From cast iron to Ironman, Gordon Ramsay's red-hot rise to celebrity
since the launch of Hell's Kitchen has been nothing if not interesting.
Before "Hell's Kitchen," Gordon Ramsay had a sterling reputation in Britain
as a chef and restaurateur. His flagship restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London,
has held three Michelin stars for 21 consecutive years. No one would have
faulted him for choosing to continue on this respectable and semi-private career trajectory.
But instead, Ramsay chose to lean into the TV persona of a short-tempered,
foul-mouthed perfectionist. The success of "Hell's Kitchen" on US TV led to his next show,
"Kitchen Nightmares," in which each episode had Ramsay spending a week at a struggling restaurant,
attempting to whip its business model, menu, and incompetent owners into shape.
The U.K. version of "Kitchen Nightmares" debuted in 2004,
and the U.S. version in 2007, though Ramsay decided to end both shows in 2014. This was
only the start of his U.S. TV career, as he soon launched other popular shows,
including "MasterCchef," "MasterChef Junior," "The F-Word," and "24 Hours to Hell and Back."
Over its two-decade run, Gordon Ramsay has maintained the same cantankerous persona he
dramatically put on display at the very beginning of "Hell's Kitchen",
and viewers seem to like it that way.
“You dirty pig. Get out! Get out!”
Showrunner Kenny Rosen told Reality Blurred,
"So as long as the formula is working, there's no real reason to go away from
it in a dramatic way. [...] As long as we're keeping it fresh,
then there's no reason to mess with the formula, because the formula works."
But some things have subtly changed over time. Consciously or not, Ramsay has changed,
too. In early seasons, Ramsay shocked audiences and contestants with obscene
insults, once comparing a cook's preparation to a bison's genitals.
“Look at that! Looks like a bisons penis. What is that s–t.”
But according to Season 3 winner Rock Harper, Ramsay has mellowed in recent
years — "mellow" being a relative term, of course. Harper told Mashed,
"When you look back, he was much more brutal. [...] I think he's still really tough,
but the way that it's presented — certain things that he doesn't say anymore."
Rosen said that Ramsay's softer, off-camera persona is no longer a secret. Contestants
now know they can expect supportive mentoring from him, along with the on-camera insults.
Gordon Ramsay may have learned to control his language, but that doesn't mean he's turned into a
diplomat, and his salty sense of humor has gotten him into some hot water. In 2021, he triggered
a firestorm on TikTok after posting a video of himself climbing into a pen of lambs while saying
"Which one’s going into the oven first? You! Oven time!"
While the video got close to 1 million likes, many viewers were outraged. While Ramsay later
said "No animals were cooked in the making of this video," he's not the first classically
trained chef to reveal a cold attitude towards animals. In his memoir, veteran chef Jacques Pepin
recalls stopping by a roadside stand to buy live ducks for dinner. He matter-of-factly wrung their
necks before tossing their bodies into his car, to the mortification and outrage of the seller.
For many of Ramsay's fans, his biggest and most surprising transformation over
the last two decades came with his sudden embrace
of something he'd long loathed just on principle: plant-based cooking.
At one point, he even jokingly forbade his five children from becoming vegetarians, saying to ,
"My biggest nightmare would be if the kids ever came up to me and said,
'Dad, I'm a vegetarian.' Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them."
It's unclear exactly what triggered his change of heart, but he suggested to "People" that his
children finally wore him down. While he doesn't keep a fully vegan diet himself,
he now takes vegan cookery seriously enough to present his first-ever vegan cooking challenge on
"MasterChef: Back to Win." His website also offers vegan recipes for fans to try at home, stating,
"Cooking a meat- and dairy-free meal doesn't mean you have to
settle for anything less than delicious."
The central goal for "Hell's Kitchen" has remained unchanged: to find and train chefs good enough to
lead teams in his restaurants. To this end, Ramsay designed a series of challenges for
the show that would showcase each cook's strengths, weaknesses, and personality.
But after a few seasons, Ramsay discovered that new chefs came to the set ready for his "surprise"
challenges. In particular, he found that everyone came fully prepared for the signature challenge,
in which each cook would prepare a personal signature dish. One contestant,
Ramsay told "FoodSided," had practiced making his signature dish 52 times.
But Ramsay was looking for chefs who were able to think on their feet and
handle unfamiliar challenges under pressure. It was clear
that the signature challenge was no longer testing that skillset.
Instead, for Season 19, he challenged cooks to make their own versions of favorite Las
Vegas main dishes, knowing this change would be more stressful for contestants. However,
he said that it would show them, quote, "what they need to do to get them to the premiere league."
Gordon Ramsay is proud to be a perfectionist, and his restaurants have amassed a total of 16
Michelin stars over the course of his career. His critiques of "Hell's Kitchen" contestants
land especially hard because we know that he can meet the standards he demands of everyone else.
So it was devastating for him when his New York City restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London, was
unceremoniously stripped of its two Michelin stars in 2013. He revealed to the talk show "Skavlan",
"I started crying when I lost my stars. [...] It's a very emotional
thing for any chef. It's like losing a girlfriend. You want
her back. [...] When you lose a star it's like losing the Champions League."
This humiliation was especially brutal given that it represented
the first time in Michelin history that any restaurant had lost both its stars
due to "quality issues," Michelin Guide director Michael Ellis told Bloomberg,
"We've had issues with consistency, and consistency is a huge thing for us."
When Ramsay started "Hell's Kitchen," his on air persona was all about his fiery personality,
and his rugged face was a big part of that image. So when Ramsay first moved
to Los Angeles, where the U.S. edition of "Hell's Kitchen" was originally taped,
he initially brushed off Hollywood insiders' critiques of his looks. he told the Radio Times,
"In L.A. it was all 'Oh my god, when did you go through the windscreen?"
But over time, the comments and public pressure started
to wear even Gordon Ramsay down. He continued,
"You put up with it, but then you get f–-ing sick of it."
It was a fellow talent show host known for biting critiques
who finally convinced Ramsay to go under the knife. He later told the Daily Mail,
"I took Simon Cowell's advice and had the lines on my chin filled in."
He claimed that was the end of the cosmetic work,
though some fans believe he kept up with it in the following years.
The U.S. version of "Hell's Kitchen" was initially taped in Los Angeles,
but for Season 19 of the show, Gordon Ramsay and his production team moved the show to a
new set in Las Vegas. "Hell's Kitchen" executive producer Kenny Rosen explained to Reality Blurred,
"Caesars was interested in having us show off their properties in Vegas,
and so they helped budgetarily get us there. [...] They were completely amenable to our
using all of their facilities, restaurants, pools, exclusive areas for shooting so we
could help promote their properties and Gordon's restaurants at the same time."
Ramsay and Caesars weren't the only ones pleased by the change. Rosen continued,
"... it was so nice to get out of L.A. Vegas really lends itself to all sorts of craziness
and fun stuff that we wouldn't have been able to do if we'd shot in L.A. again."
When "Hell's Kitchen" first aired in the U.S., American audiences found themselves watching a
then-unfamiliar chef yelling at a cast of unknown cooks. Fascinating as Gordon Ramsay was to watch,
most American fans knew nothing of his reputation across the pond. Showrunner Kenny Rosen recalled
to Reality Blurred an experience while filming the show's first season on the streets of Hollywood.
"[Nobody] in Hollywood and Vine and in the heart of Hollywood was recognizing
who Gordon was other than one British family that walked by,
and they're like 'Oh, Gordon, what are you doing here?'"
But all that has changed. Ramsay's fame from "Hell's Kitchen" not only made him
a household name in the U.S., but his increased profile has made it easier
to find strong cast members who understand the value of working with him. Rosen said,
"From a casting standpoint,
[it's] easier to produce right now because Gordon is so well known."
This notoriety has enabled the show to recruit higher-quality contestants. Rosen continued,
"I'd say our final four was the most competitive final four chefs we've ever had, and they all
had great personalities, so it was kind of an embarrassment of riches at the end of the season."
Gordon Ramsay wasn't immune to the hazard of gaining weight from spending much of
his time in kitchens. As his culinary empire grew,
so did his workload. Between producing his television shows and running his restaurants,
his life grew increasingly hectic and unhealthy. Ramsay told the Daily Mail.
"I was overweight, 18 stone. I looked like a sack of s—."
It became clear that Ramsay had more serious concerns than just his weight.
His father had died of a heart attack at age 53, around the same age Ramsay
was when he realized he was overweight. To add to the pressure, Ramsay's wife,
Tana, a serious fitness buff, told him point-blank that he was getting fat.
Ramsay took radical action. He hired a champion triathlete as a personal trainer
and embarked on an intense regimen of fitness and endurance training,
including swimming, cycling, weight training, and running marathons. His efforts paid off,
not only enabling him to lose 50 pounds, but to complete an Ironman triathlon alongside his wife.