How Much Gordon Ramsay Is Really Worth
We all know Gordon Ramsay: celebrity chef, restaurateur, and adventurous TV star with an endless supply of creative insults and an affection for unprintable four letter words. All that swearing and sautéing certainly keeps him comfortable, but how much is Gordon Ramsay really worth?
Well, combining the above with Ramsay's other ventures: the cookbooks, biographies, masterclasses, homeware line, endorsements and even a non-food-related game show called "Bank Balance," Wealthy Gorilla reports that Gordon Ramsay has a net worth of about $220 million.
According to Forbes, in 2020 alone he earned around $70 million, although the real figure could be even higher, as Forbes notes that Ramsay sold a 50% stake of his North American holding company to investors Lion Capital after their scoring period ended. The $100 million deal will expand Ramsay's brand across 100 new American restaurants by 2024.
Gordon Ramsay has made himself into a global brand by combining his fiery personality (vividly showcased on a large number of Fox reality shows) and a love of classically British dishes like his signature Beef Wellington (over 250,000 sold since 2012!).
It's a strange turn of events for a wee Scottish lad who grew up in public housing in England, who the New Yorker says dreamed of being a soccer player before he discovered his talent for food. Here, we'll take a look at the various businesses that make up Ramsay's $220 million net worth.
Gordon Ramsay's early years
According to Brittanica, Ramsay was born in Johnstone, Scotland, in 1966, but the family moved to the small, English tourist town of Stratford-upon-Avon (famous for being Shakespeare's hometown) when he was young.
The New Yorker writes that the Ramsays lived on a council estate (British public housing). Ramsay's father was unreliable and often violent, and Ramsay's early food memories were rooted in traditional British food, according to The Guardian: tripe and onions, leftovers from his mother's job as a cook in a tea house, porridge with salt, with not a lobster or truffle to be seen.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the young Ramsay was more interested in soccer than food, playing for the Oxford United youth team, and recruited at the age of 15 for the Scottish Premier League Glasgow Rangers soccer club. Sadly, a knee injury halted his athletic career. Ramsay got a diploma in hotel management in 1987, and then he followed in his mother's footsteps and got a job in food.
As the New Yorker writes, he held a variety of jobs and training, including a scholarship with a catering school, a pub kitchen, and restaurant in a London hotel. And then one day, he saw a picture of the celebrated young British chef Marco Pierre White in a magazine, and somehow persuaded White to take him on at his two-Michelin-starred London restaurant, Harvey's. Ramsay started at the bottom as a commis (responsible for chopping veggies), and credits White with teaching him everything he knows.
Gordon Ramsay's career has been kind (even if he hasn't been!)
After three years under Marco Pierre White at Harvey's, Ramsay moved to La Gavroche to work for White's former employer, Albert Roux, according to the New Yorker. Ramsay then moved to France to train under famed chefs Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, but by 1993 he was back in London as head chef at Aubergine, and by 1996 had won his first two Michelin stars.
Ramsay opened his own restaurant in 1998, naming it Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. In three years it won three Michelin stars, which it has maintained, the longest-running restaurant in London to do so, according to Gordon Ramsay's website.
As the New Yorker explains, Ramsay's television career started in 2000 with a documentary called "Boiling Point," about the first few months at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. The series showcased Ramsey's now-infamous impatient and hot-tempered personality, as well as his legendary talent for creative insults.
Ramsay credits the film with kickstarting the rest of his television career, with shows like "Hell's Kitchen" and "The F Word" turning Ramsay into an internationally famous (and incredibly wealthy) celebrity chef and television personality.
As his profile rose, Ramsay opened more restaurants across the world; the current count on his official website stands at more than 50 over his career, with 35 currently open. Four of his restaurants currently hold seven Michelin stars between them.
Gordon Ramsay's personal life
Gordon Ramsay has been married to his wife Tana since 1996, and they have five children together: Megan, 23, twins Holly and Jack, 21, Matilda, 20, (known as Tilly), and little Oscar, who was born in 2019.
Tana, 46, was trained as a Montessori-school teacher, and she is a respected cook in her own right: both Tilly Ramsay and Gordon's rival chef Jamie Oliver have both publicly professed to prefer her cooking and recipes to Gordon's!
Speaking of Tilly, the second-youngest Ramsay is a burgeoning food celebrity herself. She presented five seasons of a children's cooking show on the BBC, "Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch", and has a popular TikTok account where she frequently roasts her famous father, to the delight of her 9 million-plus followers.
As well as running a multimillion dollar personal empire and raising five children, Ramsay somehow also finds time to keep up a hardcore workout schedule. Men's Health reported in 2020 that he has run the London marathon 15 times, the Los Angeles marathon twice, and five ultra-marathons, as well as competing in various triathlons and Ironman competitions, many with his equally fit wife. When he's training, Sundays find Ramsay up at 4 a.m. for a leisurely 112-mile bike ride, followed by a cool 10 or 15 kilometer run, reports Delish. No, we don't know when he sleeps either!
Gordon Ramsay's yearly income
We're starting to understand the many, many income streams that make up Gordon Ramsay's impressive net worth. In 2020 alone, Forbes reported that he earned $70 million, and the $150 million his shows earn each year in advertising revenue for Fox probably helps Ramsay to keep the lights on. Screenrant reports that Ramsay earns $200,000 for every episode of "Hell's Kitchen" (which is on its 20th season!), while his newer National Geographic show "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted" nets him $330,000 per episode.
Even assuming Ramsay does his civic duty by paying the correct taxes, that kind of income more than covers a lifetime supply of truffles. Ramsay's yearly income is sure to rise in the next few years, however, due to the $100 million deal he inked recently with investors Lion Capital, who now own 50% of Ramsay's North American holdings, and plan to open 100 new Gordon Ramsay restaurants across the United States by 2024.
But what else goes into making up Ramsay's yearly income? Restaurants and TV, sure, but did we mention the cookbooks, line of homewares, Masterclasses, endorsements, products, cellphone game and a game show all raking it in under the Gordon Ramsay name? Is anyone else's head spinning?
His restaurant game is strong
Ramsay's official website currently features over 35 open restaurants in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, and China. He's has more than 50 in total. Over his career, Ramsay has been awarded a total of 21 Michelin stars; he currently retains seven of those.
The most dramatic Michelin moment of Ramsay's career, however, was in 2013, when his New York restaurant lost both of its Michelin stars in one fell swoop after the anonymized Michelin inspectors said there were "quality issues" with the food. Ramsay apparently cried when he heard the news — even though he no longer owned it at the time – and that restaurant closed in 2014, reports Eater.
Interestingly, many of Ramsay's restaurants serve pretty simple food: pizza, fish and chips, and burgers are popular at many of his spots. Will that burger cost you almost $20? Yes (unless you get the $106 one from Harrods!) But is it a great burger? Almost definitely!
Now, the restaurants where you'll find these dishes aren't the restaurants with the Michelin stars (hello, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Pétrus, Le Pressoir d'Argent and Gordon Ramsay au Trianon), but being on the more affordable side, these restaurants are most likely the places where ordinary folk can eat something touched by some of Chef Ramsay's incredibly high standards. All of his restaurants, no matter their level of fancy, contribute to his considerable yearly income.
Gordon on TV
There's no doubt that television has played a huge role in Gordon Ramsay's success. Viewers can't get enough of his no-holds-barred chef persona, and he single-handedly changed food-based reality TV, even though most of the dialogue is bleeped out. Every show doubles as free marketing for him and his restaurants, and has undoubtedly helped to grow his global brand.
In 2016 Ramsay launched his own production company, Studio Ramsay, and Variety reports that in 2021 he partnered with Fox in a nine-figure deal to launch Studio Ramsay Global. That's on top of Ramsay's existing Fox shows (and their six-figure-per-episode paychecks) such as "Hell's Kitchen," "MasterChef," and "MasterChef Junior," otherwise known as The Show Where Gordon Isn't Mean (Because They're Children).
While that nine-figure deal sounds like it will pay Ramsay's dry-cleaning bill, the show Studio Ramsay is producing that we're most confused about is his gameshow, "Bank Balance."
Firstly, it has nothing to do with food: Players apparently answer questions and stack gold bars like a giant, nerve wracking game of Jenga.
Secondly, it aired in February of 2021 on the BBC, and was cancelled in the U.K. after just one season. However, Metro reports that it will be debuting Stateside soon, despite comparisons to Joey from "Friends"' gameshow, "Bamboozled." Apparently, the rules are a little too complicated. Although we imagine it's hard to concentrate when Gordon Ramsay is calling you a panini head.
Gordon Ramsay's cookbooks
As if producing great food and entertaining television wasn't enough, Euro News states that Ramsay has also published over 30 cookbooks. He has also published two biographies, and many of his books have become bestsellers. His most recent cookbook, "Ramsay in 10," compiles 100 new recipes that can be made in under 10 minutes (no word on if you need Ramsay's training and sharp knives to actually pull that off).
The quick turnaround time for the recipes was not inspired by running a high-powered restaurant kitchen, but from Ramsay's lockdown experience during the pandemic, where he apparently started cooking regularly at home for the first time.
Euro News reports that Ramsay had the stressors of the pandemic on his mind, quoting him as saying, "Every doctor and nurse was on their knees, and every hospital was bursting with anxiety and pressure. And so what I wanted to do was to take that pressure off."
In a series of Instagram Lives which became YouTube videos, Ramsay cooked 10-minute delicious breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, which grew into the cookbook. For all the hours we've seen Ramsay on television tasting food, spitting it out, and insulting the person who cooked it, we've rarely seen him actually cook anything himself. It's no wonder these short videos have nearly two million views.
Homewares and seltzer and gaming, oh my!
You simply can't be a celebrity chef nowadays without your own line of homeware. Can you, Ree Drummond? Well, Gordon Ramsay is no exception, and true to form, he has partnered with classic British tableware brands Royal Doulton and Waterford Wedgwood.
Each of the lines is named after one of his restaurants: Bread Street, Bread Street Kitchen, Maze, and Union Street Cafe, and features simple, classic, and attractively rustic lines of plates, bowls, and mugs, in pretty, muted colorways. At around $20 for a pasta bowl, the prices aren't too bad, either.
However, classy homeware isn't the only thing stamped with the Gordon Ramsay label. Ramsay himself is what you might call a hard man, and he now has a hard seltzer to match. As Insider reports, the punnily named "Hell's Seltzer" is 5.5% A.B.V., costs around $16 for 12, and includes flavors such as "Mean Green" (lime, kiwi, pineapple, and mint) and "That's Forked" (key lime, graham, vanilla).
Everyone seems to be jumping on the hard seltzer bandwagon, but we wouldn't have guessed that a native Scot like Ramsay would release something fizzy college kids can drink on the beach before his own whisky or scotch. However, it's currently available in at least 12 out of the 50 states, including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode island, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada, according to TheDrinksBusiness.com.
Gordon Ramsay will teach you to cook
If you've bought the cookbooks and watched the videos, but there's still something missing, and you'd like to help Gordon maintain his net worth, you can learn to cook like Gordon Ramsay– or even from Gordon Ramsay.
If you're in the South of England, you can train over to Woking, Surrey, (about 30 miles south-west of London) and attend one of a wide range of classes at the Gordon Ramsay Academy. The Academy opened in autumn of 2021, and offers classes for children, adults, and families, across a wide range of cuisines, techniques, and meals (brunch, anyone?).
However, if Woking is a bit too far, you can get Gordon in your living room through the MasterClass website with Cooking I and Cooking II, where you'll learn everything from how to make perfect pasta to breaking down an entire salmon. According to Entrepreneur's Handbook, no one knows exactly how much the celebrity instructors on MasterClass are paid to design and film their courses. There have been reports of $100,000 flat fees per cours,e plus 25% or even 30% cuts of the revenue, but the organization themselves say that contracts vary from person to person.
Either way, a big name like Ramsay is sure to be getting a hefty chunk of cash that definitely won't hurt his net worth.
Endorsements and mobile gaming
No celebrity chef is complete without their endorsements, including Gordon Ramsay. Currently, he is endorsing HexClad cookware, a range of pans made with stainless steel and non-stick technology, and Tide cold water laundry detergents.
However, even the flood of Tide-pod-eating memes cannot match the mocking leveled upon Ramsay when he endorsed a certain South Korean beer. According to CNBC, Ramsay's advert for Cass beer (which is, as far as we can tell, akin to the Bud Light of South Korea), was met with wide derision on social media, including statements such as [this beer is] "bottom-shelf swill."
Ramsay spoke about the affordable nature of the beer, as well as highlighting Cass as a good pairing for Korean food. He also said that he had been a Cass drinker "before the call came in."
If you don't buy Tide and you're happy with the pans you've got, you can download one of his mobile games and finally get the experience of being personally insulted by Gordon Ramsay. In "Restaurant Dash," (which was revamped in 2017 with additional, meaner "Gordonisms" per VentureBeat), you'll compete with other chefs to cook your way to success. In the puzzle game "Chef Blast," players match cubes to blow them up and earn the status of top chef.
Both games are free to download, but have in-app purchases and advertising which have netted over $10 million in revenue – some of which is headed toward the chef.
Gordon Ramsay doesn't take his money for granted
Maybe it was growing up low-income, or his down-to-earth personality, but Ramsay is definitely as able to appreciate the simpler things in life as he is a lobster ravioli. For example, he once Tweeted about his love for a Double-Double Animal Style from In n Out (he really is just like us).
Perhaps the clearest indication of the Ramseys' attitude to money, however, is the way they treat the kids. In 2017, the Telegraph reported that the Ramsey children are not allowed to fly first-class alongside their parents unless they pay for it themselves. Until then, they sit in coach. Ramsay's view is that luxuries are more appreciated when they've been worked for.
Other Ramsay parenting tips: the kids get about $65 per week each to pay for their phones and bus fare, and they have to learn to cook (of course) because feeding yourself is a life skill.
But by far the biggest revelation comes on the subject of the Ramsay kids' inheritance. Spoiler: they're not getting anything.
Ramsay told the Telegraph that almost none of that $220 million net worth will be automatically divided amongst his children's bank accounts when the time comes.
"The only thing I've agreed with Tana is they get a 25% deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat," he said. In this economy? Are the Ramsays looking to adopt?
Ramsay real estate
The kids may not be getting anything in the future, but the life they're living now is definitely not without its luxuries. Hello has documented the Ramsays' three enormous homes in London, Los Angeles, and Cornwall, in the South-West of England.
According to Velvet Ropes, Ramsays' Los Angeles casa was bought for $6.75 million and sprawls over 8,200 square feet in Bel Air.
The city pad in Wandsworth, South-West London (which has featured heavily in Ramsay's social media over the past year) is valued at around 9.5 million according to the Daily Mail, while the Cornwall holiday home is reportedly valued at around $8 million. The Cornwall home also features an impressive swimming pool with a transparent wall that gives it a tank-like look. Pools like that are said to cost upwards of $60,000.
While we would have thought Ramsay would rather put that money into the kitchen, parking your money in real estate (or swimming pools) is a time-honored tradition amongst the very, very rich (and we have no doubt all of his kitchens are pretty impressive). There's no doubt that the three Ramsay residences contribute nicely to his net worth.
Gordon Ramsay's charity work
Gordon Ramsay has been involved in many charitable causes over the years: Running marathons on behalf of the Scottish Spina Bifida association, and resurrecting his soccer skills to participate in Soccer Aid on behalf of UNICEF.
More recently, the Gordon and Tana Ramsay Foundation have been focused on their work with the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, which was founded in 1852 to treat kids from around the United Kingdom. For the 2021 holiday season, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants are supporting the Foundation by asking for voluntary £1 (about $1) donations to guest's bills "so that the 600 seriously ill children that arrive at GOSH every day have the best possible future" (as per their website). In previous years, the Foundation has raised money through inviting amateur athletes to participate in triathlons on their behalf.
There is a lot of evidence that Gordon Ramsay, despite his prickly exterior, genuinely likes children: He and his wife have five of their own, and MasterChef Junior is his only show where he doesn't frequently insult the contestants. But whatever their motives, choosing the Great Ormond Street Hospital as their main fundraising target is an extremely worthy goal for the Foundation.
Gordon Ramsay is the third wealthiest chef in the world
So, we've learned that Gordon Ramsay's net worth is around $220 million, and looked at some of the many income streams that make up that impressive number. We hadn't yet mentioned that he won an Order of the British Empire (awarded by the Queen!) in 2006 for his contributions to the hospitality industry, but that's true too. Surprisingly, however, that net worth only makes him the third wealthiest chef in the world.
According to Wealthy Gorilla, that $220 million puts him right ahead of Nobu Matsuhisa ($200 million) and pretty far behind number two Jamie Oliver ($400 million), and number one Alan Wong (a whopping $1.1 billion).
However, Jamie Oliver's restaurant group went into administration (British for bankrupt) in 2019, with reported debts of over $100 million, putting Oliver's new worth at around $300,000 — still not too shabby.
Of course, 2020 was a terrible time for all of us, and it was especially devastating to the restaurant industry. Alan Wong was forced to close all of his restaurants, according to his official website, and Gordon Ramsay has not been unaffected. In February of 2021 he told Delish that he estimated his restaurants had lost $80 million during the pandemic. Although there's no doubt that the world's wealthiest chefs will be back cooking at full strength again before long, their post-pandemic net worth calculations might look a little different.