Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times braved a pasta tutorial with Gordon Ramsay. "Would he try to psych me out, the way he does contestants on the show? Would he tell me I'm worthless and have no self-respect?" Collins was admittedly a little nervous beforehand. And just as he expected, making tortellini with the Hell's Kitchen host—the show's fifth season wrapped up on Thursday—was an expletive-filled culinary experience. The video, after the jump.
All right, I admit it. I watched The Chopping Block last night (actually I went back and forth between it and the Knicks game—a pathetic sight). While I still dislike the show, I was thrilled to see my friend Jeffrey Steingarten playing the role he loves: the acid-tongued food critic.
In real life there's a sweet, sentimental side to Jeffrey that's he's rarely, if ever, called upon to show on television. But even when Jeffrey's filling the hard-ass critic role on food competition reality shows, he also manages to be funny, though the joke is often lost on the poor contestants he's addressing. Last night, for example, he commented on one team's Caprese salad by saying, "This is the worst thing I've tasted in two or three years."Ouch. (It should be noted that he then excessively praised the same team's crab cakes). But maybe I can find the humor in such pronouncements because I've known Jeffrey for so long and I know he was just saying it for effect.
I've always wanted to give Jeffrey his own reality show, and after watching The Chopping Block I'm convinced more than ever that it would be a huge hit. I think Jeffrey has the potential to be a bigger reality show television star than, say, Marco Pierre White or Gordon Ramsay.
What do you think: Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, or Jeffrey Steingarten? Cast your vote right here. Maybe the losers have to go on the cooking reality show chopping block.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 8, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Fox's Kitchen Nightmares is looking for bad-shape restaurants that need Gordon Ramsay's magic hands. Aren't all restaurants in less-than-good-shape right now with diners so freaked about the economy? Maybe this season Fox will receive a record number of submissions.
The casting directors sound pretty anxious. From an e-mail: "PLEASE CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY."
Struggling restaurateurs should send the following info to Twinsworld1@aol.com: name, contact info (including phone number), restaurant name, location (city/state), type of cuisine, your specialty, how many seats you have, how long you have been open, photos or website if available, and why you need Ramsay's help. "The MORE INFO THE BETTER."
Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food Picnic Insulated Lunch Bag
You know the first thing I order when I arrive in the UK, but what is the last thing I eat before I leave? Even though I love plane food, I think if it were British Airways's fish pie, I would be too depressed for words.
Plane Food, the Restaurant in Terminal 5 at Heathrow
Instead, since the culinarily inspired Terminal 5 opened at Heathrow this year, my last bite out of Britain is Gordan Ramsay's Plane Food. If you have time to kill, by all means, take a seat and order à la carte. The restaurant serves such refined fare as Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Parfait with Sauternes Jelly and Red Onion Marmalade or Roast Barbary Duck Breast with Orange Braised Chicory—beats my La Guardia slice of pizza. Even if you're short on time, the restaurant offers 25- and 35-minute menus, sure to get you to your gate well-fed by take off.
Caesar Salad with Pancetta and Soft Boiled Egg; Bread with Butter; Olives
But my choice for the seven-hour return home is the plane picnics: three courses plus bread and olives all served in a covetable and keepable Gordon Ramsay insulating picnic bag. Choose from 4 selections in 3 courses, to create your own perfect plane meal. I had the Caesar Salad with Pancetta and Soft Boiled Egg, the Roast Beef, Truffle, and Watercress Sandwich with Green Bean Salad, and the English Cheese Selection with Quince and Biscuits, as well as the Tiger Prawn Salad with Watercress and Soy Sesame Dressing, the Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Sandwich with Apple and Walnut Salad, and the Pear Cheesecake Tart with Caramel.
Gordon Ramsay's plan for world domination is making progress. His fourth branch of Maze (with outlets already in London, New York, and Prague) is slated to open in Melbourne in February 2010. [via Coldmud]
Posted by Erin Zimmer, September 29, 2008 at 6:15 PM
Gordon Ramsay got the thumbs-up from Fox to produce another two seasons of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. The network is even considering a third series.
Fox's president of alternative programming Mike Darnell told Variety that Ramsay is as much of a Fox personality staple as Simon Cowell and Hugh Laurie. They consider him so good, they're even putting Kitchen Nightmares at a time slot competitive with Grey’s Anatomy and CSI.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, September 3, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Remember Little Gordon? The nine-year old internet sensation pretending to be a mini-version of the real Gordon Ramsay, complete with voluminous blond hair and a vocab that includes words like "rubbish"? The viral video campaign, launched by the UK-based hospitality site Caterer.com, disturbed Ramsay's real eight-year old son Jack. He was horrified by the fictitious—though pretty hypothetically accurate—representation of his foul-mouthed father on screen, believing this really was a younger version of Daddy.
I got sent [the link] yesterday. I was with my [8-year-old] son Jack and [my wife] Tana. I said, 'Look, come and see Daddy when he was 8.' And Jack started watching it and he started getting upset because he thought I was talking to his grandma like that. And so for the last 24 hours I've been trying to tell him that it's not me, but he's absolutely convinced that Little Gordon is me.
In a series of promotional videos by UK hospitality industry job search engine Caterer.com, Little Gordon, a prepubescent—but just as foul-mouthed—version of Gordon Ramsay, embarks "on a personal mission to rid the world of rubbish food and pathetic service." And by this, he instills terror into the hearts of anyone who makes or serves him food in a subpar manner, including his mother. Watch the first and second videos (a third is still on the way) after the jump.
Are we surprised that celebrity chefs aren't dutifully spending sweaty nights in their restaurant kitchens? The Telegraphinvestigates the presence of celebrity chefs in their restaurants' kitchens and bemoans, "celebrity chefs feel no compunction charging us top rates for the work of an underling." They liken absentee chefs to a tribute band playing "as stand-ins for the Rolling Stones."
The Telegraph set out to discover which rock star chefs might be found yielding a knife or stirring a sauce. The verdict: none. Jamie Oliver doesn't actually cook at Jamie's Italian in Oxford; Heston Blumenthal is nowhere to be found at his Berkshire spot, Fat Duck; and Gordon Ramsay's job description at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay entails overseeing the menu and visiting "occasionally."
We've asked before, are chef brands inherently evil? Is there an implied promise that a restaurant with a big name chef will serve food that has passed through those celebrity hands? Or do we understand that Gordon Ramsay is more likely sporting chef's whites for a photo opportunity than for a night overseeing the hot line?
Eater LA interviewsChristina Machamer, and she reveals that her official title at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant is senior chef—not the promised executive chef: "Do I know what it takes to be an exec chef? Yes. Do I have it yet? No. For me, being where I am, I know it's not the right position for me."
Last night the season finale of the ratings powerhouse Hell's Kitchen aired, pitting Louis Petrozza, catering director, against 25-year-old Christina Machamer, the culinary school student. Gordon Ramsay, known for expecting his chefs to be physically fit, picked Machamer as the winner over 47-year-old Petrozza, basing his decision on her "potential and drive." She gets the position of "executive chef" (in title only) at Ramsay's new Los Angeles restaurant, a prize "worth" $250,000.
Hitting the inbox today was a press release from the cooking school Machamer attended, the Culinary Institute of America, that helped explain why she was labeled a "culinary student" for the duration of the show.
This Tuesday is the season finale of Hell's Kitchen, pitting Louis Petrozza, catering director, against Christina Machamer, the culinary school student. Most people have doubted whether or not the contestants were actually qualified to function as executive chef at Gordon Ramsay's new Hollywood restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at The London, the reality show's grand prize. The New York Post runs the first in-print mention (that I've seen) that the prize is, unsurprisingly, fictitious and executive chef by title only:
Do you honestly think, my sweet pea, that I'm going to be that stupid and that vulnerable? That I would stick my ass to the window and give one of them a chance to run that restaurant, which is a multi-million [dollar] investment? One of them will be part of an amazing team, put in the deep end. But they will definitely not be running the room." For the record, the winner will be called an executive chef, but in fact will be one of 65 chefs responsible for all hotel meals, including breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner...
Perhaps more known for his expletive-laced tirades more than he is for his restaurants, Gordon Ramsay is now facing an inquiry from the Australian Senate "for filling the television with an astounding volume of foul language":
The Australian Senate inquiry was prompted by wide protests against Mr. Ramsay’s coarse vocabulary, which is not bleeped out on Australian television because the show is broadcast after 8:30 p.m. Viewers pummeled the station with complaints anyway, the Catholic Church wanted the show dropped, and several senators, as The Telegraph of Britain delicately put it, “were outraged by the British chef’s turn of phrase.”
The inquiry was prompted after Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi saw an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and was horrified by the number of times Ramsay spewed "the F word" in a single episode (read: 80 times in 40 minutes)—"And I'm not referring to fondue," he added.
Nightline continued its "Platelist" series last night with none other than Gordon Ramsay. He does the standard cooking demo and the brief biography but shares some particularly harsh words for food critics:
"Unfortunately, today at the age of 41, my persona gets judged over my substance, which is really frustrating," he said. "I've been cooking for 21 years, and it shows on the wrinkles of my face. But here's the scenario: I'm now being judged by individuals that know less about food than I do. But yet, you have to take it like a man. Well I don't want to take it like a man anymore. I'm fed up with the sarcasm, the damn right rudeness and more important, the arrogance of food critics. Have they actually spent a 16-hour shift cooking 70 to 80 lunches, 120 to 150 dinners short staffed, fish cook is not turning in, produce inconsistent because of the weather?"
Oddly, Nightline cut out parts of the interview from the broadcast and posted larger excerpts to its website: Ramsay, the serial marathon runner and strong believer in physical fitness, insists that his staff be fit, expecting them to hit the gym, going so far as to weigh his chefs every time they step into the kitchen:
"Staying fit is part of the important role of a chef today. I think the days of the balding, alcoholic, fat chef have long gone. The pressure on young chefs today is far greater than ever before in terms of social skills, marketing skills, cooking skills, personality and, more importantly, delivering on the plate. So you need to be strong. Physically fit," he said.
"So my chefs get weighed every time they come into the kitchen. And they run. And they seriously look after themselves. They have free memberships to the local gyms, and more important, I need them to … not just to train their palate but to look after themselves."
During last night's Hell's Kitchen, one of the contestants, Christina, burned Gordon Ramsay. Not once, but twice. His response? You get called a "thick cow" and, of course, yelled at. Videos after the jump.
Over the last few days, I've had the chance to play the Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen video game.
In the game, you're put in charge of Hell's Kitchen restaurant. You progress through five weeks as you rank up from dishwasher to senior chef. You are both cooking in the kitchen and serving people in the dining area. This leads to a hectic experience, as cooking gets more complicated and more and more people eat at the restaurant.
You Are Doing Everything
Unlike a real restaurant, there's no division of labor in the Hell's Kitchen game. You'll do every job in the place.
In the dining area, you seat people, take their orders, serve orders, and bus the tables after the diners are finished.
With the cooking segment of the game, you have a set of ingredients that must be prepared one at a time. After you get the order, you put the ingredients into the pots or pans as per the requirements shown in the icons above them. Each pot or pan also has a different cook time, which you'll have to keep track of. After they're done cooking, you plate the food to be sent out.
After the jump, the rest of the review, plus gameplay video.
Raphael here in the office was looking at a screenshot of the new Gordon RamsayHell's Kitchen video game. At first glance, I thought he was looking at a digital Sting (née Gordon Sumner). Separated at birth? Check back on Serious Eats tomorrow for a full-on review of the game.
Chef Gordon Ramsay is pushing for a law that would require restaurants to serve only in-season fruits and veggies, or be subject to fines. In an interview broadcast with BBC's Radio 5 Live today, he said he wants chefs to use home-grown produce only, not Kenyan strawberries in March for example. While demanding better ingredients may be a positive concept, how could you police this? What about products that just aren't available naturally in the UK, like chocolate or pistachios?
On the Guardian's food blog "Word of Mouth" readers fired back, "what a chump," and pointed out that Ramsay's restaurants don't even serve local, seasonal food all the time. As if landing in Heathrow wasn't already expensive, Ramsay wants to fine you for eating a tomato in January. Shoot, is it really a crime to eat spaghetti outside of August?
We'll see if Gordon can get the other Gordon to make sense of his rant.
If I thought watching Gordon Ramsay hurl criticisms and insults at contestants on Hell's Kitchen was uncomfortable enough on network television, it's even worse uncensored.
For your enjoyment (or pain), watch Ramsay forcefully tell the hapless chefs that he doesn't like their food in this introductory, f-bomb-filled episode from season 2 of Hell's Kitchen, after the jump. (Not safe for delicate ears.)
Learn how to make crab spring rolls and tequila melon balls with Gordon Ramsey and his assistant, late night funny man Conan O'Brien. What's the verdict on the mayonnaise-enhaced crab spring rolls? "Deep fried mayonnaise is the greatest thing I've ever had," says Conan.
Watch Conan attempt to follow Ramsay's directions, after the jump.
Gordon Ramsay, promoting his latest book, visited Live with Regis and Kelly today to do a cooking demo. Ramsay's comment to Regis Philbin regarding his previous visit to the show: "You were a nightmare last time. You were horrific." A lot of gentle sparring. Video after the jump.
Former restaurant manager Martin Hyde was left red-faced after his restaurant, Dillons, was featured on Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" last season, and is now suing the celebrity chef for £500,000 (almost $990,000) for having ruined his career and reputation.
Mr Hyde, who lived in Balham, South London, before moving to New York more than a decade ago, said he now lives in fear of being recognised as "that loser from the Ramsay kitchen show".
"Being ridiculed by Gordon Ramsay on TV has wrecked my life," he said. 'Gordon completely assassinated my character.
"My reputation is in tatters and nobody wants to employ me. I've only managed to watch it once - because it is like watching myself getting mugged."
Hyde claims that many scenes were faked for the cameras, and says much of the footage was edited to portray him as being lazy. He filed against Ramsay last year but the case was dismissed in court. Will the suit hold up this time around? [via Grub Street]
On Salon, Alex Koppelman suggests that Gordon Ramsay is not a total dick all the time, it's just that he plays one on U.S. TV. Koppelman says his British shows are full of human—you heard me right—human touches. He's downright warm and cuddly and even a bit huggy.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 29, 2008 at 2:45 PM
According to Todd Kliman’s Washingtonian.com dining chat this morning, Gordon Ramsay is rumored to take over Fabio Trabocchi’s former kitchen at Maestro in the Tysons Corner Ritz Carlton. It's been six months since Trabocchi left for New York's Fiamma Osteria, causing the city to shed buckets o' tears. The shoes seemed too big to fill, but apparently Maestro found big enough feet?
“The negotiation at this point is simply over money…Ramsay himself won't be coming, although he will have total control. A hand-picked protege (a woman, according to the well-placed source) will lead the revamped Maestro.”
Already this year, the city has made room for name brands Eric Ripert and Wolfgang Puck. You taking a nap, Mr. Keller? Start signing the paperwork and get over here! Maybe Mr. Ramsay started paying more attention to the city when his last season of Hell's Kitchen ended with D.C. chef Rock Harper (who we interviewed back in August) pronounced the winner.
Tonight on Great Britain's Channel 4 (or in half an hour if you live in UK), Gordon Ramsay will be cooking live for 60 minutes with his television audience to prepare a three course meal for four people. In anticipation of the nation's rush to buy ingredients for this special event, supermarket chains have stocked up with the provisions for tonight's menu: pan-roasted scallops with tomato and herb salsa as a starter, steak and chips with a rocket and parmesan salad as the main course, and chocolate mousse for dessert.
Watch the promo for tonight's show after the jump.
You've gotta love this clip from The F Word, Gordon Ramsay's Channel 4 show. Here, he challenges James May, co-host of BBC's Top Gear. Warning: NSFW. [via Lia]
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 27, 2007 at 4:45 PM
When I got in this morning, Raphael, our web developer here at Serious Eats, pinged me with the link for what's essentially a "Fake Gordon Ramsay" blog. (You've heard of Fake Steve Jobs, right? 'Cause that's what they're shooting for here.)
I didn't jump on blogging this right away because I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe I'm just used to the keenly insightful and wickedly hilarious FSJ posts, but FGR seems to miss the mark by a little bit. Maybe I expected more F-bombs (there are only six in a total of 16 Fake Gordon posts so far). I don't know. But, it looks like FGR has only been blogging since late October, so I'm sure hoping he'll hit his f&*%ing stride soon enough.
Gordon Ramsay is the kind of man that has the words "temper" and "outburst" used in nearly every last thing written about him. The Independent's Jonathan Thompson interviewed Ramsay yesterday to get his reaction on the interviews his former mentor and now long-time nemesis Marco Pierre White's been doing in support of his new book, and of course both "temper" and "outburst" appeared in the piece's very first paragraph. White said "there is a time and a place for McDonald's" and naturally, Ramsay feels quite the opposite:
"Strip a Big Mac back of everything it's filled up with and you've got two bland basics: fat and fodder. When you think of how exciting it is to make a hamburger from a chef's point of view - with ground mince, ketchup, Tabasco and onions - and how easy that is, then why do you have to buy that crap?"
Gordon Ramsay's mentor/nemesis Marco Pierre White, both the first bad boy celebrity chef and the youngest person to have three Michelin stars, has a new memoir out this coming week, The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef. His interview with Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky at New York Magazine's Grub Street stirs up all sorts of delicious questions, like: Will he be opening a restaurant in the U.S.? Will it be in New York, or Vegas? Is he going into partnership wth Mario Batali?
Me, I love all this speculation—considering Ramsay's first foray into the States was found to be so uninspired that he fired his chef de cuisine, a longtime employee and collaborator, it would be a pretty amazing volley across the bow if White opened here and did well, especially if he does go as low-rent as he hints at in the interview.
In this week's New Yorker,Bill Buford takes us behind the scenes and into the kitchen of screaming English chef Gordon Ramsay as he opens a restaurant in New York City. Buford's a terrific writer, but I'm not sure we learn anything that surprising in its 12 pages.
Ramsay curses a lot, is a surprisingly understated chef, and is really a good bloke when you drill down and get to know him. The story's big revelation is that Ramsay himself stole the reservation book at Aubergine, his London restaurant, and then accused his former mentor Marco Pierre White of doing it to prevent White from making a deal with Aubergine's principal owners to take over the kitchen from Ramsay.
Interesting, yes. Earthshattering, no. Oh, yes, we learn that Ramsey likes to curse. A lot.
Fox's 
Gordon Ramsay's plan for world domination is 
Gordon Ramsay got the thumbs-up from Fox to produce another two seasons of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. The network is even considering a third series. 
Why Marco Pierre White 
Are we surprised that celebrity chefs aren't dutifully spending sweaty nights in their restaurant kitchens? The Telegraph 
Eater LA 
Last night the season finale of the ratings powerhouse Hell's Kitchen aired, pitting Louis Petrozza, catering director, against 25-year-old Christina Machamer, the culinary school student. Gordon Ramsay, known for expecting his chefs to be 
Perhaps more known for his expletive-laced tirades more than he is for his restaurants, Gordon Ramsay is now facing an inquiry from the Australian Senate "for filling the television with an astounding volume of foul language":
Over the last few days, I've had the chance to play the Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen video game.
Yes, we know Gordon Ramsay wants to outlaw out-of-season veggies in England. 
Former restaurant manager Martin Hyde was left red-faced after his restaurant, Dillons, was featured on Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" last season, and is now 
According to Todd Kliman’s Washingtonian.com 
