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Over the years Mr Ramsay has had a lot to say. But then he has done a lot too. No European foodie will ever again say that the British cannot cook. Jamie Oliver’s boyish looks and ‘most suitable lad for my daughter’ ways may have raised his book sales in Germany but Gordon Ramsay has certainly kept the gourmet journalists on their toes.
Whether it be his comments on the fairer sex’s ability in hâute cuisine or his use of words which sometimes make it difficult to follow what he was saying, his ideas on corporate expansion or healthy ingredient provenance it would seem that there are few topics on which he does not have a very decided personal opinion. And he does not seem to worry too much that he is calling the kettle black.
Women in the kitchen? Clare Smyth and Angela Hartnett were allowed to cook a couple of stars for him. Keep it local and save mileage is not always a visible policy on the menus of the restaurants in the Ramsay Group. Had to fight his way up? To get to the very top means being able to take the flak but it does not go well if one then spends the remaining years using an MG indiscriminately.
It is undoubtedly a tough world in which the ability with knives is legal. But hey, who said that it would be easy? Great kitchens make huge demands on the brigades (now there’s a word: always makes me think of pirates, and I am descended from such) but without the glamour of a similar scene. Do you remember when The Rolling Stones and the Beatles, Brain Epstein and crew were household words? That really was a rough scenario. Sex and drugs and, er, the foie gras? Doesn’t seem to flow quite so well!
With all this activity how does Mr Ramsay find the time to reflect, devise new dishes or even to wrap an apron around his slim waist and flavour the sauce?
Sources: the following articles provided the background for this comment:
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/knives-out-as-wareing-turns-on-his-culinary-mentor-ramsay-879404.html
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/has-gordon-ramsay-bitten-off-more-than-he-can-chew-825419.html
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/gordon-ramsays-protge-gives-her-culinary-rival-a-roasting-810381.html
Comment by: Jane K. Clouston 31.07.08
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