Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Fun Facts about Gordon Ramsay
“This squid is so under-cooked I can still hear it telling Spongebob to f— OFF.” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay is an interesting character to say the least. From his endearing accent to his infamous yelling on Hell’s Kitchen, his polarizing attitude has split viewers between love and hate. However, it might be clips of his behavior with young chefs on children’s cooking shows that have shown the compassionate and nurturing side of this award-winning chef.
He is one of the most world-renowned chefs, restaurateurs, writers, and TV personalities in the world. His restaurants have held a total of 16 Michelin stars throughout his career, making him incredibly successful in the restaurant circuit. Here we have 10 interesting facts about Ramsay that you might not have heard otherwise, and will shed light on why he is the way that he is.
1) Football was his first career aspiration before injuries hampered his dreams
Gordon grew up doing what most young boys enjoy doing – playing sports. He loved playing soccer, or “football” as they say in the UK, and was chosen for an Under-14 side at the early age of 12, showing some promise in his abilities. He was drafted to Warwickshire for a short stint, but injuries unfortunately plagued him during his teenage years.
In 1984, he had a trial with his favorite club, the Rangers, and played a couple of non-league matches and training sessions to debut his skills for the coaches. Unfortunately, he destroyed the cartilage in his knee during a training session, and didn’t go back to playing after the incident. Instead, he decided to turn towards a new hobby – cooking. I guess we can thank the knee problems for all of these award-winning restaurants, right?
2) Ramsay isn’t a bully – he himself was bullied and given tough love by his mentors
Ramsay enrolled in the North Oxfordshire Technical College when he was 19 years old to study hotel management. This led him to working as a commis chef, a trained chef who prepares the food to be cooked, at Wroxton House Hotel. He held this job until his relationship with the owner’s wife made the situation a bit – well, awkward.
This incident led him to working with Marco Pierre White at Harveys. White was known for his temperamental personality and for being a tough teacher, with much of his ways being passed down to Gordon later in life. After working here for almost 3 years, Gordon became tired of the attitudes and the harsh words, and decided to study French cuisine elsewhere.
He was persuaded to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche, the first UK restaurant to gain 3 Michelin stars. After being here for a year, he moved to Paris and worked with Guy Savoy – a man who Ramsay claims was his mentor. He lasted 3 years in France, before succumbing to life on a private yacht, due to the stress and pressures that exist as a continuous chef in the kitchen.
Now you can maybe understand why Ramsay is the way that he is – he was constantly “bullied” and treated harshly throughout his career, all of which made him thick-skinned and an amazing chef, but also make him realize the stresses that come with working in the cut throat restaurant industry.
3) He was held at gunpoint during an illegal fishing investigation
Ramsay was 44 years old when he traveled to Costa Rica to discover the illicit trade in shark fins, all as a part of the Big Fish Fight TV show. The industry in Costa Rica was worth billions of dollars, dangerous, and unregulated. Ramsay mentioned an incident that happened one day prior to his arrival, where a crew masqueraded a ship full of hammerhead sharks to protect their shipment of bales of cocaine.
The people here that run the trade have fort-like complexes to keep people out, so they won’t see the thousands of fins getting ready to trade. Ramsay took it upon himself to break into one of the forts, but once he descended the stairs, the crew tipped a barrel of gas over him, and tried to abduct him.
He narrowly escaped – this time. Later, he was able to talk his way onto one of the boats involved in the illegal fin trading. He dove into the water to explore, and noticed a bag under the keel. He removed the bag, brought it on board, and dumped the hundreds of shark fins onto the deck.
As you can imagine, the crew was not too happy about being outed – potentially on TV, since the cameras had been following Ramsay. When the boat got back to the wharf, people with rifles were pointing them at Ramsay, ordering they stop filming, and the police made him leave the country. Talk about having to keep your cool in a stressful situation – maybe his time in the kitchen gave him the much-needed bravery.
4) He is in a celebrity fight with Mario Batali
Ramsay throughout his career has been highly critical of Mario Batali, the Food Network star. Batali made the mistake of calling Ramsay’s cooking “dull and outdated” – if you know anything about Ramsay, you’ll know he didn’t take this lightly. After hearing this, Ramsay mocked Batali’s shorts, calling him “Fanta Pants.”
Ramsay’s insults are the stuff of legend, and he doesn’t disappoint. Batali apparently was very hurt by this sentiment over his shorts, and banned his arch-nemesis from all of his restaurants.
After he did this, he said he’d be happy for the fight to be over – seems a little bit too late maybe? He’d be open to making peace if Gordon made the first move – but he doesn’t really seem like a guy to forgive and forget. So we might be waiting for this peace treaty for quite some time.
5) He has been married for 22 years
Ramsay married Cayetana Hutcheson in 1996, and divide their time between Wandsworth Common and Los Angeles. They have five children together – Holly, Jack, Matilda, Oscar, and Megan. Unfortunately for Cateyana’s father, he was formerly responsible for the business operations of the Ramsay empire until he was jailed for six months for conspiracy to hack into a computer system regarding Ramsay’s business interests. Talk about a tense family Thanksgiving.
After being jailed, he was accused, along with his sons, of accessing the company systems 2,000 times between 2010-2011. Through it all, Ramsay and Cayetana have remained faithfully-married, despite these hardships, and losing a child to miscarriage in 2016.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
Comments
Post a Comment