Let’s Talk with the Great Chef Gordon Ramsay

gordon-ramsey

Chef Gordon Ramsay, one of the most famous Starred chef, does not need introduction. Well known by cuisine’s lovers,  by television audience and also known by the visitors of Forte Village, the super luxury resort of Santa Margherita di Pula, Sardinia, where until last year he had one of its restaurants, for the summer season.

gordon-ramsey

We met him for an interview that immediately turned into a pleasant chat with a “young man” in hand, nice and extrovert, as well as his character should be. But also romantic in the stories of dinners with his wife by candlelight (“Often I carve out moments with my wife, when we travel for a few days without children and without journalists! “), fatherly in the stories of his activities as a “cooking class” with his children (“to each of them instead of the i-phone I gave a machine for personal pasta!”) and ironic when he speaks of fellow chefs (“Cracco and Cannavacciuolo? To make a Gordon you need at least two of them! I’m kidding, they’re very good and also dear friends“).

Gordon Ramsey

Gordon, what are your first memories in the kitchen?

“Rhymes of memories are linked to the scent of fresh bread. Mum made bread twice a week, so I carry with me the memory of the smell of fresh bread. Even the apple pie is a strong image: unfortunately we could only afford the cake once a month and then when there was the cake was a party. The taste of Sunday was made of beef with yorkshire pudding”.

One of her students, Clare Smyth, was proclaimed the world’s best female chef in Bilbao last year. Do you think there’s a difference, at a high level, between female and male chefs?

Clare worked with me for 12 years. She’s great. I’m afraid he’s gonna get past me eventually! Apart from jokes, I can’t stand talking about female and male chefs. It becomes sexism, it’s degrading. The world is full of women who command brigades of important kitchens, of talented girls. For example, I have a blonde woman with curly hair in my eye every day, she is 16 years old and her name is Mathilda. Mathilda Ramsay. My daughter.”

So he has his kids cook at home? Boys (Megan, the twins Jack and Holly and Mathilda)?
“Yes, all four children (Megan, the twins Holly and Jack, and Mathilda) have been used to living in the kitchen forever. Other parents give away the latest version of the iPhone or other electronic gadgets. I gave them the homemade pasta machine! And everyone has been trying their hand at cooking since childhood, having fun, without any imposition”.

gordon-ramsey

What are the three most important things in your life?
“My family. My clients. My Ferraris”.

How many do you have?
“I currently have 11. I’ve had even more in the past. I get one every time I get a Michelin star and I sell one if I lose it!”.

Three adjectives to describe your kitchen.

“Refined. Creative. Passionate. As am I?”

The dish that represents you?
“Surely the lobster ravioli with tomato puree. It is a dish for half Italian and half Scottish. In September I celebrate the twentieth anniversary of my restaurant in Chelsea and this continues to be the most popular dish, always on the menu, I do not intend to change it!

And what about a dish that particularly excited you at one of your dinners around the world?
“I’m not saying this because we’re in Italy, but because it’s true: the agnolotti of Nadia Santin (Dal Pescatore Restaurant, three stars, in Canneto sull’Oglio) left me a strong memory”.

You cooked for the most powerful men in the world. Who would you like to have as a guest that you haven’t had yet?
Think about it, think aloud with an endless list of names of actors, politicians, rock stars… and then say: “The Pope! I would like to cook for the Pope and visit the Vatican.

gordon-ramsey

What do you like about Italian products?

“I love the fact that your ingredients are fully exploited. I have been to Naples and other places in Campania to visit buffalo farms and dairies. I learned how to prepare buffalo, burrata, ricotta and when I thought I was done, here is the smoked mozzarella. Nothing is wasted by you, and this is a great lesson”.

Speaking of teaching, what’s the biggest cooking class you’ve ever had?

“It’s something I learned in the field and that I also like to teach to the guys who work with me: the kitchen is contact. The kitchen is tasting. You touch every 20 minutes at least! You don’t have to season everything at first, but taste and add slowly every 20 minutes. Young cooks must refine their taste and ability to dress, and must do so personally, on their skin, with their taste buds. Some chefs, on the other hand, are robots, doing mechanical cooking without trying, and that’s the biggest mistake. It being understood that in the kitchen you have to be precise, careful, rigorous, there can be no distractions. We are like athletes, we must have great discipline, otherwise better to take away! ”.

Gordon Ramsey

Many of his dinners are dedicated to the Tana Foundation that he has with his wife: what are the aims?

“We raise money for the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in Bloomsbury, London, which treats children under 18 months. The Foundation is also a school for my children who are fully involved. Too easy to be privileged, they must learn to understand life, to commit to others, to understand that if they have more than others because they were lucky, it is useful to help those who were less so.

At the end of this lovely conversation with the “Bad Gordon Ramsay” (as the collective imagination paints him) we met a sensible and hearty man, sweet as the apple pie of his childhood!

Enjoy even more @ Storie di Cibo

by Nadia Toppino