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THE four bankers who spent £44,007 for dinner at Gordon Ramsay's Petrus restaurant in London's St James's are threatening to sue the celebrity chef for revealing their identities. The group, who work for Barclays Capital, are embarrassed and angry that details of the meal were made public.
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However Ramsay insists that he is not responsible. He said today: 'They are seriously cheesed off and obviously blaming me for it. I believe they are in the process of sending a writ. However the information was not released by me. I have a code and I don't work like that. They will have to prove their case but I shall fight it to defend myself and my staff.'
The identities of the four bankers emerged on Monday after a week of speculation in the City. The largest share of the bill - a total of £12,000 - was paid by Mahish Chandra who works at Barclay's London trading floor in Canary Wharf.
Another £11,500 went on the personal credit card of Iftikhar Hyder, a senior risk analyst who recently joined the bank from the US. Then £9,000 was paid by Dayananda Kumar, a colleague of Mr Chandra, and £8,500 was paid by Ruth Cove, who works in Barclays' New York office. The remaining £3,000 on the bill and a tip of 'four figures' is understood to have been paid by the two others who made up the group, who were celebrating a coup in the bonds market.
Most of the bill was accounted for by the wine, which included three Forties bottles of Petrus Pomerol that cost more than £32,000.
Mr Hyder said he did not drink any of the wine because he is a Muslim. 'I've never drunk alcohol,' he said. 'I was only helping out with the bill and will be reimbursed. This has caused me enormous damage. I'm not a big spender.'
Barclays, who announced a rise in profits of £1bn this year after slashing jobs and High Street branches, insist the dinner was private and its employees were spending their own money.
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