Life Lessons From Chef Gordon Ramsay, Part 2

Mon, Sep 10, 2007

Let’s continue with part two of our series about the life hacky lessons I’ve found in celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s TV show Kitchen Nightmares, whether you cook or not. If you missed part one of this series, it’s here…

Lesson Three: Don’t Fookin’ Front

This is something that comes up time and again on Kitchen Nightmares - don’t front, don’t put on false airs, be who you are. Gordon is absolutely brutal to chefs who get vanity license plates or give themselves fancy executive chef titles but can’t cook. If you don’t know how to cook a meal without burning it, it’s not time to print the business cards yet.

Confidence is good, bullshit is bad. This is really just a two step process.

1) Get Good.
Comedian Steve Martin was once asked how to succeed in show business. His answer was ‘Be so good that they can’t possibly ignore you.’ That’s what your focus should be. If you aren’t good, don’t complain about bad breaks or no contacts. Get good.

2) Be Honest
When I was interviewing for my current job as a motion graphics artist, I was asked about my design skills. I really wanted the job and I knew the question meant they really wanted me to have great design skills but I took a deep breath and told the truth - I don’t consider myself a great designer because I have worked with great designers and they have a magic that I don’t. Then I listed what I am great at - photography, resourcefulness, computer skills and a few other things. If I’ve gotten the job under false pretense, I would have been stressed every day. Instead, I got the job for the things I am good at and I’ve been there three happy years.

Here’s a penultimate example of fronting - the Bonaparte’s episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Owner Sue and 21 year-old chef Tim are both good examples of people who aren’t good at something and aren’t honest about it. Painful to watch, really - look for the business card about 2:15 into the video, too.

And how did the owner of Bonaparte’s respond to accusations of fronting? With more fronting…

Sue Ray, the sole proprietor, who had been denounced by Ramsay for having pretensions to grandeur with her choice of menu, looked shocked but delighted when I asked if she was serving food. I was, not surprisingly, their only customer. She recommended lasagne or steak. But, feeling suddenly weak, I opted for chips and salad. Later, when I told her I was a journalist and, in other words, not dining in her bistro through choice, she seemed close to tears.

The day after Bonaparte’s was featured, she told a reporter her bookings were up as a result and said she thought the programme was a hoot. Now, she admits she was putting on a brave face.

‘I’m usually a strong person and at first I tried to laugh it off. But my livelihood has been totally destroyed. I’ve been to the doctor. I’ve been prescribed antidepressants and I’m facing bankruptcy. People in the town are pointing and sniggering. One member of staff has left because she was getting teased for working here. Customers who were sitting outside on Sunday were heckled. I wish I could just run away from all of this. The only people coming in are my friends, or passers-by asking to see if it is as bad as the programme made out.’

What happened after Gordon said goodbye? | UK News | The Observer

Of course she’s a nervous wreck. She put on a ‘brave face’ which is polite British for ‘bullshit’, I think. What she really needed to do was to get good and be honest. Then she should have told the reporter ‘Gordon Ramsay pointed out some real problems and we think we’ve solved them with our new, simple and fresh menu of the best pub food in Yorkshire.’

Fix the problem, not your face.

Lesson Four: Don’t Fook With Gordon

This episode is also interesting because a newspaper printed an article saying that it was faked. Ramsay sued the paper and won over $150,000 (at current exchange rates.)

Chef Gordon Ramsay has accepted Â£75,000 libel damages over a newspaper article claiming scenes in his hit programme Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares were faked.The case related to a story in the London Evening Standard alleging the show faked scenes to make a Yorkshire restaurant look like a health hazard.”I won’t let people write anything they want to about me,” Ramsay said outside the High Court in London.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Chef Ramsay wins Â£75,000 damages

And here’s this post’s Ramsay recipe - pork chops with a piquant sauce.