Age, Biography, and Wiki
Gordon Ramsay was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. His family moved frequently during his early years due to his father's various jobs. Ramsay's biography is marked by his early interest in football, which he played professionally before an injury shifted his focus to cooking. He trained under notable chefs in London and Paris, setting the stage for his culinary career.
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| Date of Birth | 8 November 1966 |
| Age | 58 Years |
| Birth Place | Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland |
| Horoscope | Scorpio |
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Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Gordon Ramsay's current height and weight are not widely documented, he is often noted for his tall stature.
On 14 June 2017, Ramsay set a new Guinness World Record for the 'Fastest time to fillet a 10 lb fish', achieving the record in one minute and five seconds. On 16 August 2017, Ramsay set a 'Guinness World Record for the Longest Pasta Sheet Rolled in 60 Seconds', which measured 1.45 metres. In June 2022, he was recognised by the International Hospitality Institute as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality. On 11 May 2023, Ramsay along with Nick DiGiovanni set the Guinness World Record for the largest Beef Wellington. It came in at a weight of 25.76 kg (56.79 lb). It also measured 2 ft 5 inches long by 13 inches wide and 8 inches tall.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Gordon Ramsay is married to Tana Ramsay (née Hutcheson), and they have five children together. They have been married since 1996.
He has an older sister, a younger brother, and a younger sister. When he was nine years old, he moved with his family to England and grew up in the Bishopton area of Stratford-upon-Avon. He has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant" and said his family moved constantly owing to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was an occasionally violent alcoholic; Ramsay described him as a "hard-drinking womaniser". In his autobiography, he revealed that his father abused and neglected the children and his mother. He worked as a pot washer in a local Indian restaurant where his sister was a waitress. He had hoped to become a footballer and was first chosen to play under-14 football at the age of 12, but his early footballing career was marked by injuries; after a serious knee injury, he was forced to give it up. At the age of 16, he moved out of the family home and into a flat in Banbury.
In the mid-1980s, Ramsay worked as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel. He ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms until he quit after having sex with the owner's wife. Ramsay then moved to London, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for Marco Pierre White at Harveys.
In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, and his former colleagues at Aubergine. The restaurant gained its third Michelin star in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve that feat. In 2011, The Good Food Guide named Restaurant Gordon Ramsay the second best restaurant in the UK, behind The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire.
All of Ramsay's business interests (restaurants, media, consultancy) are held in the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited, which was run in partnership with his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, and incorporated on 29 October 1997. Ramsay owns a 69% stake, valued at £67 million in 2007. Whereas previous ventures acted as a combined consultant/brand, in November 2006 Ramsay announced plans to create three restaurants in the United States. These opened in 2006/2007 at the London Hotel in Manhattan, in October 2006, the Cielo in Boca Raton, Florida, and at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, California. Ramsay acts as a consultant to numerous catering organisations. In 2005 he was recruited by Singapore Airlines as one of its "International Culinary Panel" consultants.
On 19 October 2010, the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited announced that Chris Hutcheson had left his position as CEO. Shortly afterwards, Ramsay released a letter to the press describing how he had unravelled the "manipulative" Hutcheson's "complex life" after having had him followed by a private detective. His father-in-law's "away days," wrote Ramsay, "were rarely what I thought they were." Company accounts show Hutcheson borrowed up to £1.5 million from Gordon Ramsay Holdings, though Hutcheson says he reported the borrowings to the company and paid the money back. Hutcheson said he had been "vaporised" and subjected to a "public hanging" by Ramsay, whom he described as a friendless egotist. In April 2017, Hutcheson pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to hack into the computers of Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited.
In November 2011, Ramsay appeared on the Simpsons episode "The Food Wife". In February 2017, Ramsay made a guest appearance on New Girl episode "Operation: Bobcat". Ramsay made an appearance on 11 December 2017 broadcast of Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, a South Korean reality television show on JTBC. In November, Ramsay drew criticism for appearing as a brand ambassador for the mass-produced Korean beer Cass; Ramsay defended it as unpretentious and affordable. Ramsay voices the character Bolton Gramercy in Big Hero 6: The Series. The character, a chef with a fiery temper, is loosely based on him.
In January 2014, Ramsay lost a high court case in relation to the York & Albany pub. Ramsay claimed that his father-in-law had misused a "ghost writing" machine to make Ramsay a personal guarantor for the £640,000 annual rent of that pub. Ramsay tried to nullify the 25-year lease, signed in 2007. The judge said that Ramsay had known about the guarantee beforehand but that he had total trust in his father-in-law, Christopher Hutcheson, and left the deal to him. The judge dismissed the case and ordered Ramsay to pay all legal costs and outstanding monies, in total more than one million pounds. In May 2022, A New York Superior Court judge ended an eight-year legal battle between Gordon Ramsay and his former business partner at The Fat Cow Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Los Angeles, Rowan Seibel, ruling that Gordon Ramsay should be paid $4.5 million (£3.6 million) in damages and court fee coverage.
Ramsay's reputation is built upon his goal of culinary perfection, which is associated with winning three Michelin stars. His mentor, Marco Pierre White, noted that he is highly competitive. Since the airing of Boiling Point, which followed Ramsay's quest of earning three Michelin stars, the chef has also become infamous for his fiery temper and use of expletives. Ramsay once famously ejected food critic A. A. Gill, whose dining companion was Joan Collins, from his restaurant, leading Gill to state that "Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being." Ramsay stated in his autobiography that he did not mind if Gill insulted his food, but would not tolerate a personal insult. Ramsay has also had confrontations with his kitchen staff, including one incident that resulted in the pastry chef calling the police. A 2005 interview reported Ramsay had retained 85% of his staff since 1993. Ramsay attributes his management style to the influence of previous mentors, notably chefs Marco Pierre White and Guy Savoy, and his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson.
Until 2010, Ramsay's father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, was responsible for the business operations of Ramsay's restaurant empire. On 7 June 2017, Hutcheson was jailed for six months for conspiring to hack a computer system relating to the Ramsays' business interests. Hutcheson was accused, along with his sons, of accessing company systems almost 2,000 times between 23 October 2010 and 31 March 2011.
During March 2005, Ramsay teamed up with Indian chef Madhur Jaffrey to help the VSO, an international development charity group, to support its Spice Up Your Life event. The charity hoped to raise £100,000 for VSO's work in HIV and AIDS in India. The Ramsays were the first couple to become ambassadors for the women's charity Women's Aid in 2005. The couple ran the Flora Families marathon to support Women's Aid. In 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014, Ramsay took part in the biennial charity event Soccer Aid to raise money for UNICEF. On 6 June 2010 he played for the Rest of the World team alongside former professional footballers Zinedine Zidane and Luís Figo as well as Hollywood actors Woody Harrelson, Mike Myers, and Michael Sheen. The match took place at Old Trafford in Manchester and was won by the Rest of the World for the first time, the winning penalty scored by Harrelson in the shoot-out. On 28 August 2020, the media reported that Ramsay and his wife Tana had become ambassadors for Cornwall Air Ambulance.
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| Husband | Tana Hutcheson (m. 1996) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Gordon Ramsay's net worth is estimated at $220 million. His annual income is substantial, with reports suggesting he earns around $60 million per year. His salary per episode for TV shows like "Hell’s Kitchen" and "MasterChef" is approximately $225,000.
Ramsay was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 New Year Honours list for services to the hospitality industry. He was named the top chef in the UK at the 2000 Catey Awards, and in July 2006 he won the Catey for Independent Restaurateur of the Year, becoming the third person to win three Catey Awards. Forbes listed his 2020 earnings at US $70 million and ranked him at No.19 on its list of the highest-earning celebrities.
Ramsay's interest in cooking began in his teenage years; rather than be known as "the football player with the gammy knee", he decided to pay more serious attention to his culinary education at age 19. Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study hotel management. He described his decision to enter catering college as "a complete accident".
On 24 March 2020, Ramsay laid off more than 500 staff in the UK after a number of Ramsay's restaurants had to close temporarily under the coronavirus lockdown. Ramsay, whose personal net income was estimated to be US$63 million in 2019 by Forbes, was criticised for the lay-offs.
In 1998, following Ramsay's resignation from the Aubergine, A-Z restaurants sued him for £1 million citing lost revenue and breach of contract, but eventually settled out of court. In June 2006, Ramsay won a High Court case against the London Evening Standard newspaper, in which Victor Lewis Smith had alleged, after reports from previous owner Sue Ray, that scenes and the general condition of Bonaparte's had been faked for Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Ramsay was awarded £75,000 plus costs. Ramsay said at the time: "I won't let people write anything they want to about me. We have never done anything in a cynical fake way."
Career, Business, and Investments
Gordon Ramsay's career spans multiple successful restaurants, TV shows, and business ventures. He opened his first restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, in 1998, which earned three Michelin stars. His television presence includes shows like "Hell's Kitchen," "MasterChef," and "Kitchen Nightmares." Ramsay has also partnered with Lion Capital to form Gordon Ramsay North America, aiming to open numerous restaurants across the U.S.. Additionally, he has authored several cookbooks and established a charity foundation.
After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. Ramsay decided to take his advice, and there, Ramsay met Jean-Claude Breton, who later became his maître d'hôtel at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. After Ramsay worked at Le Gavroche for a year, Roux invited him to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in the French Alps, as his number two. From there, a 23-year-old Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda. The role on the boat saw him travel to Sicily and Sardinia, Italy, and learn about Italian cuisine.
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, located at Royal Hospital Road, London, was voted Top Restaurant in the UK in the London Zagat Survey in 2001 and was awarded its third Michelin star. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 New Year Honours list for services to the hospitality industry, but almost missed the award ceremony when his plane was delayed.
In July 2006, Ramsay won the Catey award for "Independent Restaurateur of the Year," becoming only the third person to have won three Catey awards. Ramsay's two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) and 2000 (Chef of the Year). The other two triple-winners are Michel Roux and Jacquie Pern. In September 2006, he was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry in the annual Caterersearch 100 list, published by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. He overtook Jamie Oliver, who had been top of the list in 2005. Also in 2006, Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector of the University of St Andrews, but lost at the polls to Simon Pepper.
In late 2006, Gordon Ramsay Holdings purchased three London pubs, which were converted into gastropubs. These are: The Narrow in Limehouse, which opened in March 2007, the Devonshire in Chiswick, which opened in October 2007 and The Warrington in Maida Vale, which opened in February 2008. Both The Devonshire and The Warrington were sold in 2011. In May 2008, it was confirmed that Ramsay's protege of 15 years, Marcus Wareing, was going solo, having opened and operated Pétrus at The Berkeley Hotel on behalf of Gordon Ramsay Holdings since 2003. With the name Pétrus owned by Gordon Ramsay Holdings, industry sources suggested it was likely to transfer to another restaurant in the group with the former La Noisette site identified as the most likely. In April 2010, Jason Atherton, executive chef of Maze restaurants worldwide, resigned to open his own venue in Mayfair.
On 17 April 2018, Ramsay's first Street Pizza opened, situated in the downstairs area of his One New Change Bread Street Kitchen offering "bottomless" pizza. The second "Street Pizza" was opened at the chef's York and Albany restaurant, with further locations opening elsewhere later on in London, Dubai, and the USA. On 26 June 2019, Chloe Sorvino from Forbes magazine reported that Ramsay had struck a $100 million deal with Lion Capital, a private equity firm headquartered in London. Together they formed a subsidiary of the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant group, with Ramsay and Lion each taking 50% ownership, naming it Gordon Ramsay North America (GRNA), and originally intended to open 100 restaurants in the USA by 2024. Those plans were slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic: in December 2021 GRNA CEO Norman Abdallah stated in a new interview that their updated strategy was to open 75 new company-owned locations across the United States between 2022 and 2026.
In July 2006, Channel 4 announced that it had re-signed Ramsay to an exclusive four-year deal at the network, running until July 2011. The series became one of the highest rated shows aired on Channel 4 each week. During one episode of The F Word, Ramsay cooked in Doncaster Prison in Marshgate for its inmates. The chef was so impressed by the speed at which a prisoner, Kieron Tarff, chopped vegetables that he offered him a job at his restaurant following his release in 2007.
In 2010, Ramsay served as a producer and judge on the American version of MasterChef. (A second season of the show began in June 2011, again starring Ramsay.) On that same show, he was joined by culinary judges Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich. He starred in a travelogue about his visit to India, Gordon's Great Escape followed by a series set in Asia. He hosted the series Ramsay's Best Restaurant, which was the first British series by Ramsay's own production company, One Potato Two Potato.
In June 2007, Ramsay's show was sued by the terminated general manager (Martin Hyde) of the New York restaurant Purnima (Dillon's), who also alleged fakery. Hyde had quit his position at the restaurant during the show, when Ramsay suggested that the owner hire top Indian chef Vikas Khanna as the consultant chef for Purnima. The lawsuit alleged that "unknown to the viewing audience, some or all of Kitchen Nightmares are fake and the so-called 'problems uncovered and solved' by Ramsay are, for the most part, created by Ramsay and his staff for the purpose of making it appear that Ramsay is improving the restaurant." In August 2007, the case was dismissed voluntarily and ordered into arbitration as stipulated in their contract. On 21 March 2012, Ramsay filed a $2.7 million lawsuit against his former partners of his restaurant in Montreal, Quebec, the Laurier Gordon Ramsay (since renamed The Laurier 1936), over lost licensing fees and defamatory statements made against him. On 16 April 2013, just over a year later, Laurier 1936 closed.
Ramsay played football and was first chosen to play under-14 football at age 12. He was chosen to play for Warwickshire. His footballing career was marked by injuries, causing him to remark later in life, "Perhaps I was doomed when it came to football." In mid-1984, Ramsay had a trial with Rangers, the club he supported as a boy. He seriously injured his knee, smashing the cartilage during training. Ramsay has claimed to have played two first-team games for Rangers. According to his autobiography, Ramsay played "a couple of non-league matches as a trialist" for Rangers and was signed by the club at the age of 15. Allan Cairns, a photographer who took a picture of Ramsay playing for Rangers in September 1985, said the photo was not one of the Rangers first team but a side picked to play a testimonial match. A Rangers spokesman said: "Ramsay was a trialist in that testimonial game. He trained with us for a few months after that but then got injured."
Social Network
Gordon Ramsay is active on social media platforms, including Instagram and Twitter, where he engages with his fans and promotes his culinary ventures.
Upon his return to London in 1993, Ramsay was offered the position of head chef, under chef-patron Pierre Koffmann, at the three-Michelin-starred La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, Marco Pierre White reentered his life, offering to set him up with a head chef position and 10% share in the Rossmore, owned by White's business partners. The restaurant was renamed Aubergine and won its first Michelin star 14 months later. In 1997, Aubergine won its second Michelin star. A dispute with Ramsay's business owners, who wanted to turn Aubergine into a chain, and Ramsay's dream of running his own restaurant led to his leaving the partnership in July 1998. He has described the decision to set out on his own as "the most important day of my entire cooking career; the most important decision of my life."
Ramsay's first documented role in television was in two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries: Boiling Point (1999) and Beyond Boiling Point (2000), but he had appeared previously as a judge on a MasterChef-like series for young catering students in 1997, with his then restaurant partner. Ramsay appeared on series three of Faking It in 2001, helping the prospective chef, a burger flipper named Ed Devlin, learn the trade. This episode won the 2001 BAFTA for "Best Factual TV Moment."
In May 2005, the Fox network introduced Ramsay to American audiences in an American version of Hell's Kitchen produced by Granada Entertainment and A. Smith & Co. The show follows a similar premise to the original British series, showcasing Ramsay's perfectionism and infamously short temper. Ramsay had also hosted an American version of Kitchen Nightmares, which premiered on Fox on 19 September 2007. On 23 June 2014, Ramsay announced he was ending the series. In June 2018, Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back, a new series with a premise much like Kitchen Nightmares but a shorter timeline, premiered on Fox.
In November 2007, Ramsay installed 29-year-old Clare Smyth as head chef at his three-Michelin-starred flagship restaurant on Royal Hospital Road. Smyth is the second high-profile appointment of a female chef by Ramsay, after Angela Hartnett. Smyth was the first three-Michelin-starred woman; she moved on to start her own restaurant in 2017. Ramsay has been criticised for his frequent use of strong language on his programmes, first by British celebrity cook Delia Smith, then, in relation to Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, by Australian Senator Cory Bernardi, who introduced a motion in the Senate to investigate broadcast standards as a result. In his autobiography, Ramsay himself said he was unaware of the extent of his swearing until he watched an episode of Boiling Point. While he stated he did not have a problem with it, "Mum was appalled".
Prior to the late 2000s, Ramsay had expressed a dislike for vegetarianism and veganism. In the first episode of the second series of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (2005), he offered pizza to a vegetarian and said it was vegetarian. After he took a bite, Ramsay said that it contained ham, laughing and asked if he wanted more. In 2003, when asked for his most recent lie, he said "To a table of vegetarians who had artichoke soup. I told them it was made with vegetable stock when it was chicken stock." In a 2007 interview, he joked: "My biggest nightmare would be if the kids ever came up to me and said 'Dad, I'm a vegetarian.' Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them." In 2016, when asked on Twitter whether he was allergic to anything, he wrote "Vegans" and followed up with: "It's a joke jack it's not vegans! It's vegetarians".
In June 2024, Ramsay was involved in a bicycle accident in the US state of Connecticut that left bruising on the entirety of his left abdomen. He later remarked on social media that his helmet saved his life, and emphasized the importance of wearing a helmet whilst cycling.
"I am really disappointed to hear Gordon Ramsay's divisive comments and his lack of respect for the Cornish people. It is shocking that he deems it OK to make such a public statement that he would presumably not make about other national or ethnic groups. It does need to be pointed out that the Cornish are protected as a 'national minority' just like the Welsh and Scots through the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. I sincerely hope he will reflect on his words and apologise. Many people living to the west of the Tamar do not enjoy as good a life as Mr Ramsay, and I would welcome the media doing some features on poverty, the housing crisis and other socio-economic problems suffered by ordinary people in Cornwall, as well as the need for greater support for Cornish identity and culture."
Education
Ramsay attended North Oxon Technical College, where he studied hotel management and culinary arts. He later trained in London and Paris under prominent chefs.
Gordon Ramsay's multifaceted career, marked by his culinary expertise and engaging television presence, continues to influence the global food industry. His entrepreneurial spirit and numerous business ventures have solidified his position as one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in the culinary world.
On 3 December 2020, Ramsay's first Street Burger opened, in the St. Paul's area of London. In March 2021, Ramsay launched his own brand of California wines; produced in collaboration with Master Sommelier Chris Miller and International Wine Expert Nick Dumergue at Seabold Cellars in Monterey, California. The Gordon Ramsay Academy, a cookery school, opened in Woking, Surrey, in September 2021.
In 2006, on the second series of The F Word, Ramsay showed a softened stance on vegetarianism after learning about intensive pig farming practices, including castration and tail docking, while letting two young family piglets live in an intensive farm. On the programme, Ramsay commented: "It's enough to make anyone turn fucking vegetarian, for God's sake. And I've always sort of knocked vegetarians and vegans for missing out on the most amazing flavour you can get from meat. But you can see why so many people change instantly". In 2019, he launched a vegan menu at his restaurants for Veganuary, and introduced more vegan items to his restaurants, such as a vegan roast. In 2022, on an episode of Master Chef: Back to Win, Ramsay said, "After all these years, I can finally admit, that I actually love vegan food."
