Gordon Ramsay

“The secret is to make sure the business is running to Perfection, with or without me” —Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay, famous UK celebrity chef, born on November 8th, 1966 in Scotland and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Ramsay had played soccer all through his early life in high school. He endured many occupational injuries during his football career which led to knee injury. Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College to study courses in Hotel Management when he was 19. He then moved to France in order to learn classic French cuisine after his graduation. (baversa123, student mode, Apr 2012) Being trained with some world-class chef in Paris for 3 years, Ramsay had learned enough knowledge as much as he could get. After that, he took 1 year to work on a private yacht based in Bermuda as a personal chef. After heading back to London, he worked as a head chef at Aubergine. In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant “Gordon Ramsay” which then quickly received three Michelin stars. He has been awarded total 15 Michelin stars so far. Ramsay is well known for presenting TV programs. His competitive cookery show such as the British series Hell’s Kitchen, Master Chef, Hotel Hell appeared to be a huge success. (Times London.2010)

In terms of Gordon Ramsay, he is all about perfection. It is obviously that Ramsay is not only a fantastic chef but also an equally engaging showman. Famed for his bad temper and swearing, Ramsay had set himself up as a real figure in food television world. You either love him or you hate him. He is the one who truly inspired me and had great influence on my choice of career path. Ramsay has huge influence on society. He built up his reputation by his goal of culinary perfection. He once was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry. Not only Michelin 3 Star reward made him famous, it is no doubt that his “management technique” made him famous. Ramsay had published different kinds of cooking books, many of which have become best sellers. At the same time, he is dedicated to presenting various TV shows. However, most people thought chef Ramsay was putting a persona on for the show and his use of profanity also caused a vast impact on society. In my opinion, it is rather hard to find anyone who can get away with the things he has said and done during the show. Initially, Ramsay ’s frequent fiery temper and use of expletives during TV shows shocked me. Ramsay’s ferocious temper has contributed to successful media appeal in TV shows.

Ramsay wanted his employee to shine both as individuals and team. It is a common sense that great leadership is way more important than just being egotistical. According to chef Ramsay he like that kind of inner calm mixed with vision and motivate a team. (www.irecordtv.com.2013) Gordon Ramsay Holdings also has several business principal such as “Standards are the staple”, “Discipline yourself so the customers do not have to”, “Do not let business come to statistics”. At first, I was amazed that his restaurants were so successful not to mention the large profits he made. Normally, Chef is not good at running a business. Astonishing new came that for the first time, he has admitted that his hospitality empire almost came close to collapse recently. After an ambitious overseas expansion plan, his business went into total chaos, auditors from KPMG found that Ramsay company was losing millions of money. Opening ten restaurants in ten months, Ramsay admitted that his ego brings him down and it is way too fast to expand a company like that. (Gordon Ramsay Business Backgrounder.2013) Ramsay also had an influence on my career path. I grew up watching the cooking shows presented by Gordon Ramsay on channel ICS. My favourite chef on that show was Gordon Ramsay.

He is full of energy, especially when it comes to his distinctive personality. I certainly give credit to this reality show for furthering my interest in Food & Beverage department because I found it so entertaining. Due to his enthusiastic and liberal use of language, he is able to create a revolutionary cooking style.The very first series talking about Gordon setting up his first restaurant “Gordon Ramsay” was an eye opening series for me, as to say, his aggressive leadership style left me great impression. Before I saw “Boiling Point”, I had no idea that this class of restaurant existed. Furthermore, it was truly inspiring to find out what is going on “behind the curtain”. I never knew that chef could ever use such form of abusive and threatening language towards stuff. He would even told you to shut down everything you are working on in the kitchen if you do not meet his standards. Gordon is all about the fine balance of flavor: the difference to a dish by changing texture and seasoning . Even if one little component isn’t right, those failed dishes goes directly into the trash and has to be recook all over again. It seems the reason why Ramsay was such a bureaucratic leader is that his demanding of profession and excellence.

His passion inspired me. I am getting more interested in being a food and beverage manager. Although I enjoy all kinds of delicious food, being a magician chef is a wonderful occupation, I am tend to do administrate in restaurant. To sum up, I’ve grown to be a big fan of Chef Ramsey. His advice is so direct, no wonder that he can run several restaurants around all over the world. We should focus on the fundamentals. That is to say people want to eat great food from a decent place with a reasonable price. (Micah. February 17th) Despite the controversy of Gordon Ramsay behavior has never stopped in recent years, it might not be fair to judge him only according to his negative news. The fact is that his ambition and passion in cook are truly respectful to young chef from next generation.

Having reached success on TV shows, Ramsay need foundation to become a credible businessman by his agile business sense. As far as I know, man’s success depends on one’s talent, hardworking, good luck and personality. His success is not about how much money he had earned, it is for sure that he created a new catering legend. When I enrolled in hospitality management industry, I think running a restaurant is not a difficult task, and what’s more, to a cook, for he has done is to provide same food according a settled process. Until now I realized that not only economic knowledge is involved, both professional sensitive and thorough analysis to the market, the idea of keeping pace with The Times is very crucial. In terms of what I learned from Chef Ramsay is as follows:

1. It is never as easy as it appears behind the curtain.
2. Communication is the key to everything.
3. Passion is the only thing.
4. Three important things: Cost, Staff, Profits.

It is more like baking cakes, usually takes more than just combining flour, sugar, butter together then put it into the oven. In business, it is the same thing like bakery. You need put some love, or I can say, thought into the whole process. Is providing a positive work environment against critical communication while working? Our ultimate goal is to have some happy loyalty customers who are willing to come to the restaurant again. So many times businessman spend lots of time on things like broadcasting, advertisement, marketing and so on they even forget that the most important thing is food. Our priority is to focused on what constitutes a successful restaurant.
Transfer that passion to the people around you. I am considering open my own restaurant in Shanghai in the future. What I learned from Chef Ramsay will benefits me a lot since he is the motivation I choose this career pathway. I sincerely hope I will become that person who can always love what he is doing also doing what he is love.

Reference List

1. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Gordan-Ramsay-960036.html. 04.2012 2. “Gordon Ramsay-The man-Biography”. Gordonramsay.com. Retrieved 16 May 2011 3. Bremner Charles. The Times London. 3rd May 2010

4. www.irecordtv.com. 2013
5. Gordon Ramsay Business Backgrounder. Anti Essays. Retrieved February 19, 2013, from the World Wide Web: http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/69037.html 6. http://learntoduck.com/business/gordon-ramsay/. Micah. 2012