could not say at which table he would be seated and that he then left in disgust and cancelled his booking.

Chef Wareing said today: "When I found out about what happened I asked AA staff whether it would affect me and they said 'no, it won't affect you'.

"I have been robbed and we will look at issuing this injunction. We don't want to be in the guide anymore. We have proof to show we should have received the award and men in Mr Wood's position should not be making decisions like that."

Ramsay said he was furious about the decision and would be taking action on behalf of Wareing. "I'm that gutted I want to wash my hands completely of the AA guide. It has left a bad taste with me. We have proof from three inspectors and the misconduct on a personal level, on a biased level, is just unbelievable. This guy Wood came from British Gas and his personal vindictiveness on a London restaurant is gross."

AA communications director Karen Myers said the managing director made his opinions about Petrus known to the eight- member AA Merits Award Committee.

She said Mr Wood had visited the restaurant twice since he cancelled the first booking in late March. He and one of his dining guests had made it clear in writing to the committee - which takes into account feedback-from the public as well as their own critics' reports - that they were not impressed. "It is safe to say he did not believe his experience was a good one," Ms Myers said. "But no one person makes a final decision. His views were taken into account along with other feedback."

She said it was "mistaken and misguided" to believe Petrus would have received the fifth rosette. "In a nutshell, there is one opinion of one organisation, versus the opinion of another.".