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Chef Gordon Ramsay

I work maintenance in a big hotel in Vegas. Back in 2009 after the big financial crisis a lot of the smaller conventions started doing there meetings in our guest rooms instead of renting ballrooms to save money. As a result the lines to our elevators were ridiculously long. I was walking in our suite floors and the couple in front of me was talking about how ridiculous the elevator lines were. I offered to take them down the service elevators and when they turned around it was him and his wife. (I kind of knew it). So I took then down the service elevators and through the boh area to the casino while making small talk the whole time. He was very talkative.

One of the coolest celeb encounters I've had while working.
That's a neat story! And I'm chuffed he was nice. His whole family from what we see on TV seem like nice people.
Brooklyn Beckham was on Beat Bobby Flay the other night, he doesn't have quite the charisma of his dad, but his dad didn't have much at his age either.
I'm quite jelly you met him.
 
Do you know who Marco Pierre-White is? He was the one who yelled at Ramsay and made him cry during his training. It's because of him we have the Gordon we have today.

This is another thing that should be noted. Gordon Ramsay didn't create the role of the overbearing, authoritative, perfectionist chef. That's the culture he was trained in, and many others before him. Marco Pierre-White wasn't the only boss who treated him like crap. Head chefs have been dictators of the kitchen for generations.

Part of why Ramsay mocks millennials is because no one cared about his feelings when he was coming up, and he believes he is the man he is today because of it. Like he said in his Hot Ones episode: "The more you get pushed, the thicker your skin. The thicker your skin, the higher you go."

 
Have you seen Boiling Point, the Gordon Ramsay documentary from 1999?

This was when he was a star chef in London and notorious in the food world, but not yet an international TV personality.

Spoiler: He is not a nice guy. He is an utterly driven boss and brutal with anyone he considers underperforming. His goal is to achieve Michelin stars and woe to those who he considers to be keeping him from that goal.



The person you see on Hell's Kitchen is an amped-up caricature, but it is based on how Gordon really worked.

All that said: Boiling Point was more than 20 years ago, and Gordon has changed A LOT. Having a family and massive global success will do that to a man.

Beat me to it. Boiling Point is probably the most accurate depiction of who he really is.

Just to add. Boiling Point basically takes place right after he left Aubergine and opened his first restaurant on his own. IIRC he liquidated his life savings, borrow money from his FIL and took a massive loan from the bank to open it. So the pressure on him was through the roof. And despite being such a volatile character, when he left Aubergine I think half of the kitchen staff left to go with him.
 
I mean, chefs are supposed to have sensitive palates. But his appearance on Hot Ones is clearly a performance. He even brought props like the donuts and the pepto bismal and the lime juice.

There's a reason that is easily the most popular episode of Hot Ones (110 million views). Gordon Ramsay knows television and how to play to an audience.

he was hamming it up too much. or he really couldn't handle it well. i hear that the one in the middle - da bomb - is worse than the 10th one. i did just recently try the 10th one. just a dab. it was pretty hot but i was expecting something way worse. of course i didn't have the food completely basked in it.

that hot ones dude is doing very well for himself.
 
He's probably nice in person but an asshole to work for. I saw an old documentary when he was just starting out and it sure didn't look like an act to me. Perfectionism is often a trait of successful people and unfortunately a lot of them are hard to work for if you aren't up to the same standards they require of themselves.
 
Ramsay is a very talented chef, but the yelling and insults are only good for memes. If they were directed at me it wouldn't last long. I would have to leave before I hurt him.
 
I love Gordon Ramsey, probably my favorite reality tv person. That being said, I wouldn’t want to cook in his kitchen, lol. I think that stuff is mostly just for entertainment though.
 
The British kitchen nightmares is so much better than the American one it’s not even funny. The American version was so over dramatised and obviously scripted that you just couldn’t get into it. The editing was also horrific.
As for his cooking abilities, who are we to judge? I know you that a person probably wouldn’t make it that far in the culinary world if you didn’t know what you are doing.
 
His scrambled eggs suck.
Other than that, love the guy. I was watching one of his short series where he went way the fuck up into the Andes mountains or some shit and went head to head against a famous chef from there, and tried to make some high brow indigenous food for a panel of locals to judge. The other chef made traditional old recipe stuff. None of the locals were impressed with gordon's food, and you could tell he was pissed for losing to the other chef. Pretty funny.

I also love a bit in his cocaine documentary where he goes to the bathroom in one of his restaurants, and tests for cocaine. Turns out there are traces of cocaine all over the bathroom surfaces, and he has to try his hardest to make it seem like he has nooooo idea how this could be, and how he's absolutely flabbergasted at the thought of his restaurant employees using coke in the bathroom
 
He's probably nice in person but an asshole to work for. I saw an old documentary when he was just starting out and it sure didn't look like an act to me. Perfectionism is often a trait of successful people and unfortunately a lot of them are hard to work for if you aren't up to the same standards they require of themselves.
the boilng point thing they did where they put cameras in the kitchen but filmed an actual service is the one i saw

and it damn sure was not an act, and i would argue the things he was saying were worse than he says on the American shows

it just is/was the culture of those high end *** restaurants that the head chef's demanded absolute perfection at all times
 
Watch his road trips with Gino and that french guy.
Dude is funny and laid back in them.

Also Americans needs drama and fake shit.
Watch his UK stuff. I like the one with the making fairy cakes in prison.
Gordon behind bars I think its called.
 
The British kitchen nightmares is so much better than the American one it’s not even funny. The American version was so over dramatised and obviously scripted that you just couldn’t get into it. The editing was also horrific.
As for his cooking abilities, who are we to judge? I know you that a person probably wouldn’t make it that far in the culinary world if you didn’t know what you are doing.
Everything American is dramatized to the point of ridiculous. Look at Dragon's Den.
 
As others have pointed out, Gordon can be selfish in his goals, to the point of alienating those around him in a not so nice way. He has fallen out with people he works with, even those he mentored. And there is probably a queue of people ready to line up in order to speak out against him, including those he has hurt.

I enjoyed Kitchen Nightmares, Britain’s best restaurant, The F Word, and a bunch of other shows he starred in, though. I think he stopped caring during the U.S. version, because it was just a shit show with pumped in sound, featuring hopeless restaurants, but he did try to help some of those eateries in the UK (Glasshouse being the exception).
 
His scrambled eggs suck.
Other than that, love the guy. I was watching one of his short series where he went way the fuck up into the Andes mountains or some shit and went head to head against a famous chef from there, and tried to make some high brow indigenous food for a panel of locals to judge. The other chef made traditional old recipe stuff. None of the locals were impressed with gordon's food, and you could tell he was pissed for losing to the other chef. Pretty funny.

Lol Yeah all of his travel series are awesome, and really show his depth of character. The guy is super rich to the point he could just sit on his ass and get richer. Instead he ventures all over the world and puts himself in challenging situations that have a high chance of making him look like a fool or worse. But by doing so, he learns more about food and other cultures.

I remember Gordon's India series when he entered a curry cooking competition against dozens of Indian housewives who were obviously much more experienced at making curry dishes than him. They all treated him like a know-nothing goofy ass white guy - Big difference from Hell's Kitchen.

In his Vietnam series, he goes on an old boatwoman's skiff to watch her make noodle soup. This boatwoman obviously does not own a TV or a computer, she had no idea who he was. Gordon later said her noodle soup was one of the finest dishes he's ever had in his life.
 
Watch his UK stuff. I like the one with the making fairy cakes in prison.
Gordon behind bars I think its called.

That was another good series. I liked that he wasn't afraid to show the prisoners being unreasonable assholes and fucking up the program. It wasn't a simple feel-good redemption narrative. Guys had blow ups over nothing, guys relapsed on drugs, knives went missing.

It's also very telling that Gordon didn't mince words with the prisoners like he was afraid of them. He didn't put on a show like Hell's Kitchen, but he talked to them the same way he would talk to any problematic kitchen staff. The guy has balls

 
Lol Yeah all of his travel series are awesome, and really show his depth of character. The guy is super rich to the point he could just sit on his ass and get richer. Instead he ventures all over the world and puts himself in challenging situations that have a high chance of making him look like a fool or worse. But by doing so, he learns more about food and other cultures.

I remember Gordon's India series when he entered a curry cooking competition against dozens of Indian housewives who were obviously much more experienced at making curry dishes than him. They all treated him like a know-nothing goofy ass white guy - Big difference from Hell's Kitchen.

In his Vietnam series, he goes on an old boatwoman's skiff to watch her make noodle soup. This boatwoman obviously does not own a TV or a computer, she had no idea who he was. Gordon later said her noodle soup was one of the finest dishes he's ever had in his life.
I bought the DVD and book with India. I flippin love Gordon. Another Asian one.
 
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