Ramsey in the weeds

[faijay]

I read that Gordon is being sued in the US by his meal supplier to his restaurants in LA and NYC. Something over 100K. What\s up with that---I didn't think he had his own money in the North American places.

[The Chowhound Team]

We've had to remove a number of angry responses from this thread, and the discussion as a whole is increasingly unfriendly. We're going to lock this topic now.

[weewah]

Hey, he's giving the people what they want, & laughing all the way to the bank.
He's a brilliant business-man, and he must be a brilliant chef, or he would never have been in the position to capitalize on his cooking career as he has. Who of us has acheived anything like what he has done? I say, get while the getting is good, Gordo. And I love to see you go.
Obviously, so much of that is over-reacting, but it makes for good t.v. & and I love to watch their eyes pop when he comes unglued! I used to work for a Brit who had a quite similar management strategy... It certainly does make one sit up and take notice, lol

[tuttebene]

I don't disagree with your point here. I think people presume that anyone who has capitalized on their career by becoming a media personlity was talented or outstanding in their profession. Let's not confuse those who make good t.v. with those who are talented chefs. Ramsey and English and Bourdain may have proven themselves in the kitchen but as media types are now in the same league as Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee. I'm just sayin......As for being in the weeds, that's hardly a problem just for Gordo. The industry has been hammered with few survivors all around. I'm in awe of people who take such tremendous risks to expand their business.

[celfie]

ramsay is no longer an entrepreneur. i'm sure he risk takes just as much as his people assess risk.

[tuttebene]

How many people as part of their profession put all of their net worth and then some on the line? Wasn't there an article recently where GR and his father-in-law (investor too) were nearly bankrupt? That's what I'm talking about. Business managers aside, the risk is still his both financially and reputationally. If his good name goes, so go the backers for any future ventures.

[Withnail42]

I just read that he's closed another on of his restaurants 'The Boxwood".

[epabella]

ok, a month after and all this died down. people just love to hate ramsay but you can't keep a good man down. the bottom line is that ramsay's nastiest critics haven't an iota of his cooking skills and are all green with envy for his culinary brilliance.

[celfie]

there's a lot of self promotion, i haven't eaten his food but is he really 'brilliant'? his food on kitchen nightmares and the food served in hells kitchen are kind of boring. and i've looked at his restaurant menues and they're nice but are they brilliant?

[epabella]

ramsay worked under marco pierre white, pierre koffman, robuchon and the great guy savoir. only ducasse and robuchon have more michelin guide book stars than gordon.

[LindaWhit]

But that didn't really answer celfie's question re: his food being brilliant - one person's "brilliant" can be another person's "meh", can it not?

And having Michelin stars is very subjective - there are many restaurants who people feel deserve the Michelin stars, but don't get them because they don't happen to conform to their rigid (and some feel, unfair and impossible to accomplish if you are not an ultra-high-end restaurant) parameters.

At this point, GR's over-self-promotion and over-extendedness has downgraded whether or not he's "brilliant" in many eyes. The same thing happened with Todd English. If this (culinary empires at which they no longer cook) is what GR and TE were aiming for, then yes - they are brilliant. But I doubt either started out looking for that in their grand scheme of things. It just happened because of TV.

I have to agree with Kagemusha below - he's got a schtick now, and it does get tiring.

[epabella]

"And having Michelin stars is very subjective..."

nobody questions the validity of robuchon's or ducasse's guide book stars but gordon's stars are "subjective" ???

[Withnail42]

I believe she was saying the stars in general are subjective not just Ramsay's.

BTW people are always questioning the amount of stars that are awarded or not to the restaurant not the chef.

[LindaWhit]

Thanks for the translation, Withnail42. :-) Yes, Michelin stars IN GENERAL are subjective.

[bookhound]

Stars are subjective. Michelin stars outside of France are even more subjective. Michelin stars in America are arbitrary.

[hobbess]

Ramsay also worked under Raymond Blanc.

But, Ramsay comes across as ungrateful towards his mentors with the way he talks smack about them.

Compare that to Marco Pierre White, who comes across as a lot more respectful towards the chefs who mentored and helped him.

[Kagemusha]

Let's see how he does when/if he kicks the reality TV habit. The pedantic/sadistic bully schtick got old fast and surely won't work in a real time setting. Branding will only take him so far and the needle's edging up on "E".

[ferret]

His F-Word series on BBC is actually very good. I think people recognize that his Kitchen Nightmares is schtick, especially in the UK where they can see him in a pleasant magazine-format context alongside the "bullying." Although the US shows tend to overdo the melodrama.

[celfie]

I don't agree. It is hard to take his nice guy act seriously in F-word after all the bullying in all the other shows.

[ferret]

Ahh, so the "nice guy" is the "act."

[celfie]

it's all an act
he's a big fakey fake fake

[hobbess]

The thing is Gordon Ramsay doesn't just put himself out there just as a chef where we only judge his culinary talent. He's only got that show, Kitchen Nightmares, where he is supposed to be not just a chef but also a great restaurateur with the business sense and ideas to save the various restaurants. Its not like he just comes in and only tweaks the dishes.

In this economic environment, Ramsay isn't the only chef that is struggling. But, when you're also supposed to be a great businessman and you're struggling, then that makes it even bigger news than if he was just a chef.

[coll]

What is a meal supplier?

[Harters]

Typo - the OP intended meat.

[coll]

thanks, I thought of that after I posted, I was thinking he was having catered food for the staff or something at first....$100,000 is a nice chunk of change! Glad I wasn't his supplier. He may have signed the credit app himself if he's being sued personally rather than a corporation/LLC, but seems like people sue anyone for anything nowadays, whether they have a chance of winning or not. Maybe they're doing it for the publicity, to make him look bad and shame him into paying.

[faijay]

Sorry, THAT'S meat supplier