Gordon Ramsay by Sumiran Morje

GORDON RAMSAY

Cooking is about passion, so it may look slightly temperamental in a way that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too assertive to the naked eye. -Gordon Ramsay

Meet the Master...

Gordo R

amsay

amsay was born on 8 November 1966 in Johnstone, Renfrewshire. From the age of five, he was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Ramsay is the second of four children. He has an older sister, Diane; a younger brother, Ronnie and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay’s father, Gordon James Senior Gordon James Senior (died 1997), was at various times – a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his sister Yvonne and their mother, Helen, have been nurses. Ramsay has described his early life as “hopelessly itinerant”, and his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was an at-times-violent alcoholic. In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town. At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family house into a flat in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Ramsay played football and was first chosen to play under-14 football at age 12. He was chosen to play for Warwickshire. His footballing career was marked by injuries, causing him to remark later in life, “Perhaps I was doomed when it came to football.” In mid-1984, Ramsay had a trial with Rangers, the club he supported as a boy. He seriously injured his knee, smashing the cartilage during training. Ramsay continued to train and play on the injured knee, tearing a cruciate ligament during a squash game. His time with the team spanned three years, until 1985, when a knee injury prematurely ended his career. By this time, Ramsay’s interest in cooking had already begun, and rather than be known as the football player with the gammy knee, at age 19, Ramsay paid more serious attention to his culinary education. After weighing his options, Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study hotel management, earning a degree in hotel management in 1987.

ERF ECT ION IST

His favorite food to cook, he says, is fish, naturally, because “it’s about perfection,” he says. “Cooking meat is easy, I can tell you exactly the temperature with my eyes closed. But fish is completely different. There’s only one temperature, and that’s perfection.”

There’s the Gordon Ramsay who’s the

host of four network TV shows, watched by millions of viewers every week. There’s the producer who’s president of One Potato Two Potato, giving notes behind the scenes and coming up with ideas for shows that turn into hits around the globe. There’s the restaurateur who’s owner of 24 eateries worldwide and holder of seven coveted Michelin stars. There’s the marathon runner and the Ironman triathlete who competed in the Kona World Championships. He’s got three more slated for next year, perfectly scheduled between production of his shows, naturally. And then there’s the devoted husband to Tana and father of four: Megan, Jack, Holly and Matilda. So how does he balance it all? “The secret of my success is that I take nothing for granted,” he tells Variety over late morning lattes at the Soho House in West Hollywood. “I go into every restaurant, every program, as if it’s the first day. And I give 110%. Because it’s not that money that turns me on. I find that side slightly embarrassing. It’s wonderful and it’s nice, but it doesn’t make you a better chef. The fundamental crux of a successful chef is being true to what you do.” Talk to those who know him best, and one word comes up again and again: perfectionist. It’s a title he wears proudly. Ramsay’s ascent to culinary stardom is

all the more impressive given his humble beginnings. “We didn’t have a glamorous cuisine,” he says of his childhood in Scotland. But he learned his way around the kitchen from his mother, a cook in a tea shop, who’d feed him comfort food. “It felt so luxurious because it was homemade,” he says. “I laugh when I see people playing with food. I mean, God Almighty, you’d get clipped around the ear!” He had hoped to be a soccer star, but those dreams were dashed because of an injury. “I still can’t let go of the early days of my career when I was destined to play soccer, and that didn’t happen,” he says regretfully. So cooking was his escape route — but given his family’s limited resources, he almost didn’t make it to culinary school. “My career officer said that I was going to become a hotel manager,” he recalls. “That scared the shit out of me.”Yet given his famous tenacity, he persevered, and eventually landed a job in a hotel restaurant — where, he says, he learned how not to cook.“I saw so many short cuts done badly,” he says with a grimace.He went on to London, where he learned from the greats: Marco Pierre White (“he taught me how to put food on a plate”), Guy Savoy, Joel Robuchon. Working in those high-pressure kitchens served him well. “It’s competitive, and you have to be on your game,” he says. In 1998, he finally achieved his dream of opening his own restaurant in London, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, where he

“He’s a perfectionist,” says Paul Buccieri, chairman of ITV U.S. Studios Group. “When you have to run a restaurant, and people are putting their hard-earned money down for a night out, he wants to create an experience, and make that experience the best it can possibly be. It’s not just getting them in the door, but having them come back.”

earned three Michelin stars. The eatery, which now holds three stars, also holds a special place in his heart. He took his whole family there for the first time last year for his daughter’s 16th birthday. Recalls Ramsay, “When we got home, Meg asked for a word upstairs and said, ‘I totally understand now. Growing up and only seeing you on weekends, I didn’t quite understand. But I really get it now.’ ” He pauses, the proud father taking stock of what it must mean for his kids. “We kept them away from that because that’s not the food I grew up with,” he says. “But that was nice to hear from her.” Clearly it’s all pressure he puts on himself, but does he ever slow down? “I thrive on it,” he says. “I think pressure’s healthy.” That pressure’s not just on him, but on his staff as well. Having his name above the door sets a standard that he holds to everybody who works for him. “The power of the brand I want to equate with quality,” he says. “I’m always asked, ‘You’re such a hands-on chef. Who does the food when you’re not there? (The answer is) the same people who do it when I am there. You need to equate that level of quality, and then drill a team to make sure that they deliver.” His favorite food to cook, he says, is fish — naturally, because “it’s about perfection,” he says. “Cooking meat is easy, I can tell you exactly the temperature with my

eyes closed. But fish is completely different. There’s only one temperature — and that’s perfection.” Though he watches what he eats himself — he’s constantly in training — he does have his cravings. When he finished his most recent Ironman, the one thing on his mind was a burger.“I remember crossing that line, and everyone said, ‘You want to go and lie down?” I said, ‘No. I just want to go and eat an amazing Kobe beef burger.’ ”So he ordered a feast when he got back to his hotel: tomato soup, grilled cheese, burger and fries, and blueberry cheesecake for dessert. “And bang, I woke up four hours later,” he says. “I’d completely collapsed, and everything had solidified. I was like, ‘Shit. Was I really going to eat all that?’ So I went back to porridge, oatmeal. So that’s the one thing that I always return to, comfort food.”Given everything on his proverbial plate — his restaurants, his shows, his production company — what does he want his legacy to be? “I was the first-ever Scottish chef to win three Michelin stars, and I want to see the next Scottish person win three Michelin stars,” he says. “I’ve done so much — sat underneath bull sharks, shitting myself for a shark documentary because the fins were going missing and everyone was depleting the stocks. So if I can find the next person and give him or her that level of success, I’m pushing daisies a happy bunny.”

HEAD CHEF Upon his return to London in 1993, Ramsay was offered the position of head chef (under chef-patron Pierre Koffmann) at the Three Michelin starred La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, Marco Pierre White re-entered his life, offering to set him up with a head chef position and 10% share in the Rossmore, owned by White’s business partners. The restaurant was renamed Aubergine and went on to win its first Michelin star fourteen months later. In 1997, Aubergine won its second Michelin star. Despite the restaurant’s success, a dispute with Ramsay’s business owners and Ramsay’s dream of running his own restaurant led to his leaving the partnership in 1997. In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. The restaurant gained its third Michelin star in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve that feat. From his first restaurant, Ramsay’s empire has expanded rapidly, next opening Petrus, then Amaryllis in Glasgow (which he was later forced to close) and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s. He hired his friend and maître d’hôtel Jean-Philippe Susilovic, who works at Petrus and also appears on Ramsay’s US TV show Hell’s Kitchen. Restaurants at

the Dubai Creek and Connaught hotels followed, the latter branded with his protégé Angela Hartnett’s name. Ramsay has opened restaurants outside the UK, beginning with Verre in Dubai. Two restaurants, Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay, both opened in Tokyo in 2005. In November 2006, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened in New York City, winning top newcomer in the city’s coveted Zagat guide, despite mixed reviews from professional critics. In 2007, Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Ireland. Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, County Wicklow. This restaurant closed in 2013. In May 2008 he opened his first restaurant, Boxwood, on the US west coast in The London West Hollywood Hotel (formerly the Bel-Age Hotel) on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. On 9 August 2011, Ramsay opened his first Canadian restaurant, Laurier Gordon Ramsay (at the former Rotisserie Laurier BBQ) in Montreal. In February 2012 Danny Lavy, the owner of the restaurant, announced the restaurant was disassociating itself from Ramsay, citing a lack of involvement and understanding on Ramsay’s part. The restaurant closed in 2013.

W10

MISPLACING theMICHELIN STARS W

n a downgrade of epic proportions, Gordon Ramsay at the London in New York City lost both of its Michelin stars. He hasn’t been directly involved in the NYC restaurant for years, losing the stars still hurts Ramsay’s reputation. Especially when you have major newspapers like the Globe and Mail report the restaurant belongs to Ramsay. Quote: “Ramsay’s reputation in the cooking world has been dealt a serious blow with the news that his posh New York restaurant The London has been stripped of both its Michelin stars.”

So what changed this year? The short answer is that the Michelin inspectors found the restaurant inconsistent in recent visits. Michelin Guide director Michael Ellis tells Bloomberg’s Ryan Sutton: “We’ve had issues with consistency, and consistency is a huge thing for us.” He also explains that he himself dined at the restaurant to see what was really going on: “I personally went there; we’ve had some very erratic meals.” Ellis explains that he doesn’t “really know what’s going on in the kitchen” and that there’s been “quite a bit of instability at the restaurant.” Of course, the restaurant could regain its stars someday.

In 1926, the Michelin guide began to award stars for fine dining establishments. Initially, there was only a single star awarded. Then, in 1931, the hierarchy of zero, one, two, and three stars was introduced. Finally, In 1936, the criteria for the starred rankings were published: 1. “A very good restaurant in its category” 2. “Excellent cooking, worth a detour” 3. “Exceptional cuisine, worth a journey”

LEAPS Opened in 1998, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was Ramsay’s first solo restaurant. In 2001, it was voted Top Restaurant in the UK in the London Zagat Survey and was awarded its third Michelin star. In 2011, the Daily Mail claimed that Ramsay spent more time on television than in the kitchen but he still retained the three stars for his Chelsea restaurant. At that time Ramsay was one of only four chefs in the UK to retain three Michelin Stars for his restaurant. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 honours list for services to the hospitality industry. In July 2006, Ramsay won the Catey award for “Independent Restaurateur of the Year”, becoming only the third person to have

won three Catey awards. Ramsay’s two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) and 2000 (Chef of the Year). In September 2006, he was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry in the annual Caterersearch 100 list, published by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. He overtook Jamie Oliver, who had been top of the list in 2005. Also in 2006, Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector of the University of St Andrews. Ramsay’s flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, was voted London’s top restaurant in Harden’s for eight years, but in 2008 was placed below Petrus, a restaurant run by former protégé Marcus Wareing. In January 2013, Ramsay was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.

RAMSAY’S COOKING ENCHIRIDIONS S

houty chef and mobile video game star Gordon Ramsay is writing not one, but three new cookbooks. Ramsay has a deal in place with publisher Hodder & Stoughton, reports the Bookseller, and the first will be released this fall. Gordon Ramsay Bread Street Kitchen is set to debut on October 20, 2016. Bread Street Kitchen will offer the home cook recipes from Ramsay’s London restaurant of the same name. “If you think you can’t eat as well at home as you do in a restaurant — think again,” the chef told the Bookseller. “At Bread Street Kitchen we’re all about relaxed, fresh, seasonal ingredients, which means that the recipes are perfect for the home cook looking for new ideas for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.” Details on future Ramsay books were not available, but they’re expected to be released in fall 2017 and fall 2018.

The ironman race Gordon Ramsay has 3 Michelin stars as a chef, is a world renowned TV presenter who is known for his fiery temper and use of explicit language. He has raced in 15 marathons, three ultra-marathons, three half-Ironman’s. He completed the “world’s toughest race” the Hawaii Ironman in 2013 in a time of 14 hours 4 mins and 48 seconds. However, he failed in his most recent attempt at an Ironman in 2015, having to stop during the

last section of the race the 26.2 mile run. He intends to compete in another Ironman in the future after his failure to complete the ironman in 2015. Tweeting after the race “I will be BACK”. Also been quoted saying he “wants to run sub 12 hours” Future Gordon Ramsey wishes to compete in the 2016 Hawaii Ironman and successfully finishing the race in sub 12 hour.

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Ramsay’s first documented role in television

was in two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries: Boiling Point (1998) and Beyond Boiling Point (2000). Ramsay appeared on series three of Faking It in 2001. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares aired on Channel 4. Hell’s Kitchen saw Ramsay attempt to train ten British celebrities to be chefs. In May 2005, the FOX network introduced Ramsay to American audiences in a US version of Hell’s Kitchen, the show showcasing Ramsay’s perfectionism and infamously short temper. Ramsay has presented five series of a food-

based programme titled The F Word, a guest cook competition. In 2010, Ramsay served as a producer and judge on the US version of MasterChef. He starred in a travelogue about his visit to India, Gordon’s Great Escape followed by a series set in Asia. He hosted the series Ramsay’s Best Restaurant, which was the first UK series by Ramsay’s own production company, One Potato Two Potato. In March 2012, Fox announced the coming of Ramsay’s fourth series for the Fox network, Hotel Hell; the series is similar to Kitchen Nightmares.

Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up. -gordon ramsay

Shouty chef Gordon Ramsay owns 26 restaurants around the world and is currently involved with four television shows. A British chef, restaurateur, and television personality, he was born in Scotland, he grew up in Stratford upon Avon, England. Gordon Ramsay left behind an early athletic career to become a renowned chef in London.