He arranged for an unidentified man to pull up outside Aubergine on a scooter, rush in and snatch the book before fleeing.
“It was my one stroke of genius, fucking someone over without his knowing that I was the one who done it,” he told The New Yorker.
“And the [restaurant owners] cutting Marco off and wanting to get closer to me, kissing my ass … You always eat that fucking revenge when it’s cold, don’t you? Trust me, this was stone cold.”
That same year, Ramsay opened his own restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road.
The opening of his new eatery is documented in the UK series, Boiling Point.
It’s Ramsay’s introduction to true reality TV. It won’t be his last.