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Chef Gordon Ramsay

Chef Gordon Ramsay

Chef Gordon Ramsay

As we were planning our trip to London in spring this year – and this trip was mainly gastronomic in its purposes – our company, which included our guide in Great Britain and Ireland Ilya Kuznetsov, Sergei Shkitin and I, decided to visit one of the restaurants owned by the legendary British chef Gordon Ramsay. The choice fell on the restaurant «Gordon Ramsay at Claridge′s». Our table was booked for the 16th of May. The restaurant is located in London’s downtown, in a fashionable hotel on Brook Street.

Since the main reason of our visit was to taste dishes of British chefs, we decided to try all the dishes that Gordon Ramsey had to offer in his restaurant «Gordon Ramsay at Claridge′s». For its exquisite cuisine the restaurant is awarded one Michelin Star. In all restaurants marked by Michelin’s guide such an option is provided, and every gourmet can order the restaurant’s test menu to taste its dishes, which is the trademark of its chef. We ordered their big test menu. The menu included beef carpaccio, local lobsters and ravioli with wild salmon, scallops and sea fish; and all of it was served under exquisite sauces. Before the desserts we enjoyed marvelous British cheeses. After the cheeses we tasted panna cotta a la Ramsay, and, to conclude with, we were served chocolate fondue with raspberry sorbet and candies filled with most tender ganesh; while the restaurant’s sommelier selected for us wonderful Italian white wine from Veneto Region, which so well harmonized with all the dishes of the menu.

After the wonderfully spent night at «Gordon Ramsay at Claridge′s», the restaurant’s manager presented us with a book of recipes from Gordon Ramsey, on which the chef, to top it all, left his own autograph.

Gordon James Ramsay OBE (born on November 8, 1966) is a British chef of Scottish origin, known as the first Scotsman awarded with three Michelin Stars. He is a popular host of British TV shows The F-Word, Ramsay′s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell′s Kitchen, as well as their American twin-shows.

He was born in Scottish town Johnstone, but, due to his father’s wild (and unsuccessful) commercial activities he spent his youth in constant moves, until the family eventually settled down in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1976 (Shakespeare’s birthplace). He took serious interest in football and from the age of twelve started playing for under-14 team in Warwickshire. Aged 18, he received an invitation to play for FC Rangers, but the following cartilage injury he sustained to his left foot crossed his future career as a football player.

After finishing school, Ramsay makes a spontaneous decision to enter college to study hotel and restaurant management. When it became clear that his foot injury is incompatible with his future career in sports, Gordon became more and more involved in the culinary art. Upon graduating from college, he moves to London and receives his first job in prestigious restaurant «Harvey’s» under Marco Pierre White.

Chef Gordon Ramsay

Chef Gordon Ramsay

Two years later, Ramsay moves to famous «Le Gavroche,» the first three-star restaurant in Great Britain (which at that moment was stripped of its third star), where he perfected his skills of French cuisine under hereditary chef Albert Roux. One year later, Roux makes a decision to leave «Le Gavroche» and asks Gordon to follow him to «Hotel Diva,» a new fashionable resort restaurant in the French Alps. Some time later, Gordon moves to Paris, where he works with such famous chefs as Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon for three years. As he was finishing his training, Gordon accepted an offer to work as a chef on a private yacht.

After the one-year “sailing” rest at the Bermudas, Ramsay comes back to London and gets the chef’s job at «La Tante Claire», Chelsea. But soon after, there comes an offer from his former mentor Albert Roux to fill in the position of the chef at «Aubergine» (then called «Rossmore»). Ramsay picks up the job and within four years brings up the restaurant’s ratings to two Michelin Stars. But due to controversies with other owners (at that moment Ramsay possessed only 25% of the restaurant’s shares) he leaves «Aubergine». Together with him, leaves the entire staff of attendants and the whole kitchen crew. According to Ramsay’s confession, this decision was among the most difficult ones in his career, but it became Ramsay’s birth as an entrepreneur. Later, Ramsay was sued for one million pounds sterling for the damage he caused, since the restaurant had to close down for three months due to the lack of personnel. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but details remained unknown.

In 1998, Ramsay opens his first own restaurant «Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road,» which received three stars in 2001 to make Ramsay the only British chef with the highest Michelin rating at that moment and the only three-star Scottish chef ever. In the same year he opens «Pétrus» as Chef Patron, which became notorious in Great Britain because of its “wine episode” with some bankers who spent forty four thousand pounds on wine for the dinner of six persons. Despite somewhat scandalous tint of the fame, «Pétrus» earns the first Michelin star before its one-year anniversary; and in 2007, it received the second star.

In the beginning of the 21st century, Ramsay’s restaurant empire grows rapidly; at present, it includes ten restaurants in Great Britain, six of which have minimum one star, three pubs and twelve restaurants outside the United Kingdom. The approximate value of Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited is 163 million US dollars, 69% of which belong to Ramsay himself.

In 1996, the first book by Ramsay was published under the title «Passion for Flavour». Following it there came out «Passion for Seafood,» «A Chef for all Seasons,» «Just Desserts,» and «Secrets,» in which Gordon shared his recipes and general views on the culinary art. As of November 2007, Gordon Ramsay published fourteen books, two of which are autobiographies: «Humble Pie» and «Playing with Fire».

In 1998, Ramsay’s TV debut show was put on the air under the name «Boiling Point,» which was a series of TV-sketches about the restaurant’s role in his life. After some success of these TV mini-series, its second part was broadcast – «Beyond Boiling Point.» But the real success and fame with the general public, not so much interested in cooking on the professional level, came to Ramsay with two TV shows: Ramsay′s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen, which, unlike «Boiling Point» were shows as such, and not documentaries.

The TV-show started in 2004 on British Channel 4. In every episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Gordon visits one restaurant, which is on the verge of financial collapse and during one week he is trying to figure out its problems. As a rule, he works alone, except for some designers who can help to decorate the restaurant’s interior a little. Up to this day, five full seasons of the show Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares have been broadcast in Great Britain.

In 2007, on Fox TV there was shown the American version of the show. The show’s concept remained similar; among the main differences were: the restaurants being American (most of them were in New Jersey), Gordon did not visit them repeatedly (to see how they were doing) and significant dramatization of the plot, escalation of conflicts (typical for the Fox channel) and generous spending of finances on the renewal of interiors, which had not been practiced in the British version. Based upon TV ratings for September-October, almost immediately the decision was made to screen the second season.

In 1996, he married school teacher Cayetana (Tana) Elizabeth Hutcheson, whose father is managing Ramsay’s restaurants’ empire. Tana and Gordon have four children: Megan (1998), twins Jack and Holly (2000) and Matilda (2002). Gordon’s children took active participation in the first two seasons of the show «The F-Word».

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