Gordon Ramsay is a British chef who has received 16 Michelin stars for his restaurants. Gordon had ambitions to be a football player as a child, but an injury interrupted his chances of pursuing a successful career in the sport. After that, he returned to college to pursue a degree in hotel management and apprenticed with some of the world’s most renowned chefs, including Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White in London and Guy Savoy and Jol Robuchon in France. Within three years, he was named head chef of ‘Aubergine,’ which received two Michelin stars. He opened his own restaurant, ‘Restaurant Gordon Ramsay,’ which swiftly earned three Michelin stars, the highest honor in the culinary world. ‘Restaurant Gordon Ramsay’ is the longest-running three-Michelin-star restaurant in London, and Ramsay is one of just four chefs in the UK to keep three stars. He has a long list of successful restaurants all over the world. He is a television personality in the United Kingdom and internationally, having starred in numerous reality and cooking shows. Ramsay is known for his short temper and harsh manner as a reality television figure. He has also written a number of books, many of which have become international bestsellers. By 2004, Ramsay had established himself as one of the most well-known and prominent chefs in the United Kingdom.
Childhood and Adolescence
Gordon Ramsay was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland, on November 8, 1966, to Gordon James Ramsay, an unemployed man, and Helen Cosgrove, a nurse. From the age of five, he was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.
He has two younger siblings, Ronnie and Yvonne, as well as an older sister named Diane. His father, whom he subsequently described as a “hard-drinking womanizer,” abused and neglected him as a child.
At the age of 12, he began playing football and was selected for the under-14 team. As a result of his injuries, his football career came to an end.
Ramsay moved to Stratford-upon-Avon with his family in 1976, where he worked as a pot washer in a small Indian restaurant. He moved out of his parental home and into a flat in Banbury when he was 16 years old.
Career of Gordon Ramsay
He had gotten serious about obtaining a culinary certificate by the age of 19, and had enrolled at ‘North Oxfordshire Technical College’ to study hotel management.
He worked at the ‘Wroxton House Hotel’ and then the ‘Wickham Arms’ in the mid-1980s. Later, he relocated to London and worked in a number of restaurants.
He spent two years and ten months at ‘Harveys’ working for the volatile Marco Pierre White before deciding to study French cooking. He started working for Albert Roux at ‘Le Gavroche’ in Mayfair on White’s recommendation.
Roux invited him to work with him at ‘Hotel Diva,’ a ski resort in the French Alps, after a year at ‘Le Gavroche.’ Later, Ramsay relocated to Paris.
He stayed in France for three years and profited from Guy Savoy’s guidance. He subsequently took a less demanding job as a personal chef on the Bermuda-based private boat ‘Idlewild.’
In 1993, he went to London and was offered the role of head chef as well as a 10% stake in White’s business partners’ ‘Rossmore.’ The restaurant was renamed ‘Aubergine,’ and 14 months later it received a Michelin star.
In 1998, he left ‘Aubergine’ to launch ‘Restaurant Gordon Ramsay’ in Chelsea, which went on to acquire three Michelin stars in just four years.
He went on to develop a profitable restaurant chain not only in England but also in Glasgow, Ireland, Dubai, Tokyo, New York City, Florida, and Los Angeles during the next 15 years.
In 2001, he starred in the television series “Faking It,” in which he assisted Ed Devlin, an aspiring chef and burger flipper, in learning the craft. The ‘BAFTA’ for ‘Best Factual TV Moment’ was awarded to this episode.After that, he starred in the British cooking show ‘Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.’ The series, which aired on ‘Channel 4,’ featured Ramsay working with chefs and owners of struggling restaurants with the goal of reviving the eateries in one week.
He opened ‘The Fat Cow’ in Los Angeles in 2012. The restaurant was established near The Grove, a popular tourist destination where visitors could relax and have a delicious meal.
Ramsay trained 10 British celebrities to be chefs in a restaurant on Brick Lane that opened to the public during the show ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ a reality show on ‘ITV1.’
Between 2007 and 2010, he hosted a US version of ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and adapted ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ for an American audience in a series identical to the original British series.
He was the producer and judge on the American version of ‘MasterChef’ in 2010. He also hosted the series ‘Ramsay’s Best Restaurant’ and participated in the travelogue ‘Gordon’s Great Escape,’ about his trip to India.
He wrote 21 books and provided articles to ‘The Times Saturday’ magazine until 2012. His autobiographies, ‘Roasting in Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Humble Pie,’ are two of his publications.
Ramsay made a cameo in the South Korean reality show ‘Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,’ which aired in December 2017.
He has a global collaboration with WWRD (Waterford Wedgwood, Royal Doulton), a company that sells home and lifestyle items.
Achievements & Awards
In the London ‘Zagat Survey’ in 2001, ‘Restaurant Gordon Ramsay,’ London was voted ‘Top Restaurant in the UK.’ The restaurant received its third Michelin star the following year, making Ramsay the first Scottish-born chef to do so.
In the 2006 honors list, he was named Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to the hospitality industry.
When he received the ‘Independent Restaurateur of the Year’ title in 2006, he became only the third person in history to win three ‘Catey’ awards, the UK hospitality industry’s highest honor.
The restaurant ‘Restaurant Gordon Ramsay’ on Royal Hospital Road in London is known for its impeccable food and service. The restaurant’s food has been described as “classic cookery” that is “sophisticated, well-edited, and flavor-first.” For the past eight years, ‘Harden’s’ has voted the restaurant as London’s best. It was replaced in 2008 by ‘Petrus,’ a restaurant owned by Marcus Wareing, a former pupil of Ramsay.
He was honored with the ‘Culinary Hall of Fame’ in 2013.
Personal History and Legacy
Ramsay married Montessori-trained educator Cayetana Elizabeth Hutcheson alias Tana in 1996. Megan, Holly, Jack, and Mathilda are their four children, and they live in Battersea, South London.
This irritable but endearing chef has a net worth of $190 million. He is paid $225,000 per TV episode and gets an additional $10 million per year from media and restaurants.
Ramsay and his wife Tana established the ‘Gordon and Tana Ramsay Foundation’ in 2014 to give back to charities. ‘Great Ormond Street Hospital’ is the foundation’s current partner.
Trivia
In an interview with ‘Forbes,’ this renowned British chef stated that his final supper would be roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and red wine gravy.
One of the secrets of this chef’s success was revealed. “If you want to be a great chef, you have to work with great cooks,” he explained. That’s precisely what I did.”
He’s been judging fans’ cuisine on his Twitter account since 2017, at their request.