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THELAST-]
STEPSOF I
DAIID
DEMPSEY
Flrul |t dna plrct
Attercalls from seveml
residents, police bring arc
lights and traine dogs to
the scene. David s body is
located
around l2.10am
DURING RUSH HOUR INATOPBRITISH RESTAURANT WHERE DAVID DEMPSEY
oNcE woRl(ED, the staffoffer their own opinioDs aboutwhathappened thal
night. Theories abound as to whether he fell accidentally or delibelately
jumped. Were drugs involved? Most people aren'tsure. On one topic,
though, they all agree:
'You had to Anow David Dempsey..."
"I don'tknowwhybut I wasn'tsurprised to hearhe was dead," says one
chef. "He lived his life in the fast lane ard then it allwent abitcrazy," says
another.
"He saw the whole thingas rock'n'roll.I mean, c'mon - fallingoutof
a windola. in London!In his head he'd maybe even see it as a fittingend."
Dempsey would have been alltoo familiar with the concentrated tableau
ofmadness that follows the eveningt firstorders. A-rrivingvia the pretty
waitresses, pink slips withdetails are pasted to aboard and the dishes are
announced to the staff Then,
like the crewofa nuclear
"He
submarine preparingto
lived his life in undertale acomplex
the fast lane and maloeuwe, each chef mans
their station. Timecodes are
then ii all went a bit
punched into tiny little digital
nrazrr" qarrq: r'ho{
clocks, and then the
who countdown begins.
"He
knew Dempsey.
saw the whole
"Four minutes..."
"Oui!"
thing as rock'n'roll. "Three minutes and 20..."
I mean, c mon -
"Oui!"
"Forty
falling oui of a
five seconds..."
"Oui!"
window in Londonl
in his head he'd
Shod in Birkenstocks,
they command their areas
Tn2\/np p\/pn qoa lT
like officerg Eachcook is
as a frttrng end" different: one stands foursquare
and tough, another
moves lightly like a painter
at a canvas, another talks and
sings to himself, another nods and whispers encouragementto the others.
The cooked ingredients are passed to the boss - the head chef- for final
preparation. When he receives the food he turns round to add his touches as
his staffstare attheback ofhis headwith the nervous look offootballerswho
know theycould be substituted, or even sold, instantly. For a momentthey
aren't a team - they're individuals worrying deeply that it'll be their bit ofthe
dish that fouls the whoie thingup.
Steam licks the head chef's face as he sets the dish on the plate. For a
momenthis eyes narrow as he inspects the completed order Then he nods
silently aDd sends it off, with a mix ofconfrontation and reluctant pride.
Everyone pauses. They wipe their hands and surhces. Stretch. Mumur to one
another Pace their spaces. within 40 seconds, another order arrives and it all
begins again. The sequence oforders becornes increasinglycomplex as the
restallrant fills up. Soon each cook is handlingseveral dishes. The head chef
surveys it all like a chess grandmaster playing several games simultaleously.
Some would find this high-stress world unbearable. David Dempsey,
though,loved it.Inhis latter years, he ruled akitchenlike few others.
'Yeah,
he had it," one ofhis fiiends tells me, "he knew he was talented and he was
absolutelypassionate about what he wanted to do and where he wanted to
go... And, he hadballs -verybigballs."
AS HER LARGE GERMAN SHEPHERD PADS RESTLESSLY AROUNDTHE
GROUl{D-FLOOR COUNCIL FLAT, Eileen Dempseycarefully arralges the
newspaper clippings she has kept ofherson's careerbeside heron the sofa.
There are other reminders in the smalllivingroom ofthe circles in which
this high-school teacher's brilliantson once moved: two large Gordon
Ramsaycookbooksit on asmallbookshelf, and a framed picture of
Dempsey in his kitchen whites looks down from the wall.
"I got that one liamedbecause he's actuallysmilingin it, unlike fiesg"
she says, handing me aselection ofpress shots.
"That's him inhis kitchen:
tough guy, knives-in-hand pose."
115

On the wall next to Denrpsey's portrait is a framed
poemwhich Eileenwrote forhis funeral. The 6nal
verse reads:'nVho knows whatwenton duringyour
life's last ght? Butone thing's forsure we'llcontinue
to fight. Your name won'tbe tarnished for long. Trust
me son. we'll get to the filth and we'll seejustice done."
It's clear, in hermind, that manyquestions remarn
unanswered, notleastof them whether the unknown
manshe claims was seen runningnear lhe scene of
the incidentwas in any way connected to the events
ofthat night. "There's something not right in his
death," says Eileen, as she digs into her handbag and
produces a cheapblue plastic wallet that was taken
from Dempseyt body atthe morgue.Its contents are
unremarkable: a video club membership;a laundry
card; receipts fiom a May.fair club;three neatly
folded (but inexplicably blood-stained) €20 notes
and lotterytickets. As I inspectthe latter - 5,141218,
25,44 - Eileengoes through halfa dozen possible
explarations as to whatcould have happened to
Dempsey, some more plausible thanothers
"I mean,look at these lotterynumbers," she says.
"He put those on the
nightbefore he died, yet people think he was maybe suicidal orgoingdaft
or crackingup that weekend he died- Not a chance. He was the same as he
always was,"
Eileen Dempsey's raft ling windows overlook a windswept communal
garden in Glasgow's Maryhill district, to the north ofthe cit'r It's a tough
area. Those that make it out are fighters, survivors. "David was very much a
productofhis environment and upbringing," says one local pal, "buthe
disreg€rded it. I don'tthink he saw himselfas beingworkingclass. He didn't
put himselfin any particular category"
Glasgow gives reputations out grudgingly. Nowhere on earth will you
6nd people harderto impress. Yet before David Dempseywas a successful
chefhe'd already been
'tlocked" as someone to watch - albeit for the \,i,rong
reasons.
"David Dempseypulled agun - orwhatiooked like a gun - on me
when he was about IT or l8," claims a doorman fiom a club in the city's
centre. 'Yea$ later when I saw a TV programme about cooking, there was
the same wee smilingface with cordonRamsay.I both couldn'tbutcould
also wellbelieve it."
THIS APPARENT CONTRADICTION MIGHT BE EXPLAII{ED BY THE PUBIIC'S
CHANGING PERCEPflON OF CHEFS and the world in whichDempsey
worked.Ifcordon Ramsay's ag$essive ravings - capnrred to perfection
by a Channel 4 film crew in the infamous Boiling Pointseries killedthe
m''th that cookingwas forsissies, then New York ChefAnthony
Bourdain's best-sellingbook Kitchen Confrdentrhl epitomised the
profession's new image, a sexy, ralish, spicy underworld of"mastercriminals,
sexual athletes... highwayrnen, rogues, buccaneers, cut-throats"
living "a life ofadventure, looting piilagingand rockingand rolling
through life with a carefree disregard for allconventional morality".
Yet the 2lst-century chef is more than a maverick bankrobber - he is
also awhipsmartbusinessman. Jamie Oliver was credited with generating
tl53m in profits forSainsbury's lastyear, and by the beginningofthis year
the Naked Chefwas planning "world domination".
"I've created an
infiastructure that will grow naturally," he toid The Guadian,adding
helpfu lly, "I'm also planningto getmore political."
Behind the brio gnd the brand planning is an age-old buth: monet So
who could blame a tough kid from Glasgow for taling his charces and
claiminga piece of the action?
"I think David always had high aspirations," says someone whoworked
with Dempsey at Ra',rnond Blanc's Michelin two-star Le Manoir aux Quat'
Saisons.'You could tellthat in the way he dressed. He would think nothing
ofspendingafomrne on clothes, whether he had the money or not. He's
drivinginto work and there's a carpark fullofPorsches and Ferraris and all
the rest, and Dempseydid aspire to that. He wanted to be famous." Like
116
Mast€. of all he surveF DemFsay (centE) watclrcs over
his tean drring ftis rilt|e a5 h€ad chef at Ama.ylli! in his
homc town ol Glalsow in Ap?il 2OOl
almostallofthe people I spoke tq this man insisted that I protecthis identity.
The restauraitbusiness in the UK is a small and unforgiving community.
Andrev/ Fairlig a Michelin-starred chefwho runs an epongnous
restaurant inThe Gleneagles Hotel, was one ofthe few people who were
prepared to go on record to talk about David Dempsey's professional
beginnings. When Dempsey literally appeared on his backdoorstep about
I0 years ago, Fairlie was immediately impressed by the young chef's ambition
and his hunger to learn. "He was absolutely certain aboutwhere he wanted
to go," he says.
"There are very fewpeople that you come across like that."
Dempse.ywanted the
experience of beingaround
elite cooks, and offered to
' D.arr rJ f)omncpir
\{ork at One Devonshire
pLlilecr
Gardens, Fairlie's restaurant at
agun*or
the time, on his only day off
what looked llke
fiom his other kitchen. Ifthere
gun - on me when tg were wages forthis labour, it
WASabout
17 or 18, wouldbe abonus.
It was a tactic that
clarTns a doorman
Dempsey was to use many
f r.,rn z a 2c.on\^/ al rh
'Years
times. Later, vr'hen he was
later when I workingl6-hour days at Le
saw a TV programme Manoir, he would fly back to
-f hn rf .nn[ Giasgow on his days offand go
' no thorp!
a ' r i r v
straight into One Devonshire
was tne same wee Gardens to work for fiee.
"I
sm ling face wrth
thought he was
completelyberserk,"
Gordon Ramsay"
says
Fairlie, shaking his head.
"I said to him on a number of
occasions,'Listen, forget it..."'
Yet, as anothertop cheftells me,'You need to go through a painbarrier
gettingto this level.There's no fast-track - there's lots ofsacrifice involved
and it's very disciplined. It's definitelyavocation." Or, as another industry
source putit, "It's the differencebetween drivinga Lada and a Ferrari."
Dempsey wasn't simply a workaholic; he was setting himself the
4
toughestpossible targets in order to securchis objective: Gordon Ramsay.
Hejoined the chef's London-based operation in 1992 after a day's trial at
Ramsay's eponlmous flagship restaurant in Royal Hospital Road. It was an -
experience he told his closestftiends had been'tompletely mind-blowing". =

Ramsay lived up to his reputation in every way. Dempseytold one ofhis slepton a couch more suitable for a child than a top chefearningt70,000
friends that he would'tome up and kick him on the shins and nip him and a year. Her eyes water with anger at his living conditions.
push him andjostle himout oftheway artd jrllthe restofit. The verbal abuse Dempseytold friends hewasn't happy, but when his mothersawhim
went on right up and until the last," says the fiiend "I mean, itwas legendary over the Easterholidays he seemed calm and looked well -so well, in fact,
- Gordon comingup to Glasgow and takingDavid out theback and
that they evenjoked about him getting fat when his mother asked him why
completely trashing him, screaming at the top ofhis voice "
he had leftAmaryllis, Dempsey answered,
"I had io go otherwise,I
Ramsayinspires mixed feelings Some have nothingbut admiration for wouldn't have had a job."
him;others literally fear him. One cheftold me thatwhile he was "sharpened TWo months before David's death, top French ChefBernard Loiseau' one
up" workingfor thetriple-Michelin-starred chei he did feel that "it's almost ofthe most famous chefs in France, took his own life after slipping in national
like being indoctrinated. It's likejoiningthe Marines or something
" This is restaurant ratings. People have wondered whether either David's stalled
what David Dempseywillingly signed up f or
career, or news about tests linked to cancer he had in the week he died, led
"I think David wajtted to prove that there was nothing he couldn't take," himto commitsuicide. Eileen is dismissive ofboth suggestions:
"He told me
says the chef. "I have never seen a guy with so many burns and scars up lus the tests were fine. Everyone but David worried about his health "
Dempsey's family have seen a police video that recreated his 6nal
hands and rightup his forearms.
movements on the night he died, but it raised as many questions as it
He once said he was tired
lffi:*,r'r-.1
answered. His movements certainly didn t represent dle nomal
because he was working until
modus operandi of acatburglar. He entered the building fiom the rear,
2am,butthenwenthome todo
went into a couple's apa.rtment on the ground flool smashed out their
a lweights] workouL"
froot window, hopped ledges; re-entered the building after smashing
Ex-colleagues who met
a dool raced upstairs towards the rear, exited a window, gripped a
Dempsey after he'd worked for
each other's
drainpipe, then fell to his death. witnesses also stated tha! far from
Rarnsay for a while were taken
company, although his "mmpaging", they'd actually felt a bit sorry for David. It was very odd
aback by how much he had
Dempsey's penchant behaviour, to say the least - even for someone who was allegedly also
changed: "His demeanour, the
way he would speal, the things
stoned outofhis head.
for flashing about
when the toxicology report was made public at the official inquest
he'd say were right out of
expensive molllle on 9 July, it revealed that David Dempsey had l.3mg ofcocaine per liue
Gordon'smouth'Anactive
phones drd allegedlY in his system, a potentially fatal quantity His family, who insist that
body is an active mind',
'Donleys David was
once drive RamsaY
'hfiaid ofheights and totally anti- drugs", immediately stated
use theirbacks, chefs
that they planned tocommission their owl toxicology report. No one I
use their brains', all ofthat "
to grab one and
spoke to ever saw David Dempsey touch drugs. Indeed, the reverse was
Eileen Dempsey readilY
drop lt into a pot of tme - he regularly cited his dislike ofthem and where they led users.
admits that her son didn't
Chinese tea"
His friends said that if oempsey had been taling drugs, then it would
simply like or admire the
have been in his nature to have indulged in public To their knowledgg
charismatic Ramsay: "No, You
must understand that David
this never occurred.
But Dempsey was always good at comparBnental ising his life. Paul
idolised Gordon."
Despite the boot-camp hisnionics, people who knew the two chefs said Carroll, acheffromGordon Ramsay's resrauranL told police thathe had
they werc exffemely easy in each other's company, although Dempsey's
penchant for flashing about expensive mobile phones did allegedly once
ddve Ramsay to grab one ard drop it into a pot ofchinese tea in a Glasgow
restaurant. Yet some people I spoke to thought Dempsey's own percephon
oftheir relationship might have been skewed. He took both Ramsay's praise
and cdticism to hearl "He would get upse!" one source told mg "and I am
takingtlis from somebody who said to me that David had turned up at tlteir
door at two otlock in the morning crying and all the rest of il"
Gordon Ramsay broke his silence on the subject ofDavid Dempsey3
death only once before the inquest. In an intervi ew :-j]'The Obset'ler,he
equated Dempsey's death with his brother's long-term heroin addiction'
Ramsay said he felt pain and sorrow over both issues, ard said drat he was
planning to implement drugs tests for employees. Dempsey's family were
appalled. "1'm sorry" says Eileen, "but I think there's a big difference
between David and his brother David doesn't have a habit..." or didn'L
BY THE EEGINNII{G OF 2OO'. DAVID SEEI'ED IO BE RDNG HIGH W|rH
GoRDON RAftsAY. He was even cited in the press as the
"inspiration 'behind
the fiIst restaumnt Ramsay opened outside London. Amaryllis was located
in Glasgpv/s smart west End - at one Devonshire Gardens, in fact, the site
that Fairlie had vacated on moving into Gleneagles. David was coming home'
Despite critical plaudits, Amaryllis didn t attract diners in droves. At the
end ofApril this year, Ramsay admitted the market had been tough and
amounced a "slight revamp" in the hope ofattracting the mid-market
audience. There was talk ofDempsey heading a .Iew restaurant in Edinburgh
butintheinte m he left behind his parmer, his three children, his sister
Yasmin ald his mother, and moved into a tiny flat near Royal Hospital Road,
where he was to work under Ramsay's head chef, MaJk Askew When Eileen
came down to London to pick up his possessions, she discovered that her son
118
been out with Dempsey on the night he died, and that Dempsey had said that
he had rakencocainearlier in the evening.
Later that night, caroll left an anxious message on David Dempsey's
answerphone, although what prompted the call rcmains a mystery to the
fanily. ca.rroll spoke to the police, though not until over a week after the
incident His account apparendy satisfied the police. But the Dempsey
familysrill feelthar pans ofthe puzzle are missing
GMng evidence at the inques! Cordon Ramsay said $at duringt]rcir last
meeting,24 hours befote the chef's death, Dempsey seemed agitated "lt
wasn't the normal David," he said. "It was a guy that was, for me, looking as
though he was under pressure." Perhaps it had something to do with the
nature ofthe conveNation they had over dinner at the Harvey Nichols
restaurant that night. Ramsay told t}|e hearing that they had discussed the
resignatrons ofseveral femele staffmembers, and that DemPsey had accepted
responsibility for the altercations that had led to them handing in their
notice. He also said that Dempsey had asked to borrow t3,000, claiming that
he was under financial pressure following his purchase ofhis London flat
Whatever happened that nighg Dempsey appeared upbeat after the
meeting telling fiiends that his future with Itamsay was secure and that he'd
be '.Gordonb man IOO per cent ulrtil he was 65". His family aren't so sure.
They tell me he was planring to cut his ties witi Ramsay and was intent on
opening his own restaurant iD Glas8ow. Given his track record, he was
probably working both sides ofthe street simultaneously
Out ofcuriosity, I check out the location his family tell me Dempsey had
in mind for his new restaurant. Sure enough, on a bustling Glasgow streeg a
"Saler4-easd'sign hangs above a vacant doorway. It\ a pdme location. lfthose
lottery numbers had come up, could David Dempsey have been in there right
now, cooking up astorm? lt s an impossible question to answer. Becauseonly
one person truly knew David Dempsey, and he isn t around any morc' @