World-famous chef and restauranteur Gordon Ramsay is a busy dude. Between running a bunch restaurants and twice as many TV shows, the European personality has his face everywhere.
In a recent Reddit AMA, Ramsay sat down and answered some of the Internet's most intimate questions. Check out some highlights from the thread and get a much more personal look at the chef you probably have never seen before.
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Guilty Pleasure
With a world-renowned palate, folks are curious to see what the chef likes to snack on when he's not eating gourmet meals.
His response?
Yep, turns out someone with a palate like Gordon Ramsay still enjoys an In-N-Out Double Double just like the rest of us. He's even gone as far as sneaking some onto a plane. We wonder if he's ever put Animal Style fries into this burger?
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You never know when he might offer you a job
Chances are it probably shouldn't go like this.
A Redditor, who worked as a cook in a restaurant, was massively discouraged with his career situation. In his question, he describes in detail how intense a day working in a kitchen is for him and the rare moments of happiness from his life. He asks Ramsay to give some insight as to how one deals with all the tediousness and thanklessness of working in a restaurant.
Ramsay replies:
That's an amazing question.
First of all, I've been in your shoes, and what you need to do is take a break.
So I came out of my training in Paris, after getting my ass kicked in some of the best restaurants in the world. I took some time off, and got aboard a boat, and was a private chef on a yacht. And those 6-9 months off allowed me to regenerate.
I'd run myself into the ground, as you described.
Cooking at this level is so intense. So don't give up. Be honest with yourself, and take a month out.
Now if that month out - just stepping back - if there's one thing I've taught my young chefs today it's to work hard, and not get disillusioned with the bigger picture.
That's the most important thing about cooking - you may be working down the road for me here in Atlantic City, but you could travel the world and still get a job in the kitchen, and still get time off in the same time. So that's what i would suggest, stepping back for a month, shutting everything down, and then starting up again in 4 or 5 week's time.
Listen - if you send me your resume, I could look at putting you into one of the restaurants as a work experience, if you want to see something different, in order to make sure you don't come off the rails, to see something different, to create that level of interest.
Never give up. But don't be scared to take a break. I did it myself, traveled the world, through Sardinia, Sicily, and had the most amazing time, and what i learned after that experience was that I could do in 1 hour on a boat what i was doing in 14-15 hours in the professional kitchen. It confirms what you've learned, when you walk into a new establishment. It shows how strong you are.
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One food he'll NEVER try:
Overcooked, burnt brussel sprouts.
I think, being a chef, the first thing that I set out to do was to make sure that I almost got to taste every ingredient anywhere in the world. I wanted to learn so much about ingredients that I'd never know what NOT to do with an ingredient.
So I'm an open book. Whether it's a beating cobra heart from a snake in Cambodia, or a deep-fried tarantula, or a Beef Wellington, I'll eat absolutely anything.
The only thing I draw the line at, Victoria, is eating overcooked food. There is NOTHING worse than an overcooked brussels sprout. The smell is disgusting.
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What's for breakfast?
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He'll pretty much curse anywhere
I've never really worried about the sort of media profile, early on in my career? I'm a chef. So I, you know, we don't get taught how to handle the media properly! And as you can probably understand, chefs when they start out make some pretty big mistakes in terms of saying things in the heat of the moment that get taken out of context, but I've always said that's passion.
Do I swear? Two weeks ago, I was at a parent's meeting for my school. And my daughter said "Daddy, please don't embarrass me."
SO I get to the school and the first thing that happens - there's all these mums and dads there, and all the teachers are there, with the names on the table, and I see the head-mistress, and my daughter Holly was there, and it's incredible - I went straight up to the head-mistress and asked for a selfie! Which I thought was fucking brilliant.
My daughter dived under the table in embarrassment. But it just broke the ice. These things are just so formal.
And the head-mistress said "Oh my LORD, I've never had a selfie before! What do we do!?!?"
So I said "Put your head up and fucking smile!"
I tweeted it out. God bless 'er.
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Cooking on a college budget
I would recommend that you get adventurous with pulses - chickpeas, beans, lentils. And you know, cooking these is incredible. Brown rice? Phenomenal. You don't need expensive proteins. Just make them incredible with how you cook them, or prepare them - a pressure cooker is a great way of making these foods go a long way, is to cook them deliciously. Chilis, garlic, definitely.
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His favorite Disney movie
We wonder why?
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