Interview - Gordon Ramsay

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Good Gord!

Pictures: Brown Image Production

He is shouty and outspoken, with a more than liberal use of profanity. He has three Michelin Stars, a restaurant empire spanning the globe, several hit TV series and a number of bestselling books. Yes, it is fair to say that Gordon Ramsay is not your average celebrity chef. Formula One’s loss is Sur la Terre’s gain as James McCarthy found out during an exclusive (and heavily censored) one to one with the fiery Scot.

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Many people in the press have a love/hate relationship with you. How do you respond to those that criticise your persona or methods? Does it get easier to deal with the knocks in the tabloids?

I have a very strong approach to that, especially the tabloids. I stopped reading them for the last two years. If I paid attention to every Google alert and press clipping - on average we get 25 to 30 a day globally I would go insane! I am 43 years old, and I am at a stage where I am constantly judged by people who know less about food than I do. That is part of the stigma attached to what I do or how I strive, I suppose.

Fortunately, I take criticism and I don’t react the same way I used to 10 years ago to every little comment. It’s very easy to stand there and have people throw stones at you; you slip up once and it becomes a snowball effect and everybody jumps on the bandwagon. I wasn’t the only chef having difficulty last year, but the headlines in The Sun about boil in the bag food at one of my restaurants just made me laugh. Then Heston Blumenthal, bless him, poisons 500 people at The Fat Duck, and all of a sudden everyone is kissing his a**. I take it all with a pinch of salt now.

What was the worst review you received from a restaurant critic? How did you respond?

It was probably Michael Winner complaining about how disgusting the mashed potatoes were. I have to wake up in the morning and believe that Michael Winner is going to give me constructive criticism about how I cook for a living, on the back of his recent TV coverage, his career as a film director and the level of pompousness that surrounds the man? Come on. I have to keep it real. My biggest critics are my customers, they are the ones who pay the bill. Despite the flak we

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take, the restaurants are still full. We are reopening Petrus, Maze in Melbourne is about to open - and I know we will get bashed. But, as they say, there is no such thing as bad press.

You can be equally critical of others. What is the worst response you have received to one of your barbs?

Straight to the point. Having professional banter and prodding each other is quite healthy. Kissing each other’s a** and telling each other how great our food is, frankly, is quite sick. I live in the real world, but it can be quite nice to get ribbed. Marco [Pierre White] was adamant that I should never have done Hell’s Kitchen, and claimed that I had sold my soul to be a TV chef. Bless him, he saw the success of it in America, and he tried to follow in my footsteps in the UK and now it’s been canned. But I am not a TV chef. Ninety percent of TV chefs don’t have a restaurant, where as I am a real chef that happens to work on TV. So, when you take criticism about cooking on TV and not being in your restaurant... jeez, it’s just like a footballer endorsing a pair of boots or a brand of mineral water. I give and take, I am thick skinned. I laugh, though, just last week, Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal announced they are teaming up with UK supermarket chain, Waitrose. Delia has spent the last 15 years panning the supermarkets and now she is using them to refinance her football club!

There is huge excitement on a new site where Jamie Oliver is opening, and the good news for him is that I am his new neighbour. He doesn’t know that yet. Now I think that’s cool. It would be like shopping in TopShop or shopping in Prada. I am not saying which one is which, though [laughs].

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You recently cut your finger on live TV with Ellen Degenres, but what is the worst injury you have sustained in the kitchen in your 20-odd years?

It is like Lewis Hamilton crashing on a warm up lap! Just as I was telling Ellen to “slow down you’re gonna cut your finger off” and bang! It’s still growing back, and gets caught every time I put my finger in my pocket.

I have never done that in 10 years. Maybe I had best get back in the kitchen and practice holding a knife again [laughs].

The worst was at Claridges. We had the British Prime Minister in, eating at the Chef’s Table, celebrating his birthday. Someone had overcooked the rice for the risotto, which was a shame as it was a white truffle risotto and it was his favourite, and while screaming at this young chef, I burnt my left testicle! I had this dull ache and had to get an X-Ray. I was in the moment, screaming, and I had thin check trousers on and I leant back against something. I didn’t realise for about three hours, but I actually singed my left testicle. It really did seriously hurt - for weeks on end.

What is your favourite dish to cook? Why? I don’t have one dish. Cooking meat is easy, because it goes from rare, to mid rare to medium to well done. I enjoy cooking fish to the point of that amazing level of perfection. Yesterday, we had an amazing salt and thyme-crusted Hammour, served on a bed of crushed new potatoes and tomatoes. I enjoy cooking fish more. Meat is lovely and quite robust, but fish is unique; there is skill to cooking it.

What is your favourite recipe?

It would be my ravioli of lobster with fine basil puree because it has evolved in the middle of Paris - where I took an incredible amount of s*** as an Englishman opening up in France - just because we are so used to being dictated to by the French. They have more McDonald’s outlets

than any other European capital and the most number of restaurants in any one country outside of the states. In France! I find that quite scary. But, to go over there as a Brit and put a stake in the ground, not to teach them how to cook, but to be a a part of that culture, was great; but, we got a kicking. I think I must like getting beat up [laughs]. I get called “rosbif” a hell of a lot, but you just get used to it. I think I am the Mohammed Ali of Chefs, [laughing] I stand there with my gloves up taking the hits and when I do land that killer punch, I will knock every b****** out in one go! Just don’t land it too soon.

It is time for the age old question. If you were having a dinner party and could invite three people from any point in history, who would you invite, and why?

I would start off with Liz Hurley, because every chef loves a bit of posh totty; Nelson Mandela - unique - having cooked for him twice in the last two years and spending time in his company the man is just amazing.

Finally, one of the greatest living footballers ever, Pele. I cooked for him also on the eve of the 1998 World Cup in Versaille, so that was a unique experience. I compared a lot of the ethics of a football team to a kitchen brigade - there is the same closeness, the same passion and to be successful they both have to run in harmony.

If Gordon Ramsay wasn’t a successful chef, what would he have been instead?

A Formula One driver. I am a speed freak. I drive a Ferrari and a Ducatti.

I drove a Bugatti Veyron at 237mph on Millbrook and it was a buzz beyond belief. They have asked me to test drive the new Veyron Grand Sport convertible, but I am too bloody scared in case driving that fast blows my hair off!