Why I really admire Gordon Ramsay (even if he didn't pay me for waiting on his table)

Twenty years ago, I was making a documentary series about successful Scots and a potential name on the list was the Glasgow-born chef. He was opening a restaurant in his home city so was open to the idea of speaking to the cameras. According to the restaurant publicist, that was unusual because back then, he really didn’t do TV.

A new six-part TV series has just dropped on Netflix starring the world’s most famous chef. It’s made by his own TV production company Studio Ramsay. How times change but fundamentally, the man himself hasn’t.

I ended up as his waiter while filming in the Ramsay’s South London home for the documentary. Back then it was just like any other house you’ll find in the vast dormitory swathe of streets across Wansdworth and Clapham.

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Rather different to Melania film

As Tana dished up tea for the kids, I was tasked with ferrying it to the table while Ramsay gently teased his wife about her kitchen skills. She gave him as good in return.

So average, so normal. Contrast that with the scenes in the new Melania documentary when Mr and Mrs Trump talk about their son Baron as if he was some accessory they’d ordered online from Jeff Bezos.

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The new Ramsay documentary has been criticised for being a glow-up job, a hagiography produced only to promote and build his brand. Why else would you allow outsiders inside your personal life for a whole year?

It was the same story 20 years ago. Once he’d agreed to take part, we followed him everywhere. It gave us 30 minutes of interesting up-close television and it gave him a free prime-time advert for his new business.

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A chef and a businessman

Ramsay may be a brilliant chef but he’s an even better businessman. With 37 restaurants in the UK and 94 worldwide, including eight Michelin stars, he now sits at the head of a $220 million economic empire.

In the current economic climate, that isn’t easy. Increased staffing, utility and produce costs have forced many hospitality businesses to the precipice. According to trade publication The Caterer, more restaurant jobs are going to the wall at the moment than at any time since the financial crisis.

Ramsay’s reaction has been to go big. Despite losses and all the pressures of this moment, he has secured investment from Lion Capital to open his most adventurous project yet, multiple restaurants 60 floors above Bishopsgate in the City of London.

“I want to lift the culinary world, and I want to continue preparing talent” is his standard response to the question of what comes next.

With 21 million subscribers on YouTube and proteges like Stuart Ralston in Edinburgh helping develop new talent far and wide, it’s difficult to think of someone who has had a greater impact on the world of food.

He has come a long way in the 20 years since we met but he’s never lost sight of where he came from. For that reason – and the fact that he paid the medical bills of a Junior Masterchef contestant in the States without telling anyone – you might not like him, but you have to admire him.