Mark Sargeant admits crying over Ramsay split
“It was the hardest decision of my life, like getting divorced,” he said in a recent interview with Restaurant magazine.
He also denied last year’s rumours of a rift between him and Ramsay, saying he had left Gordon Ramsay Holdings on good terms, even suggesting a collaboration between GRH and Sargeant might be a possibility in the future. There were no 'closed doors', he stressed.
Sargeant, who stepped down as chef de cuisine at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's last June, announced in November that he was resigning from GRH after 13 years with the company.
When asked why he had wanted to leave, he responded, “It wasn’t for any reason other than I wanted to see what else was out there. It got to the point where that feeling was so strong I had to pursue it.”
Sargeant has joined the Swan Collection as a partner and will be responsible for developing business at the company’s existing sites in West Malling, Kent, and the Globe theatre in London, as well as helping launch several new projects.
See the March issue of Restaurant magazine, out on 24 February, for the full interview with Sargeant, in which he talks about Ramsay’s temper, the pressure of opening Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s and his views on the future of dining.
