Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsey (born 8.11.1966)

Gordon Ramsey is a TV chef who, at one time, held three highly coveted Michelin stars - one of only three chefs in the UK to do so.

Gordon Ramsey: Childhood

Gordon Ramsey's father had a number of professions, including being a welder, a swimming pool manager and a singer. Because of these constant career changes, the Ramsey family moved around a lot. They eventually settled in Stratford-Upon-Avon in the late 1970s.

Gordon moved out of home at 16 and shared a council flat with his sister in Banbury.

Ramsey was a talented footballer and in 1984, he was offered a trial with Rangers FC. However, he damaged his knee badly in the training session and never recovered from the injury.

At the age of 19, Ramsey focused his attentions on cooking and attended a local college course to study Hotel Management.

Gordon Ramsey: Culinary Career

Ramsey started out working as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel, progressing to kitchen and dining room manager. He later moved to London where he worked for Marco Pierre White at Harveys. After two years, Ramsey decided he had had enough of White's notorious verbal abuse and started to study French cuisine. He worked for Albert Roux in Mayfair at Le Gavroche., then accepted Roux's offer to work at Hotel Diva in the French Alps. He worked in France for a further three years before working as a personal chef on the 'Idlewild' yacht in Bermuda.

Ramsey returned to the UK in 1993 and worked as head chef at La Tante Claire in Chelsea, London. He then became business partners with Marco Pierre White and was head chef at Aubergine, which was awarded two Michelin stars.

Ramsey's own restaurant, Gordon Ramsey at Royal Hospital Road was opened in 1998, with the help of his father in law, Chris Hutcheson. In 2001, the restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star.

Ramsey also opened Petrus, where it has been reported that a group of six bankers once spent £44,000 on wine in a single sitting. He then opened Amaryllis in Glasgow, though that later closed, as well as Gordon Ramsey at Claridges. He then opened restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught Hotels. Ramsey's empire has expanded overseas and he now owns Verre in Dubai as well as Gordon Ramsey at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise in Japan and Gordon Ramsey at the London, in New York. His first Irish restaurant, Gordon Ramsey at Powerscourt, opened in 2007.

In 2006, Gordon Ramsey was awarded an OBE for 'services to the hospitality industry'.

Gordon Ramsey: TV Career

Gordon Ramsey's debut TV venture came in 1998, with the fly-on-the-wall kitchen documentary Boiling Point. This was followed up two years later with Beyond Boiling Point.

In 2004, the first series of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares was aired on Channel 4. The premise of the show was that he would work with ailing restaurants in order to turn their fortunes around. Several series were made, with the fifth being aired in 2007.

ITV1 then aired Hell's Kitchen, the reality cookery show, helmed by Ramsey, which showed him training 10 celebrities to be professional chefs, running a restaurant on Brick Lane which was open to the public for the duration of the show. An American version of the show was made by the FOX network and shown in 2005. Hell's Kitchen has become notorious for Ramsey's fiery temperament and foul language.

Also in 2005, Ramsey hosted The F-Word, a food-centered magazine programme featuring competitions, investigative reports and recipes. Channel 4 have signed Ramsey to an exclusive deal that runs until 2011.

In September 2005, Ramsay appeared on the CNN show Quest, hosted by Richard Quest. Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver also appeared on the same show.

Gordon Ramsay: Personal Life

Gordon Ramsey married Cayetana Hutcheson (better known as Tana) in 1996. They have four children together. In November 2008, the News of the World tabloid paper published a story in which Sarah Symonds claimed to have been having an affair with Gordon Ramsay for up to 10 years.