Gordon Ramsay was on Access Hollywood promoting season 2 of Gordon Ramsey: Uncharted, an adventure docuseries where he visits different remote areas and learns how to make their local foods. I’m mostly familiar with him from Hells Kitchen, Masterchef and Kitchen Nightmares, where he comes across as an a-hole, that’s his brand. However I started watching his cooking tutorials on YouTube and ended up learning a few things and getting a different opinion of him. He really loves cooking, it’s his passion and you can tell how much he absolutely loves food and sharing it with people. (Incidentally he uses way more oil than I like to.) In his interview, Gordon said that he really enjoys lockdown because he’s cooking so much and his family is appreciating it. In fact he’s been making different, separate meals for family members on request. Sibley Scoles from Access also asked him about his relationship with his father and he said it wasn’t good. Gordon and his wife of 24 years, Cayetana Hutcheson, have daughters Meghan, 22, Holly, 20 and Matilda, 18, and sons Jack, 20 and Oscar, 14 months.
On how he’s doing in lockdown
I am loving it. I’ve done more cooking the last two months than I have the last two years. They ask for menus now. I go shopping… I’m pushing trolleys. I’m making milkshakes, making bread. My hands are cut I’ve got pasta machines coming out my backside. They’re asking for individual meals now, food is that good.On his relationship with his kids
I did a 360. I didn’t have a great relationship with my father. He had a serious drink problem so everything I grew up with I’ve done the opposite as a father. From day one it’s about helping them find their passion. Everything I didn’t have from my father I’ve given to [my son] Jack, and Oscar will follow suit. That bond is unique. All I said from an early age is ‘the earlier you tell me, the more I can do. Don’t give me the problem, give me the solution. You think about it, and I will help you.’ At 20 it’s an amazing relationship.Three amazing daughters and two sons. Jack is training in the royal marine commandos unit. Every time I send him a cool picture [from my adventure travel series] he’s like ‘dad, you’re too old. Leave it to me.’ The rest of the family, they’ve got no idea what I’m doing.
[From Access Hollywood on YouTube]
I haven’t watched many interviews with Gordon and I came away from this with more respect for him. I haven’t heard that story before about how he tried to change his toxic family patterns. He’s probably still an a-hole, but he loves to cook and he loves his family. Also, I’ve noticed during the lockdown that I’m showing love though cooking and baking for my son, and that it’s a caregiving activity I do. I know that’s basic stuff and a lot of people do that, but I wasn’t that self aware about it before all this. That also explains why I get more sensitive when my son doesn’t like my cooking. Gordon made it sound like he only recently got his family to really appreciate his food, which gives me hope.
Here’s that interview. He cracked me up a few times.
That baby!
Amen to that! Me too!
Same, Gordon, same.
That baby is everything, especially the grumpy picture. I die.
grumpy-face babies are the best.
Ramsey had a show (I think it was in Britain only so I would see it a season later on BBC America) where he had two teams compete making a meal for a dining room full of people to see who would pay and how much for the meal that was prepared. It wasn’t like any of the US shows I’ve seen, and he wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as he is on some of the competitions. (Even in the UK versions of the US competition shows, he wasn’t as obnoxious as he can be. I’m sure the US producers told him to amp up the anger and verbal abuse because, hey…that what us ugly americans like (see the current WH occupant).)
BUT…the show I mention also had a bit at the end where he’d have a “celeb” (in quotes because sometimes it was a Brit I’d never heard of) come into the kitchen and make one of their favorite dishes, and he’d do HIS version of the same dish. I can’t remember who would judge but that part was always fun and there wasn’t really any anger/abuse, just playfulness. If the celeb won, he’d say “F*CK off out my kitchen” (in what was such a clearly fun way), in typical Brit humor.
Yes the F word! I loved that show!
Yeah. He’s definitely different in certain shows. In the UK Kitchen Nightmares, he comes across as really passionate about food & also really wanting to help restauranteurs. He also clearly cares about mentoring young chefs. He’s pretty open about having a messed up childhood & escaping to professional kitchens as soon as he could. His dad was abusive & more or less drank himself to death. His brother has struggled for years with drug addiction. Gordon Ramsey’s not perfect, but I do think US producers encouraged him to dial up the anger & yelling. And I think he’s done really well coming from a tough background.
YES! The F word. That was a great show.
and Lizzie, def on playing up the anger/yelling. I loved watching the UK version of his shows because of the lack of dramatization that the US producers felt the need to use. like, there was very little “mood music” in the UK ones…the producers let the action speak for itself, where as in the US version (and I’ve noticed this about just about every US “reality” show as well as scripted ones), they’d have music, whether dramatic or dreamy or whatever to tell the viewer how they should be feeling at that moment about a particular scene or event. it was SO overly dramatic and just ridic. like “in case you didn’t get it from the event you just witnessed, here’s some sad music to make you realize that you should feel sad about that event”.
The music–so melodramatic! Good point. I’ve never seen the F word. Thanks to you guys for putting me on to it!
As a math nerd, I cringe when people say they did a 360. That’s a full circle and would bring you back to the same behavior or thinking. I am happy he is making the effort to change the pattern, though.
It bugs me too, and yet I find myself sometimes starting to say it, then I have to stop myself and go ‘whoops no, I meant a 180.’ 😛
Ramsay does seem like he’s much less ragey in person than on TV; I’ve heard it’s often a bit of a persona he adopts for the camera and I can believe it.
I think so, too. If you watch MasterChef Jr or the other shows mentioned in this thread, he’s very different.
Didnt Gordon Ramsey lay off the employees at his restaurants back in March when he had to close for CoVid. Not a fan.
maybe he did that so they could collect unemployment? a server (in the US, anyway) is officially paid way under minimum wage…in some places it’s only a few dollars an hour; they make most of their money in tips.
{side note: I’ll omit my opinion of that method and simply say that ALL employees should be paid AT LEAST minimum and that minimum wage should be AT LEAST $10/hour (in the US it’s only $7.25).}
so, following that logic, a server would (hopefully) be able to survive on unemployment wages, and would NOT on any “wages” they’d get paid from the restaurant as salary.
I’ve watched him forever it seems. Yeah his brand is d%ckhead, but when you see him in front of children, he’s released, easy and complimentary. I credit him for giving me some reality shows to get into because I never would’ve discovered MasterChef Australia. The best cooking show on the planet. Hells Kitchen and MasterChef were sidelined many years ago for me because of the Australian version.
Yes, master chef Australia is truly the best. Everything pales in comparison
I love Gordon Ramsey- my read on him is that a lot of the assholery is played up for television. Does he have a temper, YES! Lol but I feel like in my life the people who have a lot of creativity and imagination (two things you definitely need to be an innovative chef) do tend to have a…fiery disposition. Who’s the Asian chef with shows on Netflix whose temper is so legendary that he blacks out sometimes? David something. He strikes me as the same way.
Gordon’s an asshat in his American shows, but in his British shows he’s more laid back, and actually a genuine person, not a caricature. He did a series called Gordon Behind Bars where he went into a prison and taught the prisoners to bake so they’d have a job after they got out. He explained on that show how he’s struggled with his father’s drinking problem, and his brother’s heroin addiction. I think a lot of his problem is the way his shows are edited for what the US networks thinks is “drama”. The difference between the US and UK versions of Kitchen Nightmares almost night and day.
“He did a series called Gordon Behind Bars where he went into a prison and taught the prisoners to bake so they’d have a job after they got out.”
that was a great show, too. he was very genuine and encouraging with the folks in prison, really wanting them to better themselves.
We saw him in the Alaska Airlines lounge at LAX and two things. First of all, he was very kind to two young boys who recognized him and asked for autographs. The absolute opposite of his TV “persona” on his TV show here. Smiling, accessible, accommodating. Second, he was very trim—TV really does ad weight. He looked to be in great shape. (PS 1: Fangirled [“we love you, you’re amazing”] Padma Lakshmi at a private event once and she told us to buzz off. Eek, embarrassed, sorry to fawn over you Padma. Sorry to say, she may not be warm, but possibly more beautiful in person?) (PS 2: Jeff Goldblum was in same airport lounge, skinny as a bean pole and tall, wearing all black jeans, tshirt, pork pie hat, sat at table next to us talking on his cell pretty loudly the entire time about “deals” and “projects”, after he hit the breakfast buffet. Stars, they’re just like us.)
I don’t really watch his shows much, so everything I know about him is through his friendship with the Beckham family and among all the kids. They all seem super normal and sweet, having grown up together, and I hope their relationships are as genuine in real life as they appear.
Yes, whenever he is actually teaching, preparing food, etc he is so much better than these Masterchef type of programs. I think it is pretty easy to pick up good ideas from him.