厨神难当

厨神难当

还记得《地狱厨房》里面那个脾气火爆、满嘴F打头、常常把选手骂到哭的顶级厨神戈登·拉姆齐（Gordon Ramsay）吗？他的米其林三星餐厅尽管味道不用说，但是大厨还是得拿出自己的主持赚钱来补贴餐厅。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

put into administration 接管

pre-tax losses 税前损失

expansion 阐述；扩张物[ɪk'spænʃ(ə)n; ek-]

depreciation 折旧；贬值[dɪ,priːʃɪ'eɪʃ(ə)n; -sɪ'eɪ-]

amortization 阻尼；分期偿还[ə,mɔːtaɪ'zeɪʃən]

eatery 小饭馆['iːtərɪ]

merit 优点，价值['merɪt]

阅读即将开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用时间，并对照我们在文章最后给出的参考值来估算您的阅读速度。

Gordon Ramsay restaurants expect return to profit next year（360words）

By Paul McClean

* * *

The Gordon Ramsay Group of restaurants is aiming to return to profit next year after several years of losses as a turnround starts to pay off.

The group, which includes 29 restaurants sharing six Michelin stars, struggled after the 2008 financial crisis, which chief executive Stuart Gillies admits “almost killed us”. Accountants were drawing up plans to put the company into administration, but it underwent a strategic review following the appointment of Mr Gillies in 2011, and its losses have fallen steadily since.

Pre-tax losses fell from £6.4m in 2013 to £2m in 2014, and accounts published on Tuesday showed losses fell again to £0.7m in the 12 months to September 2015. Mr Gillies remained confident that the company would be in profit by next year.

Gordon Ramsay Group said it was planning to open its first UK restaurants outside London, with potential sites in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham as it sought to exploit “enormous opportunities for expansion both in the UK and around the world”.

Sales grew 12.6 per cent to £50.3m in 2015 after the group opened restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 41 per cent to £5.7m.

The restaurant group reported a near 90 per cent fall in pre-tax profits in 2009 and Gordon Ramsay and Chris Hutcheson, his father-in-law, injected £5m of their own money into the business to avoid administration.

The company “debranded” its restaurants as part of its turnround plan, removing Mr Ramsay’s name from the eateries “so that the teams running the restaurants could put up blinkers and focus on the DNA of each individual operation,” added Mr Gillies.

“It was a sensitive conversation when we asked Gordon to take his name off [some restaurants], but it was a move he completely agreed with. It meant we were focused on delivering quality food that would be judged solely on its merit, and not because of a wave of reputation that went with it,” said Mr Gillies.

The chief executive said the “spend per head” was much higher before the financial crisis.

“But after 2008, expense accounts changed and it became ugly to spend that amount of money on a meal. We sharpened the focus, so it wasn’t about Gordon but about the market trends and needs,” he said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. How about Gordon Ramsay restaurants’ financial situation in the past several years?

a. a slight profit

b. lots of earnings

c. balance of payments

d. heavy losses

2. When was the group hit so hard?

a. 2008

b. 2015

c. 2013

d. 2014

3. Where can you find Gordon Ramsay restaurants in UK now?

a. Manchester

b. Leeds

c. London

d. Birmingham

4. Why the group asked Gordon to take his name off some restaurants?

a. the market trends

b. food can be judged solely

c. request from his father-in-law

d. Gordon was quit

[1] 答案d. heavy losses

解释：文章讲预计明年可以逆转财务状况实现盈利，可知前几年是亏损的。

[2] 答案a. 2008

解释：2008年的经济危机对餐厅的打击很大，危机后餐厅的人均消费减少。

[3] 答案c. London

解释：集团计划在英国开第一家伦敦以外的餐厅，所以目前只有在伦敦可以找到。

[4] 答案b. food can be judged solely

解释：这样做的目的是让食客通过食品品质做评判，而不是Gordon的个人声望。