Gordon Ramsay

Staff report

CORTLAND — A television production crew was set up Monday at Four-Star Diner in advance of the speculated arrival of chef and television personality Gordon Ramsay.

Rental box trucks filled the parking lot of the diner at 168 N. Mecca St., and a large tent was set up at the back of the lot with tables where several people were working. A security guard was stationed at the restaurant’s entrance.

The person a reporter was directed to talk to said she was not allowed to say anything about the production.

“There’s a really big number with a lot of zeros at the end of it if I talk to anybody about anything,” she said.

And if there wasn’t much to see on Monday, there might be less today.

“This is our load-in day,” she said. “After today, all of this will be fenced in. We leave on Friday.”

Similar reports of Ramsay shooting a television episode last week in Cuyahoga Falls filled social media, which sparked a trend of AI-generated photos of the chef “visiting” different northeast Ohio establishments.

Cortland City Council President Kevin Piros at Monday’s council meeting confirmed Ramsay was at the restaurant and will be in town for four days. He said the restaurant is having a grand reopening later this week.

Ramsay’s restaurant and media empire encompasses establishments around the world, including six in Las Vegas and two in Atlantic City in the U.S., as well as numerous television shows, including “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Kitchen Nightmares,” “Masterchef” and “Next Level Chef.”

His newest series on FOX is “Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service,” which premiered in May and features Ramsay going undercover to rescue failing restaurants.