GORDON RAMSAY
A Special Kind of Honesty
Read up on the great philosophers, or listen to one of our astute thinkers of the modern era, and most will tell you that arrogance is a shield to a lack of knowledge and some very deep-seated insecurities.
That makes understanding Gordon Ramsay something of a conundrum. Even the chef and restaurateur’s greatest admirers recognise a sense of haughtiness in the make-up of someone who has persistently hunted down the next challenge.
The most decorated chefs are
where they are because of their ability to perform, manage and excel in one of the most stressful work environments imaginable.
“I’m the same as anyone else,” says Ramsay. “I’m the product of discipline, bloody-mindedness, passion, being organised, being clear in my goal, and perhaps even a bit of selfishness. You know, success won’t just fall onto your lap – you’re going to have to work ******* hard for it; but I will guarantee you that with the right amount of effort and a basic requirement that you’re not an idiot, you can get somewhere… anyone can.”
Of course, the Gordon Ramsay we encounter away from the pressured atmosphere of the restaurant is very different to that bullish, bulldozing, bombastic character who stomps, swears and curses his way through various globally distributed television series and concepts.
Not for a moment suggesting the 53-year-old Scot is softening in his middle years, however in conversation he is reflective, grateful for what he has, loving and funny… although still unapologetically brash.
“My advice on this one has always been the same,” he says, addressing his love of an expletive. “If you don’t like it, turn over. You have to appreciate the pressures of the kitchen and that environment. It looks like a lovely serene, woolly, fluffy place front- of-house and that’s the whole point – you wouldn’t want to keep turning up for meals where the staff were ripping shreds off one another; but it needs to be high pressure out the back. And only when you’ve seen that situation do you really appreciate what it is we go through.
“It’s stress – pure, unadulterated stress. It’s not pleasant for anyone, and someone being offended by an expletive is really going to be the least of my ******* worries!”
“YOU HAVE TO APPRECIATE THE PRESSURES OF THE KITCHEN AND THAT ENVIRONMENT”
THROUGH ALL HIS crudeness, in 2020 Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous empire is a meticulously curated, globally renowned brand. Much of that is down to its founder’s measured pursuit of what he is good at – never allowing the lure of expansion to divert him into areas outside his comfort zone, he’s always acted quickly when challenges approached. And never was critical action more required than earlier this year when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
As expected, some sections of the press leapt on his furloughing of an estimated 500 members of staff, but the blanket shutdown of hospitality
across almost the entirety of his global portfolio – that’s an empire of 34 restaurants and bars, 16 of which are in London – has provided the greatest commercial challenge in his two decades in business.
“We have to imagine these as new openings,” he told the press in June. “Forget the salt and pepper, it’s hand sanitiser. Forget the long-winded descriptions, forget table sides. Temperature checks – all these things are going to come into play.”
Tough times are to follow, undoubtedly. “There will be substantial losses next year, there’s no two ways about that,” he says, predicting too that the restaurant business will not return to any semblance of normality until Christmas, and even then won’t be functioning at full capacity until 2021.
Coronavirus has provided Ramsay with a battle for survival even more profound than the one he faced back in 2008 when the global financial crisis saw a near 40 per cent dip in trade. The chef’s geographical strength – premium restaurants, many in London’s financial district – is also his main weakness… not that he would ever let the fear show.
“We are going to come back stronger; it will be treated as a new start, a new opening… something better than we were doing before we closed. That’s how we survive.”
While Ramsay may begin to feel encouraged by the slow emergence of a ‘new normal’ in the industry,
he’ll take confidence too from the steely successes that have patterned so much of his past.
“FEAR OF FAILURE, COMBINED WITH MOTIVATION FOR THE NEXT ‘ THING’, IS WHAT GALVANISES ME”
FROM HIS FIRST PROJECT, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, established in London’s Chelsea in 1998, to the 16 Michelin stars acquired over the years, to the exporting of his own unique brand to foreign shores, including the US and the Middle East, Ramsay has always come through. Perhaps it’s the thrill of the chase – even at the peak of his powers with terrestrial shows Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s
Kitchen and The F-Word engaging TV viewers in the concept of food celebrity for the first time, the now father of five uprooted for the US and the potential of an expansive new market.
What helps too is the realisation that the UK is producing some of the best food experts in the world. Acknowledging the French and Italians at the industry’s top table, he adds, “We have joined them there by virtue of our diversity and ability to draw in, celebrate, style and reimagine traditional global cuisine. It has taken us to the next level.
“The French won’t do that – they want to be the French, and they’re bloody good at it. The Italians have probably got the best food staples you could ever wish for, yet the UK and the US have always been a melting pot, and our dinner plates have a strength and a versatility that others just can’t get near. It’s exciting times,” he says. It all adds up to a passion, a determination and almost childlike giddiness that will always keep Ramsay at the top. For all his impassioned speeches, rants and dressing downs when in the kitchens of others in his reality shows, when it comes to gauging his own survival prospects, the chef is self-assured in his poise.
“I have always had conf idence in myself when it comes to work, largely because I’ve achieved everything I’ve set out to. I can’t afford to worry,” he says. “When [wife] Tana and I sold our first home to raise the money for my breakthrough restaurant, it was a nervy time. We were back in rented accommodation in London with no guarantee whatsoever that things would work out the way we hoped. But that fear was the absolute driver in terms of pushing forward and ensuring that every last ounce of effort was invested in the brand and the business.
“As you get older and become wealthier, you have more to fall back
on, but still it amounts to the same thing whether it’s a big investment or a small one – you don’t want to fail, and that fear of failure, combined with the motivation for the next ‘thing’, is what galvanises me more than anything else. I love the feeling.”
The ability to read an audience – or spar with it, in Ramsay’s case where his live cooking demos are concerned – certainly helps. Those same audiences have always embraced the somewhat voyeuristic appeal of a man who’s battling with his temper, so it’s little wonder Ramsay really is the reality king of the kitchen.
“A temper? Me?” he chips back, with a wry smile. “I think the big thing is wanting a job to get to the point where you sit back and savour it. And the fact is, if you have some idiot stood in your way, preventing that, then of course you’re going to get mad.
“You must remember too that the kitchen is a pressured environment. It’s hot, it’s smelly, it’s unwelcoming and it’s the place where the demands on you are incessant, and where absolutely everything you produce will be scrutinised to the hilt.”
Moving forward into the frontl ine that is f ront- of- house has been a progression that’s great for TV, though for someone driven to cook, who was trained, enriched and inspired in the kitchens of Pierre Koffmann and Marco Pierre White, one of Ramsay’s tutors, it’s clear Ramsay misses the cut and thrust.
AS A CULTURAL MAINSTAY who has been on TV screens now for two decades, Ramsay’s tone and temperament appeal to perhaps the widest possible demographic. Whether tuning in for the passion, the politics or simply to find out how to boil a quail’s egg, the food industry would be a much diluted place without his presence. What he gives to those who watch him is a route to achieve greatness – his is a brief to be followed, and stray from that at your peril. But buried beneath the bluster and bloody-mindedness is someone who has battled hard to get to where he is.
And the ‘arrogant’ tag? Well, Marco Pierre White, famously stated that, “success was born out of arrogance”.
“Listen, I worked under Marco and learned so much from him. Angry, brutal, exacting and ha rd as nails.” He pauses, “I don’t think too much of him rubbed off on me…”