There’s more to Gordon Ramsay than a fierce temper and a foul mouth.
By Ronita Dutta
Gordon left school with just two O Levels in English and Maths. His careers officer suggested he re-sit his exams and become a policeman. Fortunately, he had the good sense to ignore the suggestion and, after his burgeoning soccer career was cut short by an injury, took up a course in Hotel Management.
Aged 19, Gordon earned his chef stripes under the tutelage of Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux in London and Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon in Paris. He opened his first restaurant, Gordon Ramsay, in Chelsea aged 31.
Gordon’s personal vendetta against vegetarians has upset many including celebrity veggie and ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. His slurs on non-meat eaters include telling Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole that vegetarians are “not welcome at his restaurant” and declaring, “'If one of my daughters' boyfriends turns out to be vegetarian I swear to God I'd never forgive them.”
Gordon is the first Scotsman to have achieved three Michelin stars in one year (1999) and has amassed a staggering 14 Michelin stars over the course of his career so far.
The culinary whiz is left handed and has to have all his shoes custom made owing to his extraordinarily large feet – he’s a UK size 15!
Gordon set up ‘The Gordon Ramsay Scholar Award’ in 2001 to recognise talented young cooks working in catering or studying at catering college.
In 2002, Gordon was invited on BBC Radio 4’s prestigious Desert Island Discs show where guests must select their favourite music, book and luxury item to take with them if they were ever stranded on a desert island. Cool cat Ramsay chose Coldplay’s Yellow, a fresh vanilla pod as his luxury item and cookery book Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.
The proud Scot was awarded an OBE in July 2006 at an intimate ceremony at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh where he cheekily took the chance to discuss the menu for her majesty’s 80th birthday dinner.
In 2008 Gordon’s rugged charm earned him the title Britain’s Sexiest Male Celebrity Chef in a poll of 4,000 women conducted by the Internet research group OnePoll.
Gordon’s wife Tana claims the couple’s children prefer her cooking to Gordon's and has published her own collection of no-nonsense cookbooks to rival those of her prolific husband.