Common Restaurant Dishes Gordon Ramsay Warns Against Ordering

Although there are rare occasions where Gordon Ramsay was impressed by the food featured in shows like "Kitchen Nightmares" and "MasterChef," the chef passionately criticizes cooking he doesn't like. And while we admit that Ramsay's fiery reputation is what most people know (and love) about him, he's an undisputed master of the culinary arts, with a career spanning more than three decades and multiple Michelin-starred restaurants. As such, we look to Ramsay for guidance on the restaurant industry and the dishes one might find at a dining establishment.

Over the years, the chef has highlighted a few problematic items to avoid when eating out, including the soup of the day, dishes that contain canned ingredients, and well-done steak. In some cases, Ramsay finds fault with the way restaurants repurpose less-than-fresh food. In others, he calls out dubious cooking practices. While the chef's words of culinary wisdom can't completely safeguard you against a lackluster meal, it can help you make smarter choices when visiting a restaurant.

Soup du jour or soup of the day allows restaurants to use remaining ingredients to avoid waste and to hopefully present diners with a flavorful dish. While waste reduction is crucial in the restaurant industry, dining establishments shouldn't use the soup of the day to pawn off unpalatable recipes and ingredients on unsuspecting customers. During an episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" shared on YouTube, Gordon Ramsay was confronted with an overzealous restaurant owner who failed to grasp the "soup of the day" concept after a server admitted that the advertised soup had been available at the establishment for the past week.

In a segment capable of inducing a full-body cringe in even the most mentally resilient of humans, Ramsay whispers into the owner's ear, "It's not soup of the day, it's the same soup that was on two weeks ago." In response, the owner replies, "Oh, I didn't even know what soup of the day meant." If confusion over basic restaurant concepts isn't bad enough, the jalapeño corn chowder soup du semaine Ramsay received was described as "not nice...gnarly" by the chef. Not all soup du jour is bad, however, and Ramsay even offers advice on how to assess the quality of the dish prior to ordering. Much like he did in the YouTube clip, the TV show host recommends that you inquire about the preceding soup of the day to determine whether ingredients are fresh.

While canned goods absolutely deserve a permanent spot in your pantry, most restaurant patrons would prefer freshly prepared items when shelling out hard earned bucks for a meal. That brings us to Gordon Ramsay and the dreaded Greek sampler that made an appearance on "Kitchen Nightmares" (video courtesy of Facebook). The chef declared, "That is ghastly" upon tasting the dish, which prompted the server to explain that most of the items in the sampler consist of canned foods. Speaking of the offending appetizer platter, Ramsay ominously stated, "If [the restaurant owner] served that in the Greek Isles, they'd throw him overboard."

In another clip from "Hell's Kitchen USA," Ramsay is taken to the limit by several contestants who include canned or jarred foods in their dishes. In one instance, the celebrity chef spits out the bite of pasta he'd just taken after the contestant admitted to using jarred sauce. Canned food is subject to its share of unfair myths regarding aspects like sodium content and nutritional deficits. And while they're a great option for busy weeknight dinners, Ramsay believes that using canned items in a commercial kitchen is akin to laziness.

There's a reason that famous chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain cautioned against ordering overcooked steak, and it boils down to quality. The legendary Bourdain claimed that the worst cuts of beef are often reserved for diners who request this level of doneness. According to Ramsay, the steak lacks the flavor and texture that make the dish so appealing and should be avoided as a result. The celebrity chef also made his position on the controversial preparation abundantly clear after being accused of offering a charred piece of meat at one of his restaurants. 

In the YouTube clip, a reporter gives Ramsay a photo of the offending steak, to which the chef asks, "How did [the customer] ask for the steak to be cooked?" When the reporter stated that the order was for a well-done steak, Ramsay defended his restaurant, stating, "[The steak] has gone past any form of taste when you've cooked it well-done." The chef ultimately stormed out of the interview, claiming to be unfairly maligned for honoring a customer's preferences. If you'd like to avoid flavorless hunks of beef during your next restaurant outing, medium is the way to go. This doneness level is within the safe range specified by the USDA (145 degrees Fahrenheit) while still yielding a pink interior and pleasant texture.