Gordon Ramsay has claimed that most TV chefs are completely overrated and could never run a proper restaurant kitchen.
The celebrity chef, 53, whose signature Chelsea restaurant holds three Michelin stars, said many of those running food shows ‘get away with a lot of s***’ and ‘wouldn’t last an hour in a professional kitchen’.
The Hell’s Kitchen star was speaking on Frank Warren’s Heavyweight Podcast when he suggested popular celebrity chefs tended to hide behind the TV edit and the fact that no one ever tasted their food.
And he even made a joking dig about his friend and Road Trip co-star, chef Gino D’Acampo, being ‘overrated’ when pushed for an example.
Gordon Ramsay on Frank Warren’s Heavyweight Podcast when he suggested popular TV chefs ‘get away with a lot of s***’ and ‘wouldn’t last an hour in a professional kitchen’
He added that he had a pet hate for chef who take ‘sh***y shortcuts to get the job done quicker’.
Ramsay described himself as a ‘real chef’ and likened himself to former soldier Ant Middleton who stars as the chief instructor on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Ramsay, who also runs a number of other restaurants around the world in countries including the US, France and Dubai, confessed he expects to make ‘substantial’ losses as a result of coronavirus.
And he believes that after lockdown the entire restaurant experience will change, marking the end of ‘long-winded’ table side food descriptions from waiters, while it’ll be a case of ‘forget salt and pepper, it’ll be hand sanitiser’.
In the podcast, Ramsay criticised other celebrity chefs, saying: ‘If I didn’t have any TV and wasn’t producing those shows, behind all that I’m a real chef so that’s the difference.
‘You look at Ant Middleton; behind that facade there’s a guy who was SBS, special forces, a Royal Marine and prior to that a para.
The celebrity chef, 53, whose signature Chelsea restaurant (pictured) holds three Michelin stars, described himself as a ‘real chef’ and likened himself to former soldier Ant Middleton who stars in SAS: Who Dares Wins
‘I’m 53 years of age, I got my first Michelin star at 33 so I’m a real chef, not a TV chef.
‘And there are TV chefs out there who wouldn’t last an hour in a professional kitchen because you’ve got the power of the edit, you’ve got the power of the producer and to be totally frank, you’re not going to taste any food we cook on TV, ’cause you can’t fucking smell it.
‘So you can get away with a lot of shit on there.
‘And I used to take the piss out of all the Ready Steady guys and have a bit of banter with them and say to myself ‘I’m not a TV chef’, because it may have come across as slightly hypocritical because I’m a real chef.
He then jokingly named his friend, Italian chef Gino D’Acampo, who rose to fame on ITV’s This Morning, as an example of an ‘overrated chef’ to laughs from Warren.
He then jokingly named his friend, Italian chef Gino D’Acampo (right), who rose to fame on ITV’s This Morning, as an example of an ‘overrated chef’ to laughs from Warren
The pair are still good friends, and along with First Dates head waiter Fred Sirieix are currently starring in Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip across North America.
Ramsay said that maintaining the standards in his Chelsea restaurant while balancing a TV career is ‘the most difficult thing I do’.
He added: ‘I need to trust. In 22 years I’ve had literally just two head chefs there. So you never hand that baton over until you’re absolutely fully secure in what they’re doing.’
However, Ramsay revealed that coronavirus has been a massive blow to his business but insisted he is optimistic it will bounce back once lockdown is over.
He said: ‘There will be substantial losses next year, there’s no two ways about that.
‘Running a business is very hard and the margins now not just in the produce and the labour costs and running costs are pretty tiny, so there’s no margin for error.’
He praised the government’s response and said that with business rates ‘on the shelf’, interest rates down and if landlords are flexible, there was cause for optimism and believes people will be dashing out to eat with friends once restrictions are lifted.
The pair are still good friends, and along with First Dates head waiter Fred Sirieix are currently starring in Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip across North America
‘There will be a surge, we just have to tread very carefully, listen to the government, get the right sort of support from the landlords. The HMRC have been tremendous, the government with the furlough scheme has been instrumental.
‘I’m optimistic.
‘We are going to open up, we are going to back back strong and treat this as a new opening and something better than we were doing before we closed.
‘We have to be incredibly careful how we re-set these restaurants up. We have to imagine these as new openings. Forget salt and paper, it’s hand sanitiser. Forget the long-winded descriptions, forget table sides.
‘It’ll be temperature checks, staff checks, regular testings. All these things have to come into play.
‘We have to increase the security of our customers and we have to make sure they feel safe and incredibly well looked after. All those measure snow are being worked out and it’s a logistical nightmare.’
The father of five also said he is worried about the effects the coronavirus pandemic could have on young people.
He said: ‘Having three daughters and two sons, the mental health aspect of being confined to barracks and having this cabin fever, being that locked in for this length of time, we have to be very careful of the long-term effects in terms of knocking the confidence out of youngsters today.’