The Biggest Scandals To Ever Plague Gordon Ramsay

Long before Gordon Ramsay was a household name, he was already getting in trouble for the bad-boy antics that would become his hallmark. In 2004, an old incident resurfaced that spelled embarrassment for the celebrity chef. As the Daily Mail reported, Ramsay had been arrested back in 1993, along with two other male chefs, caught in "various stages of undress" in a tube station lavatory.

While the three were cited for "gross indecency," a spokesperson for Ramsay insisted the incident was just a little booze-fueled tomfoolery. The spokesperson described the boozy hijinks of three men who'd had a bit too much to imbibe and were "horsing around" in a public bathroom after a celebratory evening.

After talking with Ramsay about what transpired all those years ago, the spokesperson explained that "one of them was having a pee in the sink. The other one was running around with his trousers around his ankles and Gordon was actually just at a urinal with his head slumped on the wall." The spokesperson emphasized that there was no court appearance, dismissing the whole thing as "a complete boys' lark" while maintaining "there was nothing sexual involved."

In 2009, several of Gordon Ramsay's London gastropubs were found to be serving previously prepared frozen food to oblivious customers. The revelation came about thanks to a sting orchestrated by The Sun tabloid, reported The Guardian, which revealed that the eateries were supplied with boil-in-the-bag coq au vin supplied by Ramsay-owned kitchen facility GR Logistics. When heated and served, the food was sold to unsuspecting diners at a markup of around 500 percent.

As Daily Mail reported, a spokesperson admitted that GR Logistics did indeed "prepare components of dishes devised and produced to the highest Gordon Ramsay standards." These menu items, the spokesperson continued, "are sealed and transported daily in refrigerated vans and all menu dishes are then cooked in the individual kitchens." This, the spokesperson asserted (via The Guardian), allowed the gastropubs to "control the consistency and the quality of the food served."

Helen Hokin, food editor for Food and Travel Magazine, didn't buy that explanation. She told The Scotsman that this was just another example of "an ever-increasing discrepancy between what Gordon Ramsay says and what Gordon Ramsay does. I think he's going to lose the trust of his adoring public."

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was a big hit on U.S. television, but created a legal nightmare for Gordon Ramsay when one of the restaurateurs featured on the show took him to court. Martin Hyde was manager of Manhattan eatery Dillons, until being fired during an episode in which Ramsay called him out for such infractions as rat droppings on the floor and rotten hamburger meat in the fridge. 

Hyde launched a lawsuit, reported The Guardian, alleging that "unknown to the viewing audience, some or all of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares shows are fake and the so-called 'problems uncovered and solved' by Ramsay are, for the most part, created by Ramsay and his staff for the purpose of making it appear that Ramsay is improving the restaurant." 

A judge subsequently tossed the lawsuit, and ordered both sides to enter arbitration. In an interview with TV Week cited (via BBC America), Ramsay denied Hyde's allegations. "I would never-ever-ever dream of setting anything up. I want to sleep at night," he said. "We were issued a writ because, God bless America, if the toilet paper is not thick enough and you come out with a rash on your ass [you'll get sued]."

Gordon Ramsay nearly caused an international incident when, as The Guardian reported, he publicly insulted an Australian female broadcaster. During a 2009 live appearance in Melbourne, Australia, Ramsay displayed a Photoshopped image of a naked woman on all fours with multiple breasts and a pig's face, declaring, "That's Tracy Grimshaw. I had an interview with her yesterday, holy crap. She needs to see Simon Cowell's Botox doctor." He also claimed she was a lesbian.

"Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn't find him attractive must be gay. For the record, I don't. And I'm not," responded Grimshaw on her show, reported the Sydney Morning Herald. "I'm not going to sit meekly and let some arrogant narcissist bully me." 

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd even weighed in, describing Ramsay's remarks as "a new form of low life. I just think that's off and offensive. Good on Tracy Grimshaw for coming out and giving him a left upper cut."

Ramsay's spokesperson later issued an apology, admitting his intention "was to make a joke" but "with hindsight he realizes that his comments were inappropriate and offensive..."

Gordon Ramsay was just 5 when he and his family moved to Stratford-upon-Avon in England, but he was born in Scotland. Ramsay may consider himself English, given that he's lived there for the vast majority of his life, but Scotland claims him as their own. 

This explains why a 2011 episode of Kitchen Nightmares cooked up controversy in the land of his birth, when Ramsay was seen conversing with the British-born owner of a failing Florida restaurant. As the Daily Record reported, Ramsay compares himself to the restaurateur, stating, "We're both English, and we both studied in Paris, but there's one thing we don't share in common. I care about my customers. He clearly doesn't give a f**k."

The first part of the statement raised some serious Scottish ire. Inverness politician Don Lawson became so riled he demanded Ramsay apologize to the people of Scotland. "If he'd said this a few hundred years ago, he'd have had his head chopped off," declared Lawson, insisting that Ramsay "should always remember where he came from, even if some of his American TV audience don't know the difference between Scottish, English and Chinese."

Anthony Bourdain was a true television trailblazer with such series as No Reservations and Parts Unknown, which found the adventurous celebrity chef exploring foreign cultures and sampling exotic cuisine in far-flung locales throughout the planet.

In 2019, just a few months after Bourdain's tragic 2018 death, the National Geographic channel announced a new series with a near-identical premise starring Gordon Ramsay. As soon as Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted was announced, Bourdain's fans accused Ramsay of ripping off the concept. Numerous social media users took to Twitter to slam Ramsey, including celebrity chef Eddie Huang, who tweeted, "the last thing the food world needs right now is Gordon Ramsay going to foreign countries 'showing locals he can cook their cuisines better than they can.'"

Ramsay responded to the furor during an appearance at the Television Critics Association press tour, reported ET Canada. "We took a lot of flak on the announcements with Nat Geo about rivalling Tony Bourdain, and that was incorrect," Ramsay said. "Judge the program, and the integrity, and the team that's gone to hell and back to make this work."

A video of a 2010 Tonight Show appearance resurfaced in 2019 and led to some serious backlash for Gordon Ramsay due to the outrageous behavior and sexist attitude the celebrity chef displayed toward Modern Family's Sofia Vergara. When she tells Leno that a scream she let out was "all acting," Ramsay touches her on the arm and asks, "Only in the bedroom?" In response, Vergara inches away as her face takes on a pained expression. 

Later, Vergara is showing off photos from a recent vacation, including one of her eating pizza. "You seem like you're enjoying that. You had a whole wedge in your mouth at one time? You haven't heard of a knife and fork?" Ramsay tells her. After she insists "you don't eat pizza with a knife and fork," Ramsay lewdly quips, "You just pick it up and stick it in?"

Things got worse when Ramsay sampled her favorite treat from her native Colombia, which he described as "sh*t fudge" before spitting it out and telling her to "take it back to f**king Colombia." He also mocked the name of Vergara's son, Manolo, telling her it "sounds like a paint."