Early life[edit]
Ramsay was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire on 8 November 1966.[5] [6][1] From the age of five, he was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.[7] Ramsay is the second of four children. He has an older sister, Diane; a younger brother, Ronnie; and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father, Gordon James Senior, (died 1997)[8] was - at various times - a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his sister Yvonne and their mother Helen (maiden name: Cosgrove)[8] have been nurses.[9]
Ramsay has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant"; his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was an at-times-violent alcoholic.[8] In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town.[10] In his autobiography, Humble Pie,[9] he describes his early life as being marked by abuse and neglect from this "hard-drinking womaniser".[9][11] At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family house into a flat in Banbury.[12]
Football career[edit]
Ramsay played football and was first chosen to play under-14 football at age 12. He was chosen to play for Warwickshire. His football career was marked by injuries, causing him to remark later in life, "Perhaps I was doomed when it came to football".[9] In mid-1984, Ramsay had a trial with Rangers, the club he supported as a boy. He seriously injured his knee, smashing the cartilage during training.[13] Ramsay continued to train and play on the injured knee, tearing a cruciate ligament during a squash game.
Ramsay has claimed to have played two first team games for Rangers.[14] According to his autobiography Ramsay played "a couple of non-league matches as a trialist" for Rangers[15] and was signed by the club at the age of 15.[16]
Allan Cairns, the photographer who took the picture in September 1985, said the photo was not one of Rangers first team but a side picked to play a testimonial match. A Rangers spokesman said: "Ramsay was a trialist in that testimonial game. He trained with us for a few months after that but then got injured."[17]
Rangers revisited[edit]
In series 4, episode 12 of The F Word (originally aired on 29 July 2008),[18] Ramsay visited Ibrox, the home ground of his favourite childhood team, Rangers, and exclaimed, "Home, Sweet Home" and said, "My dream came true when I was spotted in the mid-80s and I joined the youth team here in Ibrox." He related that one of his fondest memories is playing alongside one of Scotland's football legends, Ally McCoist, who said about Ramsay, "I remember him well and the one thing that never ever will change is that he's a competitive so-and-so and wants to do and be the best that he can." Ramsay recalled that, "the pain of being released on the back of an injury" was only assuaged many years later, "after receiving [his] third Michelin Star", and concluded that, "without the upset at Ibrox, I would not be the chef I am today."[19]
Early cooking career[edit]
By this time, Ramsay's interest in cooking had already begun, and rather than be known as the football player with the gammy knee,[9] at age 19, Ramsay paid more serious attention to his culinary education. After weighing his options, Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study Hotel Management. He describes his decision to enter catering college as "an accident, a complete accident".[9]
In the early 1980s, he worked as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel then ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms, until his sexual relationship with the owner's wife made the situation difficult.[20] Ramsay then moved to London, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for the temperamental Marco Pierre White at Harvey's.[9]
After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. (While at Le Gavroche, he met Jean-Claude Breton, now his maître d' at Royal Hospital Road.) After working at Le Gavroche for a year, Albert Roux invited Ramsay to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in the French Alps, as his number two. From there, Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. In Master Chef Season 3, Episode 18, Gordon Ramsay states that Guy Savoy was his mentor. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda.[9]
Head chef[edit]
Upon his return to London in 1993, Ramsay was offered the position of head chef (under chef-patron Pierre Koffmann) at the Three Michelin starred La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, Marco Pierre White re-entered his life, offering to set him up with a head chef position and 10% share in the Rossmore, owned by White's business partners. The restaurant was renamed Aubergine and went on to win its first Michelin star fourteen months later. In 1997, Aubergine won its second Michelin star. Despite the restaurant's success, a dispute with Ramsay's business owners and Ramsay's dream of running his own restaurant led to his leaving the partnership in 1997.[9] In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. The restaurant gained its third Michelin star in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve that feat.[21]
From his first restaurant, Ramsay's empire has expanded rapidly, next opening Petrus, then Amaryllis in Glasgow (which he was later forced to close) and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. Restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught hotels followed, the latter branded with his protégé Angela Hartnett's name. Ramsay has opened restaurants outside the UK, beginning with Verre in Dubai. Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay both opened in Tokyo in 2005, and in November 2006, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened in New York City,[22] winning top newcomer in the city’s coveted Zagat guide, despite mixed reviews from professional critics.[23]
In 2007, Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Ireland, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, County Wicklow.[24] In May 2008 he opened his first restaurant on the US west coast – Boxwood, in The London West Hollywood hotel, formerly the Bel-Age hotel on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
On 9 August 2011, Ramsay opened his first Canadian restaurant in Montreal – Laurier Gordon Ramsay, formerly Rotisserie Laurier BBQ.[25] However, in February 2012 Danny Lavy — the owner of the restaurant — announced the restaurant was disassociating itself from Ramsay, citing a lack of involvement and understanding on Ramsay's part.[26] In 2013, the restaurant closed.[27] Along the way, he also hired his friend and maître d' Jean-Philippe Susilovic, who works in London at Petrus, and also appears on the TV show Hell's Kitchen.
Awards[edit]
Opened in 1998, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was Ramsay’s first solo restaurant, located at Royal Hospital Road, London. In 2001, it was voted Top Restaurant in the UK in the London Zagat Survey and was awarded its third Michelin star, making Gordon Ramsay the first Scottish chef to win three Michelin stars.[28][better source needed] In 2011, the Daily Mail claimed that Ramsay spent more time on television than in the kitchen but he still retained the three stars for his Chelsea restaurant. At that time Ramsay was one of only four chefs in the UK to retain three Michelin Stars for his restaurant (the others being Heston Blumenthal, Alain Ducasse and Alain Roux).[29]
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 honours list for services to the hospitality industry, but almost missed the award when his plane was delayed.[30]
In July 2006, Ramsay won the Catey award for "Independent Restaurateur of the Year", becoming only the third person to have won three Catey awards. Ramsay's two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) and 2000 (Chef of the Year). The other two triple-winners are Michel Roux, and Jacquie Pern.[31] In September 2006, he was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry in the annual Caterersearch 100 list, published by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. He overtook Jamie Oliver, who had been top of the list in 2005.[32] Also in 2006, Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector of the University of St Andrews, but lost at the polls to Simon Pepper.[33]
Ramsay's flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, was voted London's top restaurant in Harden's for eight years, but in 2008 was placed below Petrus, a restaurant run by former protégé Marcus Wareing.[34] In January 2013, Ramsay was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.[35]