Miles Collins

Would the real Gordon Ramsay please stand up

Gordon Ramsay is everywhere, there is no escaping him. Want to buy chocolates in Tesco? try Gordon’s (which he said he didn’t like, incidentally) want help cooking for your kids from somebody who would never have secured a book deal where it not for being married to Mr.Ramsay?(which he said he would never read, incidentally) If you want to know what Gordon’s first car was or perhaps the first single he bought then Channel 4 will tell you. A set of knives perhaps, a coffee percolator or a cuddly toy? There isn’t a form of the media that he isn’t attached to at the hip.

Gordon Ramsay is a fantastic chef, no doubt. He cut his teeth under Marco Pierre White at the original hell’s kitchen that was Harvey’s in Wandsworth and for that he deserves respect. Following time at Le Gavroche and then Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon in Paris he eventually opened his own restaurant called Aubergine and from that published his first book.

Now here’s where I have the problem, I am often asked about chefs who have award winning restaurants but never cook in them because of media and other business interests and what my thoughts are on that particular chef or scenario.

Being a chef is somewhat akin to being a footballer, as much as you love it and want to carry on doing it you are never as fast or fresh as the year before and at some point the old legs are going to give up. This I understand and I empathise with any chef wishing to broaden their horizons in order to avoid the stress, heat and hard work of a kitchen in later life. 

Marco Pierre White, at the height of his culinary career announced his retirement from cooking, he informed the michelin guide who had awarded him three stars and set about concentrating on building a restaurant empire. Fair play, he didn’t trust anyone to match his standards whilst leaving his name above the restaurant door.

Gordon, apparently, is at the three star hospital road restaurant called Gordon Ramsay and also at Claridge’s hotel called Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s. There are plenty of others, Tokyo, New York, Dubai as well as pubs and London restaurants which are all run by his faithfull flock but the point is that he says that he is ‘at’ hospital road and Claridge’s and in chef’s speak that should mean that he is overseeing service from that particular hotplate.

I bear no grudge against Mr.Ramsay, he has built an incredibly successful career for himself but what I cannot bear is hypocrisy. How on earth he can slate the likes of Anthony Worrall Thomson and Ainsley Harriet for being celebrity chefs is, frankly, beyond me. 

In 1996 I bought a book called Passion for Flavour, it was a breath of fresh air by a young chef destined for greatness. Besides having worked for Marco Pierre White the author had managed to get the French master chef Guy Savoy to write the forward. This was particularly impressive as the previous year I had been lucky enough to eat at his restaurant with a delegation of fellow English chefs which included a tour of his kitchen and a chance to meet the great man himself.

On the second page of the books introduction, the author, Mr.Ramsay writes:’Guy Savoy’s parting advice to me was to be a star in my own kitchen and nowhere else. It is advice that rings true’

The first time I ate at Monsieur Savoy’s restaurant he greeted us before our meal and bid us farewell at the end of it. Eight years later he greeted my partner and I at the begining of our meal and bid us farewell at the end of it. Upon realising I was a chef he gave me a signed book and a signed copy of the menu whilst wishing us a safe return home in broken English. 

That is three star service and the reason why Restaurant Guy Savoy is one of the most respected names in the world of gastronomy.