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Furnishings & DecorStar isn’t a four-letter word
Jane Broughton
It was a Sunday morning like any other, except I was on my way to breakfast with Gordon Ramsay. Universally reported to be argumentative and confrontational, Ramsay is as known for his short temper and four-letter outbursts as for his culinary genius. So I was more than a little nervous about sitting down to the most important meal of the day with the man.
Ramsay was one of a host of BBC Lifestyle celebrity chefs in SA for the Good Food & Wine Show held in Cape Town last month. He was also here to check on Maze, his restaurant at the One&Only Hotel. Ramsay fans forked out R300 each to attend one of his demos in the Chefs in Action theatre at the show; the well-heeled paid R1500 for a seat at a charity dinner hosted by Ramsay at Maze. Local food blogs sizzled with less-than flattering accounts of his brief appearance at the dinner. Then there were the stories about his late-night partying in trendy Cape Town night clubs.
That’s the downside of elevating yourself from chef with Michelin stars to star of the award-winning TV series Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen and The F-Word In America, it was reported that the sixth season of Hell’s Kitchen recently aired to viewing figures of more than 14m.
To date, there are about 27 restaurants in Ramsay’s group. Most recently he relaunched Petrus in the heart of Belgravia, London, and opened the first Maze in Melbourne, Australia. The Savoy Grill at the iconic London hotel is also set to open this year.
The über-chef has been accused of everything from having a seven-year affair to spreading himself too thinly across his empire. In response to the annoying question of why he doesn’t spend time in his own kitchens any more, he once asked a journalist: if he had to invest in an expensive Armani suit, would he expect Giorgio bloody Armani to have stitched it himself?
He’s been quoted and misquoted, thanks to his take-no-prisoners approach and his strong opinions. He has ridiculed TV chefs, sworn at restaurant critics, and crucified vegetarians. But where’s the sport in watching Ramsay asking a chef ever so politely if he wouldn’t mind being a jolly good fellow and not overcooking the fish? The more he loses it, the more the ratings go up.
So it was a little tricky finding something original to ask Ramsay as he, predictably, refused breakfast and instead drank two lattes. What would he like to achieve? To be awarded three Michelin stars in France would make him very happy. And what of all those talented chefs with two Michelin stars nipping at his heels in London? Here he made it clear he’s still got a lot of fight in him and a lot of faith in his chefs. The likes of Heston Blumenthal and Pierre Koffmann are also opening new restaurants in London this year, but Ramsay still feels there is room for everybody at the top.
Ramsay flew into Cape Town from Cambodia, where he has been filming part of a new series on Southeast Asian food. It’s been a challenging 18 months, personally and professionally, including the financial losses and closures experienced by Gordon Ramsay Holdings last year. In the middle of all this, Ramsay escaped to India with a film crew to produce Gordon’s Great Escape, a TV series that aired on Channel 4 in the UK.
Talking passionately about his experiences in India, he says they were humbling and challenging. “India is so poor, yet the people produce the most fantastic fresh food. They are a nation of chefs.”
Since discovering the versatility and complexity of vegetarian food in India and Asia, Ramsay has publicly apologised to vegetarians for being so rude about them over the years.
Ramsay says Maze is modelled on its British namesake but translates effortlessly to different countries, evoking local flavours and locally sourced produce. Maze Cape Town is no exception, with beef, lamb, venison and sustainable-list seafood featuring strongly.
His breakfast banter was peppered with “darling” and “bless”, especially when being characteristically sarcastic. He relentlessly teased one of the guests when she sent her breakfast back to the kitchen because it was garnished with spring onions. He fretted about his eldest daughter going on her first date while he was out of town. He spoke about plans to bring his son, Jack, out for the World Cup. He joked about which Cape Town restaurants would be good candidates for his next series of Kitchen Nightmares
Ramsay may be accused of many things, but he came across as sincere, boyish and good humoured, and refreshingly self-deprecating. And he didn’t say the f-word once.
Maze has a new Power Breakfast menu at R95/head, including bottomless Origin filter coffee, free Wi-Fi and valet parking. Tel: (021) 431-5222.
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