Times Gordon Ramsay Failed
There's no denying that Gordon Ramsay is a champ of the celebrity chef world. This man has seven Michelin stars, a BAFTA award, and one of his many successful shows made it to an unbelievable 18 seasons. In 2013, he was even inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. To call Ramsay a failure would be absolute codswallop — most of the time, at least.
Gordon Ramsay is a real life human, he's not a cooking machine. This chef has made a few unbeloved dishes, a couple of blunders on camera, and some pretty yikesy mistakes. Ramsay is a person that's totally capable of failure and has failed throughout his career, believe it or not. It is important that we think critically about the people that wield influence. We should pay attention to when they mess up.
So, without any further adieu, here's a bunch of times that Gordon Ramsay has failed. If you're a Hell's Kitchen stan, you may need to exhale before you scroll on.
Gordon Ramsay has failed to save a lot of folks' restaurants
In the show Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay tries to save an awful restaurant in a single week. These establishments often have bad management, out of date food, and terrible chefs. In one episode, Gordon even finds a pigeon and a dead lobster in an eatery's kitchen.
However, despite the fact that Gordon Ramsay faces these challenges, most of the episodes end on a hopeful note. In a 2012 episode about La Galleria, Ramsay renovates the restaurant and sends this establishment a great chef to work there for a month. When you watch this episode, you feel as if this place could turn around.
In November of 2018, La Galleria closed. In fact, a lot of the restaurants that Gordon Ramsay tried to save are no longer open. According to Reality TV Revisited, 79 percent of the eateries that Gordon went to have closed since their episodes aired, as of May 2020. This means that only 22 spots are still around since the show had its seventh, final season.
While Ramsay did fail to save a lot of restaurants, it should be noted that the number that he did salvage is still impressive. Most of these places were trainwrecks on the brink of collapsing. It's honestly jaw-dropping that one of these joints is still open, let alone 22. And who knows, aspiring restaurateurs may have learned some valuable lessons by watching this drama-filled program.
Many Gordon Ramsay joints have closed
Gordon Ramsay's first restaurant Aubergine opened back 1993 – he was head chef at the time. Since then, he's opened up more than 50 other joints. However, 23 of these eateries are now no more.
Even Gordon Ramsay has admitted that he's partly responsible for one of his restaurants failing. After the Glasgow-based Amaryllis closed in 2004, Gordon did an interview with The Scottsman. In this piece, he stated that his Michelin star place wasn't too sophisticated for the Scottish area, but he instead chose the wrong sort of experience for its people. "I'd relish the challenge to open up in Glasgow again but I wouldn't do fine dining, not a three or four course dinner. We were setting the criteria too high and that's my fault."
In the same interview Ramsay also said, "It was just hemorrhaging money in the end. There comes a point where you have to put your own reputation aside, and your personal feelings, and think of business." So at the very least, in this instance, he was honest about why he had failed.
Gordon Ramsay couldn't make an A+ pad Thai
Ramsay can skillfully cook a lot of different foods. This lad can make a perfect steak, some delish gnocchi, and the chicken Parmesan of our century. However, there are some dishes that Gordon Ramsay cannot create well. And according to the Blue Elephant's Executive Chef Chang, he cooks a woeful pad Thai.
In Ramsay's show The F Word, he attempts to make some pad Thai for the monks at the Buddhapadipa Temple. This cook takes place at the Blue Elephant and under the watchful eye of Chang. After a one minute montage, Ramsay has finished his dish. He then asks Chang if he's happy with the meal. Chang responds, "I have to taste it first."
After Chang finishes this quip, he takes a decent bite of the pad Thai. "How is it?" asks Ramsay. Chang's face cringes, "This is not pad Thai at all." Ramsy is shocked. "I think that doesn't taste too bad," he retorts. Chang then dunks on this celebrity chef by saying, "For you, but not for me."
Therefore, the next time you burn your pad Thai or somehow fail at making it, remember you're not alone. There's even a possibility that it could still be better than Gordon Ramsay's.
A bunch of Italians dislike Ramsay's carbonara
If you were to think that Gordon Ramsay has only been roasted for making a bad pad Thai, then you'd be incorrect. A lot of Italians also considered his take on the carbonara to be an absolute fail.
In February of this year, Ramsay tweeted a video advertising his Union Street Café. This video featured a person silently serving up a plate of the place's carbonara. This dish looked extremely yellow and had an incredibly wet consistency. Ramsay described this meal as "amazing." Some of his followers were less than impressed.
Maurizio, the creator of Italian Food Boss, was one of the clip's harshest critiques. He tweeted, "Ahhhhaaahhh!!! Hilarious... What's this thing?! Can't believe this guy is ACTUALLY a chef." Another Italian user said, "No, no, no." It just goes to show you that a chef should never fail at making a dish from Italy. The voice of their people will never be silenced.
Gordon Ramsay failed to get a Guinness World Record
On The F Word, Gordon Ramsay and his daughter Tilly Ramsay attempted to get the world record for cracking the most amount of eggs into different cups. An official Guinness judge stated that they must have one hand behind their back. They also had to take turns cracking the eggs. And to make this challenge even more difficult, any glass that contained some shell was disqualified. Gordon and Tilly aimed to crack more than 33 eggs in less than a minute.
When the timer went off, the Ramsay family gave this challenge a red hot go. You can really see in the video that both of them gave this task all of their concentration. However, Gordon and Tilly only cupped 31 eggs. Yup that's right, they were just two cracks away from the win.
But just because Ramsay failed to get this Guinness World Record, doesn't mean he hasn't won others. While filming The F Word, this chef received one for quickly filleting a fish and another for rolling the largest sheet of pasta. Therefore, this chef has received more Guinnesses than most people will have in their life — but he still failed at least once.
A Gordon Ramsay restaurant once received a two star hygiene rating
In 2015, Independent reported that Gordon Ramsay's restaurant Maze had a bad case of the cockroaches. They said, "Health inspectors found seven of the insects in areas used to prep food and wash up." These critters resulted in the place getting an admissible two star hygiene rating. If you compare this article to the joint's original reviews, you can see how crushing a report like this can be. In 2013, Time Out called this eatery "swanky" and "distinctive." It can be hard to remember this praise after you learn that creepy crawlies once lived inside their kitchen.
The Ramsay brand got a spokesperson named Jo Livingston to respond to this fail. She said, "We invest considerable time and resource in maintaining the highest possible food hygiene standards and have an excellent track record. In addition to our own in-house measures, we work with an independent auditor who regularly inspects all our restaurants." Jo also stated that this was an isolated incident.
Gordon Ramsay failed to keep Jackass' Steve-O under control
Gordon Ramsay has made a show called Scrambled, and it's a series where he cooks different recipes with celebrities or in unique locations around the world. In one of these episodes, he invited Steve-O on to make a southwestern omelet. Now, if you don't know who Steve-O is, he's from a stunt series called Jackass. This guy once put a fish-hook through his face and has snorted wasabi. To say that he's done some extreme stunts would be a tad of an understatement.
It would also be an understatement to say that Steve-O flipped this quaint little cooking show upside down. At the start of the clip, this man grabs one of Gordon's razor-sharp knives and goes to balance it on the tip of his nose. As the knife is being lowered, you can see Gordon saying, "No, no, no." Luckily, this stunt goes off without a hitch. However, Steve-O then proceeds to chop up a chili instead of a scallion and crack an egg against the side of his head.
Furthermore, Steve-O brought along his own hot sauce called Steve-O's Hot Sauce For Your Butthole. But before he spiced it onto his food, he poured some straight into his right eyeball. Ramsay then screamed for a medic and later on face-palmed his entire face. On this day of filming, Gordon truly failed to quell his celebrity guest.
A couple of critics have slammed Gordon Ramsay's restaurants
A lot of reviewers have been impressed with Gordon Ramsay's eateries. One critic, named Andy Hayler, stated that his flagship, London restaurant offers "some of the best-made food." Nevertheless, Ramsay has failed to impress every single connoisseur that's walked through his doors.
Besha Rodell reviewed Ramsay's Fat Cow back in 2012, and she wasn't all that impressed. Rodell's first paragraph says, "My friend and I sat and looked miserably over the ruins of our lunch, a lunch with Ramsay's name on it but no trace of the skill he's famous for." She then describes her "lifeless" mashed potato and a gloppy tasting fish. Rodell concludes the article by remarking, "What galls is the act of misleading those folks, the people who are curious about all the hype given to food these days, who might decide to put themselves into Ramsay's hands.
Angela Hui is a writer who described Gordon's 2019 opening night of Lucky Cat as "a real life Ramsay kitchen nightmare." She said that the venue looked more like a seedy nightclub than an Asian eating house. In an Instagram story, Hui stated that the best part of the entire meal was her wine. She also noticed that there was a lack of east Asian people at this event. "I was the only east Asian person in a room full of 30-40 journalists and chefs."
Gordon Ramsay failed to make a vegetarian eat a steak
In an episode of The F Word, Gordon Ramsay meets up with a vegetarian zookeeper named Hannah. Hannah has a gluten and dairy intolerance, so eats a baked potato or some gluten-free pasta every day that she works. According to the show, these lunches are too restrictive and lack enough protein. So naturally, Ramsay thinks that the best thing that he can do for this vegetarian is to cook her a huge slab of steak.
Hannah looks a little uncomfy as Gordon starts sizzling this meat in the middle of her zoo. And when her steak is served up, she's unable to eat it. As Hannah chows on the veggies surrounding her steak, she says, "I haven't quite managed to take on the beef." And in that moment, a chef who's not a dietitian, failed to convert this vegetarian. Fortunately, Ramsay doesn't appear to be upset or offended by Hannah's choice.
Gordon Ramsay also tricked a vegetarian into eating ham
Gordon Ramsay isn't always that nice to vegetarians. In a 2005 episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, the chef hands out free pizza samples on the street for an Italian restaurant named La Lanterna. One passer-by agrees to try a slice, but says that he's been vegetarian for eight years. Gordon states that he has one he can eat. But as this volunteer finishes his food, Ramsay reveals the truth. He says, "Unfortunately, that pizza has got a lot of mozzarella and tomatoes, but underneath all that there is parma ham."
The passer-by is upset that he's been tricked. Gordon laughs at his misfortune and offers him more pizza. After this, the volunteer walks away. Ramsay yells at the man leaving, "Good luck with the Vegemite!" Unsurprisingly, this clip can't be found on the official Kitchen Nightmares YouTube channel.
You may call this a success for Ramsay, as he did succeed in getting a non-meat-eater to eat meat, but when Gordon played this prank, he actually failed to be a decent human being.
Barbara Ellen actually described this trick perfectly back in a 2005 piece for The Guardian. She said, "Ramsay has started doing the equivalent of shoving small boys' heads down toilets. Because that's what all this about isn't it? Bullying." Thankfully, lying to a vegetarian about what's in their food is now considered disgusting by most of our society.
Gordon Ramsay's show Hell's Kitchen may have failed to tell the truth
It's common knowledge that some reality TV shows lie, manipulate the facts, and are rigged. Even Keeping Up with the Kardashians is riddled with continuity errors. However, just because these programs' deceptions have been normalized, doesn't mean that these series haven't failed at telling the truth.
Hell's Kitchen is a show where a bunch of peeps compete to become head chef at a restaurant of Gordon Ramsay's choosing. It's also been accused of having staged elements. Tek Moore, a competitor from the show's sixth season, told New York Post that the show was rigged. She said, "Production would come in and mess with ingredients, swap out your salt and sugar." According to her, this was done so the series' participants would look foolish.
So the next time that you hear a Hell's Kitchen story, and something seems a little fishy, just keep this info in the back of your mind. Because there's a chance that Gordon Ramsay and his production crew may have failed to create an authentic narrative.
Gordon Ramsay failed miserably at keeping his cool
Gordon Ramsay may be known for his short temper and searing insults, but they seem to hit a little different when they take place in the real world and for a TV show.
In a YouTube clip from 2012 that appears to show the kitchen of one of his restaurants, Ramsay is angry that a line cook has messed up one foie gras and one ravioli. Ramsay swears at the cook, grabs them by the shoulder, and then pushes them. Ramsay continues to swear at the cook, and this swearing escalates into very loud yelling. Later in the footage, he grabs and pushes what appears to be a different employee. Near the end of the video, Ramsay aggressively grabs the first person again and shoves the second one. He then swears at his two workers and demotes them to entry-level positions.
As soon as Gordon Ramsay laid his hands on that first employee, he'd fundamentally failed as a boss. There is no good reason for verbally and physically assaulting your workers. It's important that we call out this behavior, say its unacceptable, and remember that this major fail did indeed happen.