Gordon Ramsay Says This Is The Worst Insult To A Chef

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is known for his exceptional skills in the kitchen. According to Insider, Ramsay was once the wealthiest celebrity chef in the world. A lot of this was on account of his flourishing television career. After all, he was a part of several popular TV shows such as "MasterChef," "Hell's Kitchen," "Kitchen Nightmares," and more. It also helped that he had scores of successful eateries in different parts of the world.

That said, the highly opinionated Ramsay has not always escaped criticism in his food career. For example, in October, he was called out for serving an incredibly expensive dish at one of his restaurants in London, per Insider. 

The menu item in question? A $42 plate of fish and chips ($33 for the fish and an additional $9 for fries). An annoyed commenter wrote on Instagram that they could survive an entire week on that much money. But as far as the chef is concerned, the worst insult a chef can receive is rather specific.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Gordon Ramsay thinks telling a lie is one of the worst insults a chef can receive, and it's something that irks him on his cooking shows. 

"When somebody lies to you, it's worse than working with somebody who can't cook," he explained to the magazine in 2018. "... When you trust someone with your reputation, and they cross that line, they want [the food] out of their sight, and they tell you they finished it, and you know they're lying, that's the worst."

Ramsay has another pet peeve in the kitchen, too. It annoys him when a cook gets their hands on a ridiculously expensive kitchen tool, such as a fancy knife, without knowing how to use it properly. "They also get a bit carried away with these flash materials. ... There's no point in buying the best knife if you can't f****ing slice [correctly]," he said to EW.

Gordon Ramsay is known for coming up with some of the harshest food-related insults of all time. Among Ramsay's worst insults is the time he told a "Hell's Kitchen" chef that their stuffed chicken breast reminded him of a "dehydrated camel's turd." Unsurprisingly, after that disgusting comparison, Ramsay declined to actually eat the dish, choosing instead to spit it out on the plate for all to see.

In another instance, he was required to try a new dish on the reality TV show. Ramsay didn't seem confident about the flavors, saying on the show, "for what we are about to eat, may the Lord make us truly not vomit." 

Need more? Here's another insult Ramsay came up with: As a contestant struggled to prepare soup, the chef couldn't resist saying, "Are we making a soup or trying to summon a demon?"

Plenty of people have mentioned that Gordon Ramsay can be tough to work with, to put it lightly. According to a 2018 Grub Street report, chefs and food critics alike have noticed this and have made their feelings abundantly clear. British restaurateur Trevor Gulliver wasn't impressed with Ramsay and once commented that if someone is relying on their antics on TV to run a restaurant and manage their staff members, there's a huge problem. "The shouty chef ... I guess [will] always exist," he said, via Grub Street. He added that Ramsay's approach is "pretty much an anachronism these days."

French pastry chef Dominique Ansel also pointed out that working under a chef who constantly shouts and insults his colleagues can be a bit too much for most people. "Swearing and shouting will only cause your cooks to become intimidated and affect the quality of their work and productivity," he said.

For his part, Ramsay admitted that his behavior was a bit too much on "Kitchen Nightmares." He told The Guardian in 2010 that he wasn't proud of the amount of times he swore and could feel himself "getting a bit tired of the foul-mouthed bully chef."