Well, it was surely only a matter of time. Gordon Ramsay has announced that he intends to launch not one but two national chains of mid-market restaurants, serving classic British dishes, at around the £30 a head price point.

The models, the Evening Standard reports, are his East End gastropub The Narrow, and the recently relaunched Chelsea bistro, Foxtrot Oscar. The latter has been panned in most of the reviews so far published, perhaps most succinctly in the Daily Telegraph, whose Mark Palmer dismissed it as “another occupied square on Gordon's Monopoly board.”

Jamie Oliver is also set to ‘go high street’ later this year, with the first opening of a proposed national chain in Bath.

History suggests that maintaining food of notable (or even satisfactorily consistent) quality at a wide-ranging generalist bistro chain (as opposed to a specialist pizzeria, steakhouse or so on) is a challenge beyond the reach of most operators.

PS (6 February) An article in the Independent gives a few more details.