On Season 1 of The F Word, Gordon Ramsay
introduced viewers to six pet turkeys he had been raising in his back garden. The season tracked the progress
of the birds into the finale — when they were served up at his restaurant as part of a succulent Christmas
feast. The turkeys’ names? Ainsley, Antony, Delia, Gary, Jamie and Nigella.
To even the most casual fan,
Ramsay’s cheeky name-check of other celebrity chefs would not have come as a surprise. After all, the British
culinary giant and TV personality has never been afraid to ruffle a few feathers. Exhibit A: his numerous
reality TV franchises, with perhaps the most indelible image being Ramsay bellowing “You donkey!” at yet
another hapless contestant in the kitchen. But, he insists, there’s method to the madness.
“I scream for talent. I want to challenge everyone, because that’s where I’m at home,” Ramsay said
during a conference call prior to the debut of Hell’s Kitchen Season 5 in 2009. “I have that level
of perfection that’s been inside for a long time. Passing on that knowledge of making them better individuals
is part of the enjoyment, I suppose — the payback for me.”
This pursuit of perfection,
combined with his fiery personality, has made Ramsay one of the most recognizable and sought-after celebrity
chefs in the world. In the past two decades, his empire has grown to include Michelin-starred restaurants,
several London pubs, hit TV shows on both sides of the pond, more than two dozen books and co-ownership of
the acclaimed Tante Marie Cookery School in the U.K.
He even made a venture into video games in 2008, with Hell’s Kitchen for the Nintendo Wii
(not to worry, parents — Ramsay will yell at players who flub their culinary tasks, but his famously
colourful language is bleeped out). Clearly, Ramsay is determined not to be pigeonholed. “I am not a ‘TV
chef,’” he told The Times in 2004. “I want that engraved on my tombstone.”
A culinary career was not always so clear-cut. Born in Renfrewshire, Scotland and raised in
Stratford-upon-Avon, England, the young Ramsay was an avid jock with dreams of becoming a pro footballer.
But, as his mother told womenandhome.com in 2008, fate had other plans. “When he injured his knee in his late
teens, I thought he’d become a sports teacher,” Helen Cosgrove said. “But it was also natural for him to
become a chef; he’d always loved helping me to cook from when he was very young.”
Ham hock barley soup and steak and kidney pudding were old standbys in the family home, but as they moved
frequently, Cosgrove would often draw inspiration from local cuisine when preparing meals. The young mother
was also an avid baker, letting her children roll out and play with any leftover pastry. Years later, she
would show off these culinary skills on an episode of The F Word, where she beat her son in a
friendly challenge with her famous bread and butter pudding.
At the age of 31, Ramsay opened his flagship restaurant in Chelsea, Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road. The
restaurant earned a coveted Michelin star within just a year of opening. Ramsay recalls the achievement
with pride, telling Lifestyle via email: “It was an incredible day. I’d longed for a star at my own
restaurant for so long and the hard work had paid off. There were certainly a lot of wide smiles in the
kitchen through service that day!” The restaurant’s rise to prominence was captured by Ramsay’s first foray
into TV, a five-part documentary titled Boiling Point that aired on Britain’s Channel 4 in Feburary
1998. Three years later, the restaurant would win its third Michelin Star (an honour it still holds in 2010 —
one of only four restaurants in the U.K. to do so).
Ramsay wasn’t done with television — far from it. In 2004 he debuted two new shows in the U.K., Hell’s
Kitchen and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, which have since expanded into popular U.S.
versions also hosted by him. The latter are currently running in their seventh and third seasons,
respectively, with no signs of stopping. Meanwhile, The F Word, which also includes
appearances by Ramsay’s wife Tana and their four children, continues to air in the U.K.
Despite his many culinary
responsibilities, Ramsay will continue his dominance of the small screen with the premiere of a U.S. edition
of MasterChef in July.
Numerous awards and achievements have followed
in the years since Boiling Point, which include Ramsay’s appointment as an Officer of the British
Empire in 2006 for services to the hospitality industry. Still, Ramsay says he is constantly learning
as a chef, thanks in part to his travels around the world. “I’m very lucky and get to travel widely. [In
mid-2009 I] spent a month in India, which was an incredible experience and the food was really something. It
was like nowhere I had ever been before and every day people showed incredible skill in their cooking, often
with little resources.” His experiences with Indian culture and cuisine were turned into another TV program,
Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape, as well as a recipe book.
Ramsay’s a regular international man of gastronomy these days. Beyond the U.K., he has restaurants in
New York, Los Angeles, Versailles, Tuscany, Tokyo and Dubai — just to name a few. In April 2009, he opened
Maze at the One&Only Cape Town resort. Modelled after its British namesake, the 170-capacity restaurant
features tasting-sized dishes capturing the flavours of traditional South African recipes, as well as an open
kitchen for show grilling and roasting.
Despite his international success, Ramsay hasn’t forgotten his roots, investing his time in causes that are
close to his heart. When the avid runner completed his first London marathon, he also raised £20,000
(approximately $31,000 Cdn) for several charities, which including Bridgewater’s Refuge for single parents
and battered mothers. Last year, he also launched a line of Seriously Good cooking sauces with at least 10p
($0.15 Cdn) from the sale of every jar benefiting the U.K.-based charity Comic Relief.
With so much going on, just how much cooking does Ramsay get to do these days? “I spend as much time as I can
in the restaurants but each one has its own head chef who has trained with me and whom I trust implicitly to
run it to as high a standard when I’m not there as when I’m there,” he says. “Sometimes people ask me, who
runs your kitchens when you can’t be there? The truth is the same people who run my kitchens when I am there.
I have an incredible, loyal, hard-working, dedicated and talented team of chefs.”
The year 2010 has already been a busy one for Ramsay with the launch of new restaurants: a new Maze in
Australia and the re-opening of Pétrus in London this past March. On the menu for this summer is the
re-opening of the Savoy Grill following a large-scale refurbishment of the historic Savoy Hotel. Avid foodies
can also snap up his new cookbook, Gordon Ramsay’s Family Fare, which hit stores across North
America in April (see pages 60–62). Despite his many culinary responsibilities, Ramsay will continue his
dominance of the small screen with the premiere of a U.S. edition of MasterChef in July. The show,
which Ramsay has called the chef’s version of American Idol, sees him take on host duties alongside
restaurateur and winemaker Joe Bastianich and four-star chef Graham Elliot Bowles as judges.
Which Gordon Ramsay will viewers get in this latest venture? In recent interviews Ramsay has noted a greater
maturity and a desire to not let his perfectionist tendencies get the better of him. So, evolving, yes
— but he’s still got an eye to staying true to himself. Perhaps nowhere is this illustrated better than in
Ramsay’s recent words to The Guardian: “There has come a time when, at the age of 43, I’m getting a bit tired
of the foul-mouthed bully chef. But I’ve never tried to get the Great British blue-rinse nation to start
falling in love with me. I don’t want a radical change where I have to put a woolly hat and scarf on and go
round every Women’s Institute and improve their Victoria sponge or show them a much better recipe for spotted
dick.” •
Photos By Jill Mead
