The likes of Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver may turn their names into restaurant brands and then into international chains, but there is more than one way for a chef to bring their business empire to the boil. Books, for example, television, supermarket food lines and, in the case of Theo Randall, investing.
The chef who runs the kitchen at his eponymous restaurant at the InterContinental hotel on Park Lane, central London, has taken an unspecified minority stake in the company that owns the ASK Italian and Zizzi restaurant chains.
He had already been working with ASK on their menus, product- sourcing and training when, together with the Zizzi chain, it was acquired by Bridgepoint, the private equity firm, six months ago for about £250 million.
As a result of his stake, the chef, who is also looking at possible sites in Manchester for another restaurant of his own, has expanded his involvement in product-sourcing to the Zizzi chain, although he is not involved with its menus.
Steve Holmes, the chief executive of Azzurri Group, the new holding company for ASK and Zizzi, said that like-for-like sales in both were growing strongly and that the business had returned to the acquisition trail.
Azzurri Group has about 112 ASK outlets and 136 Zizzi restaurants. Mr Holmes said there was an opportunity to expand the number of outlets of both brands to about 250 each in the UK, while a site in Ireland was possible.
