Gordon Ramsay

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Image:GordonRamsay.jpg Gordon James Ramsay, OBE (born 8 November 1966) is one of the UK's most famous chefs. He is one of only three chefs in the UK to maintain three Michelin stars for their restaurant (the others being Heston Blumenthal and Alain Roux). He is married to Tana Ramsay and they have four children. He admits he is proud never to have changed a nappy. He was appointed OBE in the 2006 honours list "for services to the hospitality industry".

1 Early years
2 Restaurant
3 Media
4 Trivia
5 Filmography
6 Bibliography
7 External links

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Early years

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Ramsay was brought up in England after his family moved to Stratford-upon-Avon. As a teenager he played association football for Oxford United F.C.'s youth side and was seen by a scout for Rangers F.C.. He completed trials for the Scottish club and became a professional player at the age of 15. After suffering a knee injury that left him unable to regain full fitness he was released from the club.

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Restaurant

When he was 19 Ramsay turned his hand to cookery and worked with Albert Roux in London and Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon in Paris before becoming head chef of the newly-opened Aubergine restaurant in 1993.

By 1996, the restaurant had been awarded two Michelin stars. After a dispute with the management he left Aubergine in 1998 to open his own eponymous restaurant, in Chelsea. The restaurant gained three Michelin stars in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve that feat. It was here that he famously ejected food critic A. A. Gill (along with his dining companion Joan Collins). After this incident A. A. Gill stated that "Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being".

From his first restaurant his empire has expanded rapidly, first opening Petrus where six bankers famously spent over £44,000 on wine during a single meal in 2001, and then Amaryllis and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. Restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught Hotels followed, the later branded his protégée, Angela Hartnett's, name. Ramsay's company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, continued rapid expansion under Marcus Wareing as Chef Patron.

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Media

Ramsay has published six books on cooking and also appeared in two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries - Boiling Point in 1998 and Beyond Boiling Point in 2000. The series revealed that Ramsay is a hot-tempered man in the kitchen; he was seen yelling obscenities at his staff.

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 two-week period. Hell's Kitchen was a reality show, which aired on ITV1, and saw Ramsay attempt to train 10 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 of 2005, the FOX network introduced Ramsay to American audiences in an all-new edition 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 infamous short temper. In August 2005, shortly following the season 1 finale, Hell's Kitchen was picked up for a second season. Image:Gordon Ramsay F-word.jpg His most recent series is a food-based magazine programme titled The F-Word, which launched on Channel 4 on 27 October 2005. A major part of the series focused on growing your own Christmas dinner which included raising his own turkeys. He mockingly named his turkeys Antony, Ainsley, Jamie, Delia, Gary and Nigella. These are in reference to famous celebrity chefs in the UK.

Ramsay also contributes to The Times' Saturday magazine in the form of a food and drink column.

In 2006, Ramsay is to take part in a television series for ITV1, following the lead up to a celebrity charity soccer match titled Soccer Aid. Ramsay will captain the Rest Of The World XI against an England XI captained by Robbie Williams.

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Trivia

In September 2005 he expressed an interest into moving into football again with the proposed takeover of Greenock Morton football club.
Gordon Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector at the University of St Andrews, but beaten at the polls by Simon Pepper. Despite a well-motivated publicity campaign, Ramsay never visited St Andrews and didn't appear in press interviews, something his opponents capitalised on by spending their time getting to know students, which is generally blamed for his downfall.
Ramsay starred in part of a Give Blood television advertisement, in which he said that another man in the advert had saved his life through some transplant. This man was one of the potential cadets in the 2005 Reality TV show, 'Space Cadets'. Any viewers curious about the large-haired man had their suspicions clarified when he, on the show, stated that he had in fact been in an ad with Gordon Ramsay, but also stated that he had just been picked randomly at the pub, and had not actually donated any blood to Ramsay.
On Sundays, Gordon Ramsay can often be spotted running round Richmond Park, keeping trim and fit.

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