Netflix series spotlights Ramsay in London
A new Netflix docuseries is covering celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's £20 million investment in five luxury restaurants at the 22 Bishopsgate skyscraper in London. The series reportedly details the boardroom pressures and personal challenges involved in the large-scale culinary project.
- Gordon Ramsay Restaurants reported record sales of £134 million in the 70 weeks leading up to December 2024, yet posted an operating loss of £7.3 million, partly attributed to the pre-opening costs for the 22 Bishopsgate project. The expansion is supported by private equity firm Lion Capital, which holds a 50% stake in the new combined UK and international restaurant group. - The five ventures inside the skyscraper include an Asian-inspired Lucky Cat restaurant and bar on the 60th floor, the 12-seat Michelin-starred Chef's Table experience 'Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High', a Bread Street Kitchen & Bar, and Europe's highest cookery school, the Gordon Ramsay Academy. These are part of the building's "vertical village" concept, which also features a 20,000 sq ft food market, a gym with a climbing wall, and London's highest free public viewing gallery on the 58th floor. - As Google phases out third-party cookies, programmatic advertising is shifting focus to contextual targeting, with 78% of advertisers planning to increase its use. This involves matching ads to a website's content using AI, a privacy-centric alternative that avoids personal data but requires new strategies for measurement and attribution. - Enterprises are increasingly adopting open-source large language models (LLMs) like Meta's Llama 3 to build AI agents and workflows, avoiding vendor lock-in from proprietary models like GPT-4. This approach allows for greater customization and on-premise or private cloud deployment, giving companies full control over data security and compliance. - Venture capital investment in UK startups remains strong, with AI-focused companies securing a record 30% of all UK VC funding in the first half of 2025, amounting to $2.4 billion. London continues to be the dominant European startup hub, attracting more VC funding than Germany and France combined. - Formula 1 is set for a major regulatory overhaul in 2026, with new power units mandated to deliver a roughly 50/50 split between the internal combustion engine and electric power. The changes, which also include a switch to 100% sustainable fuels, have attracted new manufacturers, with Audi entering as a works team and Ford returning in a partnership with Red Bull Powertrains. - Beyond Ramsay's launch, London's 2026 restaurant scene includes several other high-profile openings. Aktar Islam, the chef behind Birmingham's two Michelin-starred Opheem, is opening a refined Indian restaurant called Oudh 1722 in Borough, and a modern Georgian restaurant, DakaDaka, is launching in Mayfair.
