Looks like celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is cooking up more financial trouble for himself.
The foul-mouthed Brit has landed on New York’s list of people who haven’t paid their taxes, says Wenn.com.
City officials are after the Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares star for $250,000 because he allegedly fell behind with payments.
What’s more, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) has named his U.S. company, Gordon Ramsay New York, as one of the city’s Top 250 business "delinquent tax payers."
"New York loses billions of dollars each year in tax revenues owed, but not collected, known as the tax gap. We aggressively address the tax gap," asserted a DTF spokesperson.
Said a rep for Ramsay's company, "There is an amount still outstanding to the New York State regarding Sales Tax. We are negotiating through our New York advisors to discharge this debt."
Ramsay, whom we reported was facing bankruptcy last year, temporarily assuaged debt-collectors by putting $8 million of his own cash into his businesses.
But late last year British tax officials ordered him to pay a series of outstanding debts that were related to two of his London restaurants, and he also faced an allegedly unpaid bill from a U.S. dairy company in relation to his Manhattan restaurant.
Hell’s Kitchen is set to return Thursday, June 10, at 8 p.m. ET on Global/Fox. Kitchen Nightmares airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global, and Thursdays, 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
Meanwhile, things are looking up for another celebrity chef – Bobby Flay, star of Iron Chef America: The Series and Throwdown with Bobby Flay. The Food Network star is teaming with NBC for America’s Next Great Restaurant, says Variety.
Flay will be one of five restaurant and business hotshots who will look for a winning chef and/or entrepreneur to help open a restaurant chain in three American cities. He will serve as an investor, judge and mentor to the contestants.
America’s Next Great Restaurant is slated to air sometime in the 2010-11 season.
It seems as though NBC is trying to compete directly with Fox’s successful Ramsay shows with its new acquisition . And no wonder – Hell’s Kitchen’s Season 6 debut last year helped Fox finish No.1 in the ratings, with 6.5 million.
This isn’t the first chef-centred show NBC has explored. The reality series The Restaurant featured Rocco DiSpirito as he opened a new Italian eatery in New York. It debuted in July 2003 and ran for two seasons.
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