The Plonker Club

The Walnut Tree in was one of the original restaurants that Gordon Ramsay tried to makeover in the first series of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. The Walnut Tree in featured friend of Gordon’s Francesco Mattioli and the previous successful owner Franco Taruschio in an episode that originally aired on 11 May, 2004 and was revisited on 28 May, 2005. In this episode Mattioli pretty much ignored everything that Gordon Ramsay suggested and wouldn’t reduce his prices as he deemed that it would reduce quality!  Franco sold the business in 2007 and the current owner recently won a Michelin star.

In order to get himself some publicity, the new owner criticised Gordon Ramsay for taking his top off too often in Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape and calling the decision to bring in Gordon Ramsay to help the Walnut Tree all of those years ago as ‘dumb’.

Too bad, we won’t be giving you any more publicity!