Dinner with Gordon Ramsay, no thanks

The most colossal snub has been delivered to Gordon Ramsay (pictured), the foul-mouthed chef. The other night, at a sumptuous anniversary dinner held to mark the 20th anniversary of the anti-European Bruges Group, an evening with Ramsay at his Michelin-starred restaurant at Claridge's was offered up for auction. There were enough well-heeled types in attendance and the bidding was expected to be fierce. But it didn't turn out like that – far from it, reports the Daily Mail.

The auctioneer for the evening was the actor Robert Powell. Knowing he had to reach a reserve of £1,500, he opened at £1,000. But there was no response from the 350 guests at the Grosvenor House Hotel ballroom who included Lord Tebbit, Lord and Lady Palumbo and many of Lady Thatcher's old friends.

Powell's response was to drop the price, first to £800, then to £600 and eventually to £500. Still nothing. Then as it looked like the lot would have to be withdrawn, the hotelier Sir Rocco Forte perked up. "I'll bid £500 not to have dinner with Gordon Ramsay." A guest at the event claims that his jibe acted like a starting pistol, with bidders lining up to support Sir Rocco. Leading Eurosceptic Lord Pearson of Rannoch put in a bid, as did Andrew Roberts, the historian, and Lord (Greville) Howard.

Altogether, the anti-Ramsay faction bid £2,000, while a lone voice offered £500 to have dinner at the chef's table, which usually costs £850 for six diners, and eventually secured the prize. Says Old Etonian Lord Pearson, one of the anti-bidders: "Ramsay is one of those frightful people who just bores me rigid. He is just a chef, for goodness sake. Why doesn't he just get on with it - cook his food and shut up. There was a whole gang of us bidding. We just said to each other: ‘Who wouldn't bid £500 never to have anything to do with him again?'"