Who is Gordon Ramsay?
Gordon James Ramsay was born on 8th November 1966. He is a British chef, author, television personality, restaurateur, and social media personality. Most importantly, Gordon Ramsay has a wide reach on social media with millions of followers on any platform. As you can see, Gordon is quite different on social media, but it wasn’t always like that. He had some audience before but started going hard on social media during the lockdown, which paid off.
Gordon is a founder of Gordon Ramsay Restaurants. He created this group in 1997 and was awarded 16 Michelin stars in total, currently holding 7 of them.
Above all else, Gordon Ramsay is known for his personality and starred in several television shows. For the most part, he is portrayed bluntly with a strict demeanor, fiery temper, and frequent profanity. In contrast, Gordon looks like a loving father, overall a good and honest person. He hired and promoted several chefs who grew under his wing.
Gordon Ramsay presented various shows involving cooking, such as celebrity cooking competitions, his trying to improve bad restaurants, or just straight competition shows with amateurs cooking against each other.
Another thing worth mentioning, Gordon received several awards and appointments. In 2006, Gordon Ramsay was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II herself in the New Year Honors list for services to the hospitality industry. After that, Gordon won the Catey Award for “Independent Restaurateur of the Year”, making him the third person to win three Catey Awards and was mentioned in Forbes 2020 with his annual income of $70 million as the 19th highest earning celebrity in the world. How Much Is Gordon Ramsay Worth?
Gordon Ramsay’s Personal Life
Gordon was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in the west central lowlands of Scotland. His father, Gordon James Sr. Ramsay, and mother Helen Cosgrove had four children, eldest Dianne Ramsay, second eldest Gordon Ramsay, second youngest Yvonne Ramsay, a nurse like her mother, and the youngest Ronnie Ramsay, who has been jailed for possession of heroin.
Because his father had various jobs such as welder, swimming pool manager, and shop owner, the family moved around a lot. They finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1976 when Gordon was nine years old, where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the city. Gordon Ramsay wrote an autobiography, “Humility” , describing his father as a rough womanizer.
He started working as a pot washer at a local Indian restaurant at a very young age. Meanwhile, his sister worked in the same place as the waitress. At the age of 16, Gordon moved into his own flat in Banbury.
Gordon Ramsay married Cayetana Elizabeth Hutcheson, a Montessori-trained school teacher, in 1996. Although Tana suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome, which means she has trouble conceiving, she and Gordon have 5 children together, Megan, Holly, Jack, Matilda, and Oscar. In 2017, Megan ran a marathon in memory of her unborn brother Rocky. Tana had a miscarriage 5 months into her pregnancy in 2016. The youngest Oscar was born after this incident.
Gordon Ramsay stated in 2016 that he exercises regularly because he has seen too many chefs become unfit and overweight, collapse or become slower in the kitchen. If you think Gordon Ramsay only works out every once in a while to stay in shape, you’re wrong. Gordon often competes in Ironman challenges, triathlons, and marathons. Most importantly, he is very serious about his diet and eats very little per meal, and spreads it throughout the entire day. Gordon developed this habit in various TV shows where he has to taste several meals per show. As the true old-schooler that he is, Gordon holds a black belt in karate.
Gordon Ramsay is also a football and baseball fan. His favorite baseball teams are the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels. Although Gordon enjoys the game, he often jokes that the games are too long, forcing fans to spend most of their time eating or sleeping and being unhealthy.
His football passion has much deeper roots. Gordon is a big fan of English Premier League club Chelsea and Scottish Premier League club Rangers. That is, Gordon’s passion goes way back to when he played football himself. Gordon played for Warwickshire in the under-14 league when he was 12 years old. After that he played for Rangers and was signed by the club at the age of 15. In his autobiography, Gordon claims he played “a couple of non-league games as a Tester”. Gordon Ramsay played a testimonial match and trained with them for a few months. He injured his knee and crushed the cartilage during one of the training sessions with the Rangers.
Gordon Ramsay mentioned his training on the July 29, 2008 episode of “F word”. During this episode, Gordon said “Home dear home!” He explained, “My dream came true when I was spotted in the mid-80s and I joined the youth team here at Ibrox.” Ally McCoist, one of Scotland’s football legends said of Ramsay “I remember him well, and the one thing that will never change is that he is a competitive so-and-so and wants to do and be the best he can.” Although Gordon’s football career came to a tragic end, he had no regrets. After he received his third Michelin star, Gordon said, “Without the outrage at Ibrox, I wouldn’t be the chef I am today.”
Gordon Ramsay’s culinary career
Gordon Ramsay’s interest in the culinary arts began even before his injury. In his words, he didn’t want to be known as “the football player with the gammy knee” . After that, Gordon took things seriously at the age of 19 when he enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study hotel management. He later described his decision to enter catering college as “a total accident”.
Following his college experience, Gordon worked as a commis chef at Wroxton House Hotel in the mid-1980s. He managed a 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms but was forced to end his contract due to a sexual relationship with the owner’s wife. Gordon decided to move to London, where he worked in various restaurants, before settling down to work for the temperamental Pierre Whites at Harvey’s.
After working at Harvey’s for almost three years, Gordon decided he had had enough of the “rages, bullying, and violence”. Gordon realized that to further develop his growth, he needed to dive deeper into French cuisine. First, he wanted to take a job in Paris, but his mentor Marco Pierre discouraged him and instead advised him to take a job working for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. It was here that Gordon met Jean-Claude Breton, who later became his maître d’hôtel at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
Gordon Ramsay worked at La Gavroche for just a year before Alber Rox invited him to become his number two at Hotel Dive, a ski resort in the French Alps.
Later in his life, when he was 23 years old, Gordon began working with the famous Michelin chefs Joël Robuchon and Guy Savoy in Paris. Gordon Ramsay specifically mentioned Guy Savoy as his mentor in one of his Master Chef episodes. He then went on to work in Paris for three years before taking a year off as personal chef on a private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda. That is, Gordon sailed to Sicily and Sardinia, Italy, and learned about Italian cuisine.
In 1993, Gordon returned to London and was offered a position as head chef at the three-Michelin star restaurant La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Gordon accepted a job from Marco Pierre White, his former chef, as head chef with a 10% stake in Rossmore, which is owned by White’s business partners. Rossmore was later renamed Aubergine and Gordon rose to a second Michelin star a year later. On the other hand, Gordon’s dream was to open his own restaurant and quit this job after his business owner wanted to turn Aubergine into a chain. Gordon has described the decision to embark on his own journey as “ The most important day of my entire cooking career. The most important decision of my life”.
In the same year, 1998, Gordon Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Chelsea with the help of Chris Hutcheson, his father-in-law. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay received his third Michelin star just three years later with the help of his former colleagues at Aubergine. Gordon Ramsay became the first Scotsman to achieve such a feat. In 2011, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay finished as the second-best restaurant in the UK, just behind The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire.
Gordon continued to grow his empire, from restaurants in the UK to Gordon Ramsay’s in Tokyo. He opened Pétrus, then Amaryllis in Glasgow (which he was later forced to close), and Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s. His friend from Le Gavroche, Jean-Philippe Susilovic, started working for him at Pétrus and starred in several episodes of Hells Kitchen. Gordon went worldwide, opening his first restaurants outside the UK. Starting with Verre in Dubai and two restaurants in Tokyo, Cerise by Gordon Ramsay and Gordon Ramsay at Conrad, both opened in 2005. Gordon opened his first American restaurant in November 2006 in New York City. Despite mixed reviews from professional critics, this restaurant won the top newcomer in the city’s coveted Zagat guide. In 2007, Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Ireland, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, County Wicklow. On 9th August 2011, Ramsay opened his first Canadian restaurant, Laurier Gordon Ramsay, in Montreal. Both the Ireland and Canadian restaurants closed in 2013.
Gordon Ramsay’s television career
Gordon Ramsay’s first “leading” role was in two kitchen documentaries KOKPUNKT and Beyond the Cooking Point in 1999 and 2000, but it was not Gordon’s first TV job. He already guest starred as a judge for young catering students in 1997.
