The rise of celebrity chef culture has produced some remarkable results in the food and restaurant world over the past decade. Some good, many bad. With the limelight squarely on star chefs to produce stellar results with each new venture, standards have gone up. And so has the bar to impress.

That pressure and the inherent scrutiny from the food press and public is felt more intensely at luxury hotels than the usual chef estalishments. More and more, hotel executives are coughing up major dough to lure the biggest names in the restaurant world to their lavish confines. In many instances, the restaurants, as well as the chef names associated with them, have become as big a draw as the hotels themselves.

The benefits of chef star power are many and for some hotels, the rewards far outweigh the risk and high investment costs. Whether they want to revamp a drab reputation, augment food and beverage sales in the long-term or draw in a sophisticated foodie crowd and use the restaurant as a loss leader, luxury hotels have jumped on the star chef bandwagon with gusto. With that in mind, here are the best hotel restaurants in the world.

Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, London, England

The brash blond bulldog known as Gordon Ramsay has become a mega-industry in the past ten years, with restaurants, television shows in the UK and the United States, cookbooks and an assortment of products that bear his stamp of approval. His ascent to the top of the celebrity chef summit is a testament to his work ethic and charm but in all the hype of his persona, people tend to forget that the man can really cook. His tutelage under Marco Pierre White and in France laid the foundation for one of the most successful careers in the history of chefdom. Ramsay simply knows the game better than anyone and has the formula for successful restaurant concepts, from the kitchen to service, down pat. His restaurant at the posh Claridge’s Hotel London is no exception. To quote Ramsay himself, “it’s the best address in London.”

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