Gordon Ramsay

Biography:

Sublimely talented chef, colourful celebrity and a successful builder of a restaurant empire, Gordon Ramsay is a truly global star in the cooking world and gives an entertaining and inspiring talk on his most passionate subject.

Scottish by birth, Gordon was brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, from the age of five.  With an injury prematurely cutting short a promising career in professional football with the Glasgow Rangers, he went back to college to complete a course in hotel management.

Ramsay’s first years in the kitchen were spent training under culinary luminaries such as Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux in London, after which he moved to France where he worked in the kitchens of Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon for three years where he was able to enhance his expertise in classic French cooking.  In 1993, Gordon became chef of the newly opened Aubergine; within three years the restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars.

Gordon's first book, Passion for Flavour, was published in 1996.  A number of hugely successful books have since followed.

In 1998 at the age of 31, Gordon set up his first wholly owned restaurant, Gordon Ramsay, in Chelsea. In 2001 it won its third Michelin star.  In October 2001 Gordon opened Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's which won a Michelin star in 2003. The same year saw the opening of Gordon Ramsay Holdings first international restaurant, Verre, located in the Dubai Hilton Creek Hotel.  A year later he opened Pétrus in St. James's. Within seven months it had won a Michelin star.  The restaurant relocated to The Berkeley Hotel in 2003 and won its second Michelin star in January 2007.

In 2001 ‘The Gordon Ramsay Scholar Award’ was set up to recognise talented young cooks working in catering or studying at catering college.  The competition has grown year on year and now takes place at The BBC Good Food Show.

At the beginning of October 2002, Gordon Ramsay Holdings took over the food and beverage operation at The Connaught Hotel with Angela Hartnett at the helm. Her restaurant MENU won its first Michelin star in January 2004.  In 2003 Gordon Ramsay Holdings re-launched The Savoy Grill with Marcus Wareing. The restaurant achieved its first Michelin star in 2004. This was followed with the opening of Boxwood Café at The Berkeley with chef Stuart Gillies.

May 2004 saw Gordon Ramsay star in the Channel 4 series Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, later to be awarded a BAFTA and an International Emmy. Shortly after this, Gordon was given two weeks to direct a group of celebrities towards Michelin standard cooking in the ITV series Hell's Kitchen.  2005 confirmed Gordon as one of the UK's major television stars; a second series of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was followed by the debut of Channel 4's The F-Word, a high-octane food show with cooking, topical VT's, food campaigns and celebrity guests which remains one of Channel 4’s highest rating shows.   The third series of US Hell’s Kitchen was named the top rated show of Summer 2007, a few months later, the American version of Kitchen Nightmares made its successful debut.

2005 also saw the launch of GRH’s eighth UK restaurant, maze, in London's Grosvenor Square with Jason Atherton and the opening of Gordon Ramsay at The Conrad Hotel in Tokyo.  The year was rounded off with Gordon's award of an OBE in the New Year's Honours list.

In October 2006 Gordon’s autobiography, Humble Pie was published. The book, which details an honest account of his life in and out of the kitchen, has topped the best seller charts and has since been published in paperback.

A number of successful restaurant openings followed; ‘Gordon Ramsay’ at The London in The London NYC Hotel, La Noisette, with chef patron Bjorn Van Der Horst, which won a Michelin star in January 2007, Cielo at the exclusive Boca Raton resort in Florida, and his first pub, The Narrow, in a Grade II listed building on the banks of the River Thames. Gordon has since gone on to open two further pubs: The Devonshire in West London and most recently, The Warrington in Maida Vale. April 2008 saw the launch of Maze Grill in London’s Grosvenor Square and the publication of maze executive chef Jason Atherton’s first recipe book, maze, The Cookbook.  In June, Gordon launched Gordon Ramsay at The London in West Hollywood where Chef de Cuisine Andy Cook oversees the Californian-inspired menu at the David Collins designed restaurant.

The fifth international Gordon Ramsay restaurant opened towards the end of the year at the Ritz Carlton Hotel Powerscourt, Ireland at the same time that Gordon launched maze restaurant at the Hilton Old Town in Prague.  January 2008 saw the re-opening of Chelsea’s classic neighbourhood bistro, Foxtrot Oscar, on Royal Hospital Road, just a few doors away from Gordon’s eponymous restaurant.

In early 2008 Gordon Ramsay Holdings and Lyndy Redding announced their acquisition of the acclaimed Tante Marie Cookery School.

In 2010, Ramsay hosted the series Ramsay's Best Restaurant, which was the first UK series by Ramsay's own production company, One Potato Two Potato.