Quote:
Originally Posted by sadora
MattyC, you a Chef yourself? It's just that I haven't really heard of anyone outside the industry liking Ramsay all that much. I've worked with some Chefs that follow a similar, old school mentality (those damn French) to running a kitchen. I think the only reason why I've stuck around and improved as a Chef myself is because of guys like this that make you feel accountable for everything you do.
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Yep, it's definitely an industry thing. Most of the people who've never been inside a professional kitchen don't know how to take the guy. Myself, I have a lot of respect for him and everything he's accomplished. He's a -very- good chef... in fact it's kind of stupid saying that. I mean it's like saying Van Gough was a very good painter...
Anyway. The swearing is most definitely not an act. It's not easy working for him, (as I've read, at least) but those who are able to take it would never dream of working for anyone else. He really
is that good.
Edit: Here's a bit of a snippet:
Quote:
Awards
Ramsay is one of only three chefs in the UK to maintain three Michelin Guide stars for his restaurant (the others being Heston Blumenthal and Alain Roux). He was appointed OBE in the 2006 honours list "for services to the hospitality industry".
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, the biggest awards of the UK hospitality industry. Ramsay's two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) & 2000 (Chef of the Year). The other two triple-winners are Michel Roux and Andrew and Jacquie Pern.
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.
Also in 2006, Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector at the University of St Andrews, but was beaten at the polls by Simon Pepper. Despite a publicity campaign, Ramsay never visited St Andrews and did not appear in press interviews.
Ramsay's flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, has been voted London's top restaurant in food bible Harden's for the past eight years, but has controversially relinquished the spot in 2008 to Petrus, a restaurant run by his former protege Marcus Wareing.
Gordon Ramsay Holdings
All of Ramsay's business interests (restaurants, media, consultancy) are held in the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited. Run in partnership with his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, Ramsay owns a 69% stake valued at £67m. The UK restaurants continue to expand rapidly under Marcus Wareing as Chef Patron.
Whereas previous ventures acted as a combined consultant/brand, in November 2006 Ramsay announced plans to create three restaurants in the United States in partnership with private equity group Blackstone Group, who are refurbishing each of the chosen hotels into five star locations at a cost of £100M per hotel. At an investment of £3m per restaurant for the 10-year lease, all the restaurants will offer the chef’s trademark modern European cuisine, and opened in 2006/2007 at:
* Gordon Ramsay at the London Hotel in Manhattan, New York - October 2006
* Gordon Ramsay at the Cielo in Boca Raton, Florida
* Gordon Ramsay at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, California
In late 2006 Gordon Ramsay Holdings purchased three London pubs; The Narrow in Limehouse, which opened in March 2007, the Devonshire in Chiswick, which opened in October of that year and The Warrington in Maida Vale, which opened in February 2008.
Ramsay acts as a consultant to numerous catering organizations, and was recruited by Singapore Airlines as one of its "International Culinary Panel" consultants.
In May 2008 it was confirmed that Ramsay's protege of 15 years, Marcus Wareing was going solo having opened and operated Pétrus at The Berkeley Hotel on behalf of Gordon Ramsay Holdings since 2003. With the name Pétrus owned by Gordon Ramsay Holdings, industry sources suggested it was likely to transfer to another restaurant in the group with the former La Noisette site identified as the most likely.
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...and, if anyone feels like taking a gander at his restaurants:
http://www.gordonramsay.com