Gordon Ramsay: Did You Know?

A feast of trivia on the ranting chef extraordinaire.

By Oliver Kensington

Near-miss football career

In his youth, Ramsay set his sights on becoming a footballer. In the early 80s he was a triallist with Glasgow Rangers but knee and back injuries prevented him from being signed or making either the reserve or first team. With his hopes dashed, of playing his professional years out on the pitch, Ramsay kick-started what would become a culinary career of grand proportions with a course in hotel management. Premier-league football’s loss was a spectacular goal for the gastronomy world!

New-look Gordon

Despite his craggy face serving him well (he was voted ‘Britain's Sexiest Male Celebrity Chef’ in a 2008 survey), in March 2010, Gordon fessed up to having a bit of cosmetic enhancement to up his dishy credentials. After music mogul Simon Cowell advised him to have a bit of work done now that he had hit the big-time in image-conscious America, Gordon ironed out the deep-set crevices on his chin with a little filler. “The lines were pretty horrific. I was never embarrassed by them but my children helped me become more paranoid”, laughed Gordon, going on to explain how he had been woken one morning by his daughter trying to squeeze pound coins into them.

007 Ramsay

To say that Gordon would risk life and limb for his art is no understatement. As part of a puffin-hunting segment for his F Word series in 2008, he scaled the face of a perilous 85-metre cliff on Iceland's Westman Islands, lost his footing and plunged into the icy waters below. Weighed down by hefty hiking gear, he remained submerged for 45 seconds and left the TV crew fearing him dead. "I thought I was a goner. I was panicking; my lungs were filling with water and all I could think of was Tana [his wife] and my kids. When I got to the top after getting my boots off, I was totally dazed and my head was numb", recalled Ramsay, also nursing stitches from a puffin attack he encountered during the expedition.

Most-feared listings

Ramsay's reputation as a tyrannous chef with a rancid mouth more than precedes him. He clocked up a whopping 115 F-word outbursts during a 40-minute episode of Great British Nightmare in 2009. In fact, it has turned him into a staple on many undesirable ‘hot-headed’ lists. To cite just a few, in 2006, he topped Radio Times magazine’s ‘Most Terrifying Celebrity’ poll, fending off the formidable Weakest Link quiz mistress, Anne Robinson, for first place. In 2009, readers of the American listing magazine TV Guide voted Gordon one of the worst bosses on TV, alongside the likes of the heartless Mr Burns from The Simpsons.

Half-hearted less foul vow

In 2010, Gordon announced that his bad-boy image was wearing thin, “There has come a time when, at the age of 43, I'm getting a bit tired of being the foul-mouthed bully chef." But fear not, he’s not about to become 'Mr Pleasant' and lose his entertaining brash edge. "I've never tried to get the Great British blue-rinse nation to start falling in love with me. I don't want a radical change. I’m not about to put on a woolly hat and scarf and go round every Women's Institute to improve their Victoria sponge or show them a much better recipe for spotted dick", added Gordon mischievously.

Dream dinner party

Gordon’s choice of guests, to create the perfect dining experience, would include his wife Tana, his sister Dianne and his mother Helen. Joining the Ramsay clan would be the British radio presenter Chris Moyles (“He’s guaranteed to provide a lot of entertainment”) and football legend Pelé (“He has made some fantastic contributions to the sport and could give me a few tips on how to stop my son Jack scoring so many goals against me!”). Last but not least, would be Victoria and David Beckham (they are close friends of the Ramsay family, and Gordon actually has a framed LA Galaxy shirt from Mr Beckham hanging in his games room, which bears the scrawl, “To the best f***ing chef in the world, love David”). True to witty form, Gordon added that his fellow celebrity chef, Antony Worrall Thompson, would be lumbered with the washing-up, because, “I wouldn’t let him near the cooking!’

Starred fame

As of January 2010, Mr Ramsay’s flagship restaurant in the London borough of Chelsea is listed as one of only four three-starred eateries in the Michelin Guide of Great Britain and Ireland; a glory that it gained and has maintained since 2001.

Steaming protest

Ramsay rarely falls shy of pushing the boundaries of cuisine, a fact that has courted some noteworthy controversy along the way. During a segment of the F Word series in 2007, Gordon and his celebrity guest, media queen Janet Street-Porter, argued that horse meat merited a more prominent place in Britain's national diet, and sparked some headline-worthy outrage. The animal rights group, PETA, reacted by dumping a heap of horse manure outside Ramsay's Claridge's restaurant in central London. “It wasn't just a little horse shit, it was five tons of horse shit! The whole of Mayfair got shut down”, recalled Ramsay. “We have a level of sensitivity about animals in Britain and we don't quite understand that they eat horses in countries like France. It's very lean, very gamey, almost like a mature beef on the verge of being venison”, he added.

Heavenly bites

If Gordon could plan his perfect last supper in order to die a happy man, he would set a table for his family on the Maldives island of Reethi Rah and be serve a Michelin-grade menu. “I would start with golden caviar from the albino sturgeon served with an ice-cold bowl of tomato consomme. To follow, a wonderful fillet of Aberdeen Angus beef, studded with black Perigord truffles and served with pomme pure de Joel Robuchon and grated white Alba truffle. Dessert would be a chocolate fondant with milk ice cream”, fantasised Gordon, adding that he would wash it all down with bottles of vintage Dom Perignon, 1966 Cheval Blanc and 1898 Chateau d'Yquem. A final feast fit for a culinary king indeed.

Stuff and nonsense

Mr Ramsay OBE, a title bestowed upon him in 2006, is a pretty big fella. He stands over 6' 2" tall and fills size 15 shoes, which he has to have custom made. He is also one of the estimated ten per cent of the population that is left-handed. He hates with a passion nibbling ‘lady’s fingers’ - the vegetable Okra that is, not the human variety. Gordon has a black belt in karate and keeps fit with kick boxing, his current sport of choice.