People Who Can't Stand Gordon Ramsay

The late chef, Anthony Bourdain, was often pretty critical of Ramsay, but his beef with the chef was not entirely personal. Back in 2012, he expressed his disdain for him when Ramsay applied to trademark the name The Spotted Pig in the UK. Ramsay had no immediate plans to use the name, but the trademark would have effectively stopped April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman, of New York's The Spotted Pig, from branching out across the pond.

Bourdain took to Twitter to call Ramsay's move "shameful pathetic" and "despicable." He accused Ramsay of appropriating the brand built up by Bloomfield. Ramsay, however, claimed that he had no harmful intentions, calling the trademark an "innocent mistake." He eventually turned the trademark back over to Bloomfield, but not until few months had passed. Whether Ramsay really was trying to do the right thing or he was just caving in to the criticism is uncertain.

If Marcus Samuelsson's memoir, Yes, Chef, is to be believed, he has a better reason than some to hate Gordon Ramsay. According to his memoir (via Eater), Samuelsson's dislike for Ramsay goes way back. He said that he first noticed Ramsay's less-than-stellar personality when cooking with him at a promotional event. "There were a handful of chefs there... and Gordon was rude and obnoxious to all of them," he said.

A couple years later, when he landed a job at London's Lanesborough, Samuelsson was asked which British chefs he admired, a list that Ramsay didn't make. "I thought the best way to handle it was to saying nothing about him at all," wrote Samuelsson. "Nothing good, nothing bad. I guess he was offended at being left out."

Ramsay allegedly called Samuelsson, saying "How the f*** can you come to my f***ing city and think you are going to be able to cook without even f***ing referring to me?" Samuelsson said that the tirade went on for several minutes, and ended with Ramsay saying "I'm going to make sure you have a f***ing miserable time here. This is my city, you hear? Good luck, you f***ing black bastard."

Part of the reason Gordon Ramsay alienates people is because he has a tendency to take things personally. In the 1990s, Ramsay's restaurant, Aubergine, received good reviews from critics, but failed to win over the late AA Gill. The critic gave Aubergine a negative review in the Sunday Times. Instead of taking the criticism gracefully, Ramsay instead retaliated against Gill years later by kicking him out of another one of his restaurants. Ramsay wrote in The Independent that he doesn't have a problem with constructive criticism, "but if it becomes personal I'll close my doors to that." He said he kicked Gill out because he doesn't "respect him as a food critic." Ramsay wrote, "Personal attacks and insulting my staff is something I'm not putting up with... I don't have to stand there and cook for him."

Gill responded by saying that, while he respects Ramsay's cooking skills, he is "just a really second-rate human being."

Marco Pierre White was Gordon Ramsay's mentor for a time, but things ended badly. White bragged in his autobiography (via the Independent) that he had made Ramsay cry when he was in his early 20s after yelling at him. While it's understandable that Ramsay hates his former boss, White also detests Ramsay for the things he has done to retaliate for the harsh treatment.

"I will never speak to him again," White told Telegraph. "I gave him his first break in the business and I believe strongly in being loyal to people who have helped you." White claimed that Ramsay betrayed him in several ways, including turning up at his wedding without permission with a film crew and posting footage of it.

In 1998, Ramsay paid someone to steal his restaurant's reservation book. He claimed that White was behind the theft and was trying to sabotage his business. "I blamed Marco," Ramsay finally admitted to The Guardian nearly a decade after the incident. "Because I knew that would f**k him."

While Ramsay's kids haven't publicly said anything too bad about their famous dad, it's probably only a matter of time. Ramsay is notorious for saying that he won't leave his vast fortune to his children, because he doesn't want them to be spoiled. The multimillionaire takes it a little bit too far, though. When the family goes on trips, he doesn't even let his kids sit with him and his wife, Tara. "They haven't worked anywhere near hard enough to afford that," he told Telegraph. "I turn left with Tana and they turn right and I say to the chief stewardess, 'Make sure those little f****** don't come anywhere near us, I want to sleep on this plane'."

Teaching your kids the value of a dollar is one thing, but going on record saying you don't want your kids anywhere near you on a plane is a good way of stirring up resentment. His daughter, Tilly, has started to follow in her dad's footsteps, but has found that he's a harsh critic, even with his kids. On This Morning, she said, 'He's a really fussy eater... Well, with my food. He's really tough on me. He definitely is.'

Jacques Pepin is another chef who thinks that Gordon Ramsay's on-screen persona leaves a lot to be desired. In a scathing piece for The Daily Meal, Pepin wrote about how reality TV shows portray the industry "in a chaotic and negative light."

"The so-called "reality" cooking shows are, if anything, totally unreal," wrote Pepin. "A real, well-run professional kitchen has dignity and order." He called out Hell's Kitchen, saying that "the cruel rivalry and conflict" on the show might bring in audiences, "but it is unjust to dedicated cooks and unfair to the trade."

It seems like he's calling out Ramsay in the piece, especially when he refers to reality TV stars on cooking shows who "insult and humiliate their crew, cursing and swearing, with every other word a bleeped expletive." Pepin later wrote on Facebook that he did not mean to insult Ramsay, who he called "a very good, professionally trained chef." Instead, he blamed the television industry for the pressure it puts on its celeb chefs to "create excitement."