and work on my own time and not
get caught up or distracted by
anything else. I feel most focused
and creative when I’m behind the
stove—it’s where I’ve spent the
better part of two decades.”
Off camera, he engages in such
a matter-of-fact fashion that it’s
difficult to fathom that he is the
same chap who combusts into
a fiery heap of profane humanity
every week on his hit TV show
Hell’s Kitchen. The show will enter
its fifth season on Fox this year
and has already been renewed for
seasons 6 and 7. Ramsay has two
other Fox programs in play, Kitchen
Nightmares and another that’s yet
to be named.
Little wonder he comes across
as, well, content, given that TV
is just one of many entrepreneurial pursuits that seem to be taking off. He spent last summer in
Los Angeles, where he’s opened
Gordon Ramsay at The London
West Hollywood, and he deftly
mixes quality family time with
his business demands.
The Man, the Chef,
the Language!
“The energy and weather in L.A.
are fantastic,” says Ramsay, 42.
“My goals for the L. A. restaurant
are simple, the same as any other restaurant: to create something unique and put
out great dishes that guests enjoy and
come back for. We’re not out to replicate
the same experience everywhere we go.
That would get dull fast.”
Dull? Ramsay? Never. Even the biggest donkeys (your phrase, Gordon, not
ours) among critics would never accuse
you of being boring.
After rising in the European chef
ranks through the 1990s, Ramsay has
combined his passion for food with his
business acumen to become a multimedia star and international chef. In
2004, he starred in Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares in England, winning two
British Academy of Film and Television
Arts awards and an international Emmy.
The following year, Fox debuted Hell’s
Kitchen and—given that his general
demeanor makes American Idol bad boy
Simon Cowell seem downright cuddly—
audiences couldn’t get enough.
What has followed is more success,
in the form of more than two dozen
Ramsay establishments, in New York,
Tokyo, Ireland, Prague, Paris, Dubai and
other cities. Then there are the cookbooks, the memoirs, the DVDs and, of
course, You Tube highlights that get
e-mailed in rapid fire fashion the morning after a show, to the vicarious delight
of bored cubicle dwellers everywhere.
None of this would be remotely
entertaining if, say, Ramsay pretended
to be a typically snooty European
chef prattling about the proper way
to construct a plate of foie gras. No,
it’s his skillful knack of turning dinner
preparation into a street brawl that
keeps people watching. And if the
Ramsay Rules of Decorum appear to
have no rhyme or reason, it’s because
they don’t. But here’s a stab at interpreting them, after watching more
Hell’s Kitchen episodes than any civilized person should:
In 2008, Ramsay
expanded his culinary
kingdom into Los Angeles,
and made his first foray
into France, opening a
restaurant in Versailles.
If you’re his protégé, be ambitious.
Be creative. Be daring. Try to surprise
him. But don’t be too creative or ambitious or daring or present too many
surprises—such as matching mashed
potatoes with apricots. He wouldn’t like
that. (“What in the f--- were you thinking
about? Putting apricots beside mashed
potatoes?” as he put it to an unfortunate
aspiring chef.) Or presenting a Cornish
hen in a pumpkin. (“I’d like to put your
f---ing head in there.”)
If he calls you out for bad cooking and
asks you what in the you-know-what you
were thinking about, there are a number
of appropriate responses. But among
them would not be, “I’m still learning,
Chef.” Nor would it be to say you discovered the recipe in a food magazine.
Nor would it be to good-naturedly nod
and chuckle while he’s screaming at you,
because then he’ll simply scream louder
and lash out that you’re not taking your
work seriously enough. But trying the
38 Arrıve • January/February 2009 • ARRIVEMAGAZINE.coM
