Gordon Ramsay

Gordon James Ramsay, OBE (born 8 November 1966) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, and television personality. Born in Scotland, he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. His restaurants have been awarded 16 Michelin stars in total. His signature restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, has held 3 Michelin stars since 2001. First appearing on television in the UK in the late 1990s, by 2004 Ramsay had become one of the best known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, and, along with other chefs like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, and Delia Smith, he has influenced viewers to become more culinarily adventurous. As a reality television personality, Ramsay is known for his fiery temper, strict demeanour, and use of expletives. He often makes blunt and controversial comments, including insults and wisecracks about contestants and their cooking abilities. He combines activities in the television, film, hospitality, and food industries and has promoted and hired various chefs who have apprenticed under his wing. Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with the American versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, and Hotel Hell. In 2015, Forbes listed his earnings at $60 million for the previous 12 months, and ranked him the 21st highest earning celebrity in the world.

Ramsay was born on 8 November 1966 in Johnstone, Renfrewshire. From the age of five, he was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Ramsay is the second of four children. He has an older sister, Diane; a younger brother, Ronnie, who Ramsay revealed had been imprisoned for heroin possession as a juvenile; and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father, Gordon James Senior (died 1997), was –at various times –a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his sister Yvonne and their mother, Helen (née Cosgrove), have been nurses.

Ramsay has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant", and his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was an at-times-violent alcoholic. In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town. In his autobiography, Humble Pie, he describes his early life as being marked by abuse and neglect from this "hard-drinking womaniser". At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family home and into a flat in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Ramsay played football and was first chosen to play under-14 football at age 12. He was chosen to play for Warwickshire. His footballing career was marked by injuries, causing him to remark later in life, "Perhaps I was doomed when it came to football." 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. 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. According to his autobiography Ramsay played "a couple of non-league matches as a trialist" for Rangers and was signed by the club at the age of 15.

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."

Rangers revisited

In series 4, episode 12 of The F Word (originally aired on 29 July 2008), 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."

By this time, Ramsay's interest in cooking had already begun, and rather than be known as the football player with the gammy knee, 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."

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. 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 Harveys.

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'hôtel 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 stated 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.

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. 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.

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. He hired his friend and maître d'hôtel Jean-Philippe Susilovic, who works at Petrus and also appears on Ramsay's US TV show Hell's Kitchen. 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. Two restaurants, Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay, both opened in Tokyo in 2005. In November 2006, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened in New York City, winning top newcomer in the city's coveted Zagat guide, despite mixed reviews from professional critics.

In 2007, Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Ireland, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, County Wicklow. This restaurant closed in 2013. In May 2008 he opened his first restaurant, Boxwood, on the US west coast 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, Laurier Gordon Ramsay (at the former Rotisserie Laurier BBQ) in Montreal. 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. The restaurant closed in 2013.

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. 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).

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.

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. 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 of the University of St Andrews, but lost at the polls to Simon Pepper.

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. In January 2013, Ramsay was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.

All of Ramsay's business interests (restaurants, media, consultancy) are held in the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited, which was run in partnership with his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. Ramsay owns a 69% stake, valued at £67 million in 2007.

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 firm Blackstone Group, who are refurbishing each of the chosen hotels into five star locations at a cost of £100 million per hotel. At an investment of £3 million per restaurant for the 10-year lease, all the restaurants 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
• Gordon Ramsay at the Mirabelle in London

In late 2006 Gordon Ramsay Holdings purchased three London pubs which he converted into gastropubs. These are: The Narrow in Limehouse, which opened in March 2007, the Devonshire in Chiswick, which opened in October 2007 and The Warrington in Maida Vale, which opened in February 2008. Both The Devonshire and The Warrington were subsequently sold in 2011 (The Warrington to pub company Faucet Inn), leaving The Narrow as the sole pub in GRH's portfolio.

Ramsay acts as a consultant to numerous catering organisations, and was recruited by Singapore Airlines as one of its "International Culinary Panel" consultants.

In May 2008 it was confirmed that Ramsay's protégé 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.

In April 2010, Jason Atherton, executive chef of Maze restaurants worldwide, resigned to open his own venue in Mayfair.

On 19 October 2010, the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited announced that Chris Hutcheson had left his position as CEO of Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd. Shortly after, Ramsay released a letter to the press describing how he had unravelled the "manipulative" Hutcheson's "complex life" after having him followed by a private detective. His father-in-law's "away days," wrote Ramsay, "were rarely what I thought they were." Company accounts show Hutcheson borrowed up to £1.5 million from Gordon Ramsay Holdings, of which he was chief executive, though he says he reported the borrowings to the company and paid the money back. Hutcheson said he had been "vaporised" and subjected to a "public hanging" by Ramsay, whom he described as a friendless egotist.

In October 2012, Ramsay opened The Fat Cow in Los Angeles, US at The Grove, a shopping area that is also popular with tourists. Ramsay explained his intention for the Fat Cow in a press release to signify the opening of the venue: "The concept for The Fat Cow came from my desire to have a neighborhood restaurant that you could go to all the time to just relax and enjoy a terrific meal."

In partnership with footballer David Beckham, Ramsay opened the Union Street Café in the Southwark district of London, UK in September 2013. The Italian cuisine of the Union Street Café, with a menu that is revolved on a daily basis, is overseen by Chef Davide Degiovanni.

In October 2013, the Gordon Ramsay at The London restaurant in New York lost its two Michelin stars due to issues encountered by the Michelin reviewers. The guide's director Michael Ellis stated that he was served "some very erratic meals" and also experienced "issues with consistency." The loss follows the closure of another of Ramsay's restaurants in June 2013.

In January 2014 Ramsay lost a high court case in relation to the "York & Albany pub." Ramsay claimed that his father-in-law had misused a 'ghost writing' machine to make a personal guarantor for the £640,000 a year annual rent of that pub. Ramsay tried to nullify the 25-year lease, signed in 2007. The judge said that Ramsay had known from the guarantee beforehand but that he had total trust in his father-in-law, Christopher Hutcheson, and left the deal with him. The judge dismissed the case and ordered Ramsay to pay all legal costs and outstanding monies, in total more than a million pounds.

Ramsay's first documented role in television was in two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries: Boiling Point (1998) and Beyond Boiling Point (2000), but had appeared previously as a judge on a masterchef-like series for young catering students in 1997, with his then restaurant partner.

Ramsay appeared on series three of Faking It in 2001 helping the prospective chef, a burger flipper named Ed Devlin, learn the trade. This episode won the 2001 BAFTA for "Best Factual TV Moment."

In 2004, Ramsay appeared in two British television series. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares aired on Channel 4, and saw the chef troubleshooting failing restaurants over a one-week period. This series ran its fifth series in 2007. Hell's Kitchen was a reality show, which aired on ITV1, and saw Ramsay attempt to train ten British celebrities to be chefs, as they ran a restaurant on Brick Lane which opened to the public for the two-week duration of the show.

In May 2005, the FOX network introduced Ramsay to American audiences in a US version of Hell's Kitchen produced by Granada Entertainment and A. Smith & Co. The show follows a similar premise as the original British series, showcasing Ramsay's perfectionism and infamously short temper. The show completed its 13th season in December 2014, and Fox ordered the production of three additional seasons. In addition, Ramsay had also hosted a US version of Kitchen Nightmares which premiered on Fox on 19 September 2007. The show has now run six full seasons, with a seventh season being shown during 2014.

Ramsay at BBC Gardeners' World Live 2008

Ramsay has presented five series of a food-based magazine programme titled The F Word; it launched on Channel 4 on 27 October 2005. The show is organised around several key, recurring features, notably a brigade competition, a guest cook competition, a food related investigative report and a series-long project of raising animals to be served in the finale. The guest cook (usually a celebrity) prepares a dish of their own choosing and places it in competition against a similar dish submitted by Ramsay. The dishes are judged by diners who are unaware of who cooked which dish and, if the guest wins (as they have on numerous occasions), their dish is served at Ramsay's restaurant.

In July 2006, Channel 4 announced that it had re-signed Ramsay to an exclusive four-year deal at the network, running until July 2011. The series became one of the highest rated shows aired on Channel 4 each week. During one episode of The F Word, Ramsay cooked in Doncaster Prison in Marshgate for its inmates. The chef was so impressed by the speed at which a prisoner, Kieron Tarff, chopped vegetables that he offered him a job at his restaurant following his release in 2007.

In 2010, Ramsay served as a producer and judge on the US version of MasterChef. (A second season of the show began in June 2011, again starring Ramsay.) On that same show, he was joined by culinary judges Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich. He starred in a travelogue about his visit to India, Gordon's Great Escape followed by a series set in Asia. He hosted the series Ramsay's Best Restaurant, which was the first UK series by Ramsay's own production company, One Potato Two Potato.

Ramsay joined several other celebrity chefs in the 2010 series, The Big Fish Fight, where he, along with fellow chef Jamie Oliver and a few others, spent time on a trawler boat to raise awareness about the discarding of hundreds of thousands of salt water fish.

In March 2012, Fox announced the coming of Ramsay's fourth series for the Fox network, Hotel Hell; the series is similar to Kitchen Nightmares, except that it focuses on struggling hotels, motels and other lodging establishments in the United States. Originally slated for debut 6 April 2012 and 4 June 2012, the series debuted 13 August 2012.

In 2012 it was reported that Ramsay was to be the producer of a drama called The Inferno, set in a New York restaurant.

Guest appearances

In September 2005, Ramsay, along with Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, Wolfgang Puck and Sanjeev Kapoor, were featured in CNN International's Quest, in which Richard Quest stepped into the shoes of celebrity chefs.

In 2006, Ramsay took part in a television series for ITV, following the lead-up to Soccer Aid, a celebrity charity football match, in which he played only the first half, nursing an injury picked up in training. Ramsay captained the Rest of the World XI against an England XI captained by Robbie Williams. His involvement was limited after he received a four-inch cut in his calf.

During his second Top Gear appearance, he stated that his current cars are a Ferrari F430 and a Range Rover Sport Supercharged, the latter replacing the Bentley Continental GT he previously owned. On 14 May 2006, he appeared on Top Gear in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment. Ramsay held the top spot on Top Gear's celebrity leader board, with a lap time of 1.46.38 until overtaken by Simon Cowell.

Ramsay starred in part of a National Blood Service "Give Blood" television advertisement, in which he said that he would have died from a ruptured spleen had it not have been for another person's blood donation. On 13 October 2006, he was guest host on the first episode of Have I Got News for You's 32nd series. On 27 December 2007, Ramsay appeared in the Extras Christmas special.

In January 2008, Ramsay also guest featured on Channel 4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack as the Big Brother housemates took part in his Cookalong Live television show. Gordon spoke directly to the Big Brother House via the house plasma screens, regularly checking on the progress of the contestants.

In 2011, during the results show of American Idol, footage of the top 5 contestants taking on a challenge of cooking with Gordon Ramsay was shown. The Top 5 were given 10 minutes to make the best omelettes.

In November 2011 Ramsay made an appearance on The Simpsons episode "The Food Wife."

Legal proceedings

In June 2006, Ramsay won a High Court case against the London Evening Standard newspaper, in which Victor Lewis Smith had alleged, after reports from previous owner Sue Ray, that scenes and the general condition of Bonaparte's had been faked for Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Ramsay was awarded £75,000 plus costs. Ramsay said at the time: "I won't let people write anything they want to about me. We have never done anything in a cynical fake way."

In June 2007, Ramsay's show was sued by the terminated general manager (Martin Hyde) of the New York restaurant Purnima (Dillon's), who also alleged fakery. Hyde had quit his position at the restaurant during the show, when Ramsay suggested that the owner hire top Indian Chef Vikas Khanna as the Consultant Chef for Purnima. The lawsuit alleged that "unknown to the viewing audience, some or all of Kitchen Nightmares are fake and the so-called 'problems uncovered and solved' by Ramsay are, for the most part, created by Ramsay and his staff for the purpose of making it appear that Ramsay is improving the restaurant." In August 2007, the case was dismissed voluntarily and ordered into arbitration as stipulated in their contract.

On 21 March 2012, Ramsay filed a $2.7 million lawsuit against his former partners of his restaurant in Montreal, Quebec, the Laurier Gordon Ramsay (since renamed The Laurier 1936), over lost licensing fees and defamatory statements made against him. On 16 April 2013, just over a year later, Laurier 1936 closed.

Personality

Ramsay's reputation is built upon his goal of culinary perfection. Since the airing of Boiling Point which followed Ramsay's quest of earning three Michelin stars, the chef has also become infamous for his fiery temper and use of expletives. Ramsay once famously ejected food critic A. A. Gill along with his dining companion, Joan Collins, from his restaurant, leading Gill to state that "Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being." Ramsay admitted in his autobiography that he did not mind if Gill insulted his food, but a personal insult he was not going to stand for. Ramsay has also had confrontations with his kitchen staff, including one incident that resulted in the pastry chef calling the police. A 2005 interview reported Ramsay had retained 85% of his staff since 1993. Ramsay attributes his management style to the influence of previous mentors, notably chefs Marco Pierre White and Guy Savoy, father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, and Jock Wallace, his manager while a footballer at Rangers.

Ramsay's ferocious temper has contributed to his media appeal in both the United Kingdom and the United States, where his programmes are produced. MSN Careers featured an article about television's worst bosses, which listed Ramsay as the only non-fictional boss. They cited his frequent loss of his temper and his harsh critiques, notably when he picks on something other than one's cooking abilities, such as calling someone a "chunky monkey."

Although Ramsay often mocks the French, one of his most trusted maîtres d, Jean-Baptiste Requien (Royal Hospital Road) is French and he also speaks fluent French from his time in Paris.

In November 2007, Ramsay installed 29-year-old Clare Smyth as head chef at his three-Michelin-starred flagship restaurant on London's Royal Hospital Road. Smyth is the second high-profile appointment of a female chef by Ramsay, after Angela Hartnett.

Ramsay has been criticised for his frequent use of profanity on his programmes, first by British celebrity cook Delia Smith, then, in relation to Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, by a member of the Federal Parliament of Australia. In his autobiography, Ramsay himself said he was unaware of the extent of his swearing until he watched an episode of Boiling Point. While he stated he did not have a problem with it, "Mum was appalled."

On 5 June 2009, Ramsay started trading national TV insults with Australia's Nine Network, A Current Affair journalist Tracy Grimshaw. The day after his interview, he was a guest feature at the Melbourne Food and Wine festival. While doing his display, he allegedly insulted Grimshaw and made insinuations about her sexuality. Grimshaw responded the next day, calling Ramsay an "arrogant, narcissist bully." Ramsay eventually apologised, stating that his behaviour "was a joke."

Ramsay has also drawn the ire of vegetarians. In 2005, he served ham to an unknowing vegetarian in an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Ramsay, in narrations during the episode, said he did not realise a chef at the restaurant put ham underneath vegetable toppings. The chef was also shown to have not revealed all of the ingredients within the dish.) He has also told the BBC that he has lied to vegetarian diners to conceal the presence of chicken stock in his soup.

TV Guide included him in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time. Despite being known for his ferocious temper, Ramsay has been well-received as the host of Masterchef Junior; in contrast to his interaction with adults, Ramsay was shown to be more considerate and sensitive to the kids featured on the show.

Food views

On the second series of The F Word, Ramsay showed a softened stance on vegetarianism after learning about intensive pig farming practices including castration and tail docking. On the programme, Ramsay commented, "It's enough to make anyone turn fucking vegetarian, for God's sake. And I've always sort of knocked vegetarians and vegans for missing out on the most amazing flavour you can get from meat. But you can see why so many people change instantly."

Other chefs

Ramsay has been highly critical of Food Network and Iron Chef America star Mario Batali. The New York Post reported in 2009 that Batali has banned Ramsay from his restaurants. This alleged feud goes back to when Batali was highly critical of Ramsay's cooking style for being "dull and outdated." Batali has since stated that the alleged feud "was created by a couple of journalists." Batali went on to state, "I'd love to hang out with Ramsay."

Family

Ramsay married Cayetana Elizabeth Hutcheson, a Montessori-trained schoolteacher, in 1996. They live in Wandsworth Common, London. The couple have four children: Megan, Matilda, and twins Jack and Holly. On 13 May 2016, it was announced that the couple were expecting their fifth child, a boy. However, a month later, it was revealed that Tana suffered a miscarriage at five months.

Until 2010, Ramsay's father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, was responsible for the business operations of Ramsay's restaurant empire.

Charity work

Ramsay has been involved in a series of charitable events and organisations. He fulfilled his aim of finishing 10 marathons in ten years by running his 10th consecutive London Marathon on 26 April 2009, sponsoring the Scottish Spina Bifida Association.

Ramsay has been Honorary Patron of the Scottish Spina Bifida Association since 2004, and in 2005 he launched The Gordon Ramsay "Buy a Brick" appeal to help the organisation raise funds to build a new Family Support Centre and Head Office in Glasgow. In 2006 he launched a new appeal to help the charity raise the funds required to continue to run the support centre: "What's your favourite 'F' Word? Gordon's is Fundraising." In November 2007 Ramsay hosted a St Andrew's Day Gala Dinner at Stirling Castle in aid of the Association and has now made this fundraising Gala Dinner an annual event.

During March 2005 Ramsay teamed up with Indian chef Madhur Jaffrey to help the VSO, an international development charity group, to support its Spice Up Your Life event. The charity hoped to raise £100,000 for VSO's work in HIV and AIDS in India. The Ramsays were the first couple to become ambassadors for the women's charity Women's Aid in 2005. The couple ran the Flora Families marathon to support Women's Aid.

In 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 Ramsay took part in the biennial charity event Soccer Aid to raise money for UNICEF. On 6 June 2010 he played for the Rest of the World team alongside former professional footballers Zinedine Zidane and Luís Figo as well as Hollywood actors Woody Harrelson, Mike Myers and Michael Sheen. The match took place at Old Trafford in Manchester and was won by the Rest of the World for the first time, the winning penalty scored by Harrelson in the shoot-out.

Life-threatening experiences

In 2008, Ramsay was in Iceland's Westman Islands filming a puffin hunting segment when he lost his footing and fell during a descent off an 85 ft cliff, landing in the icy water below. He said, "I thought I was a goner." He reached the surface of the water by removing his heavy boots and waterproof clothing. His film crew, who rescued Ramsay by throwing him a rope, reported that he was submerged for at least 45 seconds. During the ordeal, he remembers how he felt: "I was panicking and my lungs were filling with water. When I got to the top after getting my boots off, I was dazed and my head was totally massive."

Pre-prepared meal controversy

On 17 April 2009 it was revealed that one of Ramsay's restaurants, Foxtrot Oscar in Chelsea, West London, used pre-prepared food that was heated up and sold with mark-ups of up to 586%. It was also revealed that three of his gastropubs in London did the same thing. A spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay explained, "Gordon Ramsay chefs prepare components of dishes devised and produced to the highest Gordon Ramsay standards. These are supplied to those kitchens with limited cooking space such as Foxtrot Oscar and Gordon Ramsay's highly acclaimed pubs, including the Narrow. These are sealed and transported daily in refrigerated vans and all menu dishes are then cooked in the individual kitchens. This is only for the supply of Foxtrot Oscar and the three pubs and allows each establishment to control the consistency and the quality of the food served." Reflecting on the controversy in 2010, Ramsay was unapologetic, stating:

When I was working at the Gavroche all those years ago, the duck terrine wasn't made there. It was made outside, then brought to the restaurant wrapped in plastic. This is standard practice. What on earth was the fuss about?

Ramsay's restaurant at Claridge's in June 2008, which closed on 30 June 2013

United Kingdom

Restaurant	Location	Rating	Date opened	Date closed
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay	Chelsea, London, England		1998	-
Pétrus	London, England		March 1999	-
Savoy Grill	Savoy Hotel, London, England		November 2010 (Remodel)	-
Foxtrot Oscar	Chelsea, London, England			-
Maze	London, England		2005	-
Maze Grill	London, England		April 2008	-
Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food	Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport, London, England		27 March 2008	-
York and Albany	Regent's Park, London, England		July 2008	-
Bread Street Kitchen	One New Change, London, England		September 2011	-
Union Street Café	London, England		September 2013	-
The Boxwood Café	The Berkeley Hotel, London, England		2003	April 2010
Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's	Claridge's, London, England		2001	June 2013
La Noisette	Sloane Street, London, England		2007	March 2009

North America

Restaurant	Location	Rating	Date opened	Date closed
Gordon Ramsay at The London	The London West Hollywood, West Hollywood, California			February 2015
Boxwood Café	The London West Hollywood, West Hollywood, California			-
Gordon Ramsay at The London	The London NYC, New York City			October 2014
Maze by Gordon Ramsay	The London NYC, New York City			-
Cielo by Angela Hartnett	Boca Raton, Florida
Gordon Ramsay BurGR	Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, Nevada		January 2013	-
Gordon Ramsay Steak	Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada		May 2012	-
Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill	Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada		December 2012	-
The Fat Cow	The Grove at Farmers Market, Los Angeles, California		October 2012	March 2014
Laurier Gordon Ramsay	Montreal, Quebec, Canada		August 2011 (Acquired)	February 2012 (Left GRH)

Europe

Restaurant	Location	Rating	Date opened	Date closed
Gordon Ramsay at Fortevillage	Sardinia, Italy		July 2009	-
Gordon Ramsay at Castel Monastero	Tuscany, Italy			-
Gordon Ramsay au Trianon	Versailles, France			-
La Veranda	Versailles, France		2009
Le Pressoir d'Argent	Bordeaux, France			-
Le Bordeaux - Gordon Ramsay	Bordeaux, France			-
Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt	Powerscourt Estate, Enniskerry, Ireland			-

Other international locations

Restaurant	Location	Rating	Date opened	Date closed
Verre at the Hilton Dubai Creek	Dubai, United Arab Emirates			October 2011
Maze by Gordon Ramsay	The Pearl-Qatar, Doha, Qatar		2010	March 2012
Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo	Conrad Tokyo, Japan		July 2005	June 2013
Maze by Gordon Ramsay	One and Only Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa		April 2009	July 2010
Maze / Maze Grill by Gordon Ramsay	Crown Metropol, Melbourne, Australia		March 2010	August 2011
Bread Street Kitchen & Bar	Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong		19 September 2014
Bread Street Kitchen	Marina Bay, Singapore		19 June 2015
Bread Street Kitchen	Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai, United Arab Emirates		Fall 2015

• Boiling Point (5-part documentary) (Channel 4, 1998)
• Beyond Boiling Point (6-part documentary) (Channel 4, 2000)
• Ramsay – Trouble at the Top (documentary about him taking over the Connaught Hotel restaurant, 2002)
• Love's Kitchen (feature film, 2011)

• Top Gear (BBC Two, 22 December 2002, 14 May 2006)
• Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Channel 4, 2004 – 2009)
• Hell's Kitchen UK (ITV, 2004, returned for 3 more series with Gary Rhodes, John Christope-Novelli & Marco-Pierre White)
• Hell's Kitchen US (Fox, 2005–present)
• The F Word (Channel 4, 27 October 2005 – 7 January 2010)
• Soccer Aid (ITV, May 2006, September 2008, June 2010, May 2012, June 2014)
• Extras Christmas Special (BBC Two 2007)
• Kitchen Nightmares (Fox, 2007–2014)
• Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live (Channel 4, 18 January 2008 – 12 December 2008)
• Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live US (Fox, 15 December 2009)
• Gordon's Great Escape (Channel 4, January 2010)
• MasterChef US (Fox, 27 July 2010 – present)
• Ramsay's Best Restaurant (Channel 4, 14 September 2010 – 9 November 2010)
• Christmas with Gordon (Channel 4, December 2010)
• The Simpsons – "The Food Wife" (Fox, 13 November 2011)
• Gordon Behind Bars (Channel 4, 26 June 2012 – 17 July 2012)
• Hotel Hell (Fox, 13 August 2012 – present)
• Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course (Channel 4, 10 September 2012)
• Hotel GB (Channel 4, 1 October 2012 – 5 October 2012)
• Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking (Channel 4, 2013)
• MasterChef Junior (Fox, 2013– present)
• Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV, 1 March 2013)
• Ramsay's Costa del Nightmares (Channel 4, 23 September 2014)
• Masterchef Poland (TVN, 19 October 2014)
• The F Word (2017)

• "GORDON RAMSAY'S "THE F WORD" TO AIR LIVE IN 2017 ON FOX". Fox.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 30 September 2016.