Interview With Chef Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen

[Photo: ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co.]

Tonight is the much-anticipated season 5 premiere of Hell’s Kitchen! I just love this show and can’t wait to watch Chef Ramsay terrorize the cheftestants!

And as I told you yesterday, I took part in a conference call interview with Chef Gordon Ramsay where he talked about season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen and a lot more. As promised, here’s the entire interview:

Question: Over the course of the show’s run these sorts of competitive cooking shows have really gotten a foothold in prime time and the media. Have you seen a change in this season or in recent months of the sorts of people who are trying to be on the show? I mean, is there a higher incidence of fame whores, as opposed to real experienced cooks?

G. Ramsay: Yes, that’s a good question. I think for me, more than anything, I run a restaurant, so of course we lock horns. By the end of the day, I have to be honest, season five for me is: a) the most competitive; b) I will stick my neck out on this one and the top four contestants this year could have quite easily won in any of the previous years. So that’s what I’m faced with in terms of talent. [It's] very exciting because it’s just raising the game and the prime time thing, you know, that’s not relevant to me because that’s not what I’m about. But of course it’s of great importance, but more importantly I focus on the talent. And I go through that sh** fight for the first six or seven weeks and then I get rid of the donkeys and I focus on the talent. So I take it on an equal patter, but I have to say you’re absolutely right: it’s just getting more and more pressurized because the talent is becoming far greater, which really puts me in the scrutiny, but more importantly, helps to make my job, truthfully, ten times more exciting.

Question: Why is it do you think that contestants can’t seem to get Beef Wellington right?

G. Ramsay: I’m taking it off now. I’ve thrown the towel in. I’m so frustrated. That dish cooks itself. The battle of that dish, 90% of the organization is done for you. So it’s a dish that is down to pure timing. You don’t even tough it in a way that it’s cooked in a convection oven…and then you slice the end, trim it and serve it. And I suppose that’s the one dish that helps to make me feel less homesick when I’m spending as much time as I am over here. I know how to do it perfectly. And even my children know how to do it perfectly. So when I see these muppets messing around, and all they have to do is prep it perfectly and it cooks itself. You don’t touch it, you don’t sear it, you don’t season it, it’s just done. Put it in the oven, let it go. So yes, hands down, no more Wellington.

Question: Last year it was reported that FOX gave you a blind commitment for a third series and also it’s a deal that you’ll be hosting a live cooking special. Have either of those things come to pass and is there any update you can give us on them?

G. Ramsay: Yes, of course. First of all, I have to say, cooking in Hell’s Kitchen is like a live scenario anyway. The producers are constantly chasing my butt saying, “We would like to see this.” I’m saying, “What would you like to see?” I’m not interested. All I want to see is food on a plate. I can’t script a service. I don’t know how early or late the customer’s going to turn up, so everything is very natural. So in that sense we cook live.

No cursing, that’s the deal. So I’m f***ed.

Question: I just have a quick question about your feud with Mario Batali. Has he really banned you from all of his restaurants?

G. Ramsay: It’s really sad, I’ve never met Mario Batali. Obviously the man’s a very talented chef. There was a statement last year about me cooking 1980s dated food. Well, I’m really sorry, I had dinner with Bill Berfus from The New Yorker and for an interview a couple of years ago and the food was embarrassing. So, Bill got upset and sent the food back, it was sea bass, because it was off. So, I wouldn’t send any chef an off sea bass, but today I respect him, he’s an amazing chef, but as far as I’m concerned I haven’t been banned from his restaurants. But listen, at the end of the day we’re all in this looking for the same customer. So, Christ, if we can’t get on, what’s the big deal? But I don’t have any problem with Mario Batali.

Question: I wanted to know how much time, if any, do you get to spend actually coaching some of the really good, talented chefs that you get on the show?

G. Ramsay: Good question. There is a downtime period as the stakes get higher. Season five prior to this was incredibly significant in terms of where they go and how much we coach them. I can’t afford to look stupid on the back of announcing a winner, so here in LA it’s a lot easier for me now that we’ve got the [restaurant in] West Hollywood. We’re very lucky to win that within three months of opening. We had a difficult opening because it’s adapting to the climate, which is not like cooking in Europe. So New York was difficult as well, but we’re getting there. So I’ve got the backdrop of having a professional kitchen and giving them access to my set-up over here, whether they’re on the East Coast in New York or here in LA. So, yes, they get a considerable amount of coaching.

Question: What can you tell us about this year’s grand prize, the Borgata?

G. Ramsay: They’re going to take up the position of head chef at the Borgata Hotel…fantastic resorts. It’s going to be a fine dining, unique new build, great interior, intimate setting. And more importantly, a perfect platform. I’m very excited about this. One of the best prizes you’ve ever had so far. But having been there on an occasion, the place is sort of, I suppose, the answer to Vegas just out of New York. So, exciting, fun and very them being part of sort of the design of the restaurant.

Question: I was wondering if you could talk about any of the individual chefs at all? I was wondering specifically about a couple of the Chicago area chefs, Will and Ben.

G. Ramsay: Ben, extraordinary. Again, tenacious – very, very flamboyant. As you know, I love Chicago; always have in terms of eating out. I always get frustrated when they don’t get the spotlight as much as New York does. So, Ben, is like having a rhinoceros in the kitchen. He’s non-stop. He’s energetic, a powerhouse. The fascinating thing is when you discipline a young chef, it’s the response that tells you how long they’ve got in this industry and Ben’s attitude was 100% professional in terms of, yes, he got knocked down, but he came back to be twice as strong, which is what I want to see.

Will, on the other hand, cooking is an internal thing; it’s something that comes from the heart. He’s very clever, very articulate; very, very calm in terms of putting it together. I enjoyed working with both of them.

Question: In your estimation, in the classic kitchen where you have the 12 stations, 12 different chefs, other than the head chef, who in your estimation is the most skilled and most difficult station that they man? Who do you have the most respect for?

G. Ramsay: Good question. Cooking, searing meats is a lot easier than cooking fish. With meat you have a different scale of temperature – different meats with different sort of levels of fat, whether it’s render the fat down or whether you’re cooking or searing. For the sort of mainstream technical touching beef and understanding with your eyes closed when something’s rare to medium to medium well. And I always look at a young chef and ask him to overcook me a steak, and I don’t want it black and charcoaled on the outside and dry on the inside, so doing your steak well done really shows how godd chef is, really, by coloring it, searing it, and more importantly, keeping it moist in the center.

The real skill is in cooking fish. When you cook fish, 95% of the cooking temperature must take place in the skin so the fish doesn’t dry out; and more importantly, there’s no such thing as a medium, mid-rare, mid-well. It’s one temperature and one temperature only.

Question: Chef, if any chef in the world could prepare you a meal, who would it be? Who would you select in your group of peers?

G. Ramsay: I’ve been following John George for the last ten years. I’ve always drawn a huge source of inspiration coming out of New York. I think Thomas Keller has been legendary. But I have to say, I had one dinner three months ago at an amazing restaurant downtown in Santa Monica, Melisse, a young California chef, I think this guy could be the next big hit here in California. It was extraordinary. He’d done his signature dishes, etc., and he just went off the menu. And I said, “Look, you’ve gone familiar and you’ve gone crazy. Put that back on the menu and have the confidence to just show off. Because what you just finished cooking me is some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.”

Question: I was wondering how you feel your contestants compete, their talent competes with those of contestants on other cooking shows, if you ever watch any of them, like Top Chef?

G. Ramsay: It’s really funny, I had one that didn’t get Hell’s Kitchen and ended up on Top Chef. So there’s obviously a huge competitive streak there.

Top Chef has done phenomenally well and is doing brilliantly on Bravo. Where I find my frustration with Top Chef is a challenge is a challenge. I put my contestants, my chefs under real scrutiny, that they’re running a restaurant because I’m giving the restaurant away. So the jeopardy is not because they’re a lot more important, but I put them through the paces and understand that it’s more of an entrepreneurial skill as well, not just dealing with the kitchen, the management, the delegations, the level of professionalism, but the overall aspect of it. Chefs today have got to be better than just cooks. They have to be more applicable to the ever changing climate.

So we’ve seen a downturn globally in terms of the recession, so everyone’s tightening their belts and even I’m tightening my belt. So chefs, I hate that word businessman, but it’s, first of all, a culinary palate, a character, a level of assertiveness, an entrepreneurial skill in terms of man management. And more importantly, across all that it’s a business. So very few programs hold that level of integrity and I like to think that we try each and every season to really give them a rounded experience.

Question: With everything that you’ve accomplished in your career, are you still learning as a chef? Are there still things that you’re learning along the way?

G. Ramsay: Good question. I’m always learning. I spent two weeks before Christmas down in Kyoto where I went to some amazing regional proper historic Japanese cuisine. I found out there’s a huge source of integration. I suppose what I’ve always been scared of being in a situation with any ingredient anywhere in the world and not knowing what to do with them. So I have a huge excitement this May on visiting India for the first time in my career and I’m going on a journey, because I’m going to the region, I’m backpacking and I suppose I want to come down two or three divisions and sort of get to the heart of the food of the people. And it’s called Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape and I’m really excited about it because it’s going a little bit deeper into the sort of cult social following and where it started, and looking at the beginning, the heartbeat of how that dish was formulated. And to what’s happened, to how many people have abused it along the way to where we are now. So yes, always learning; constantly.

Question: We know one thing on this season that you’ve divided the teams, men versus women. I was just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how they differ by gender.

G. Ramsay: Well, I have to be honest, there’s a level of competitiveness that they’re equally matched in both teams, clearly, but there’s quite a surprising, refreshing attitude to the girls. They seem to learn quicker.

Where they may sort of bitch and sort of get upset with each other internally, it’s nothing to do with me. I don’t want to have problems down in my kitchen. Where the men become more sort of aggressive and far more bonded in a way with less barriers, but they learn slower. So I don’t know why this year and more than ever before, but being in that pressurized environment and you’ve got eight to ten individuals that are incredibly talented, they’re going to offload and explode. So yes, the ladies this season have been phenomenal. The guys are being sort of grumpy, arrogant and they take longer to learn. So, I can deal with that crap, trust me.

Question: Now that you’ve been through several seasons of this and gotten to see how the winners that you’ve chosen have done in the jobs they’ve gone on to take, are there certain characteristics you’re looking for in contestants that you may have not been before?

G. Ramsay: To be honest, I said earlier, I was under immense pressure this year because of the standards of cooks in the signature dishes, which was refreshing. I had one thing I never managed to achieve was to complete a first night dinner service. So even as I’m talking to you now, the ambition next time is to complete our first nights dinner service. So that’s crucial.

One serious piece of advice I give them, I’m very lucky at the age of 42, I’ve got the foundation of my cooking career, 21 years, still cooking, still learning. But more importantly, yeah, the TV is there and it’s important, but my skills are just as important and I make that clear to them each and every day.

Question: After all of these years of seeing you on this show, do you find that the contestants are getting somewhat desensitized to your personality to some degree and that you have to be bigger in order to get their attention, that they know what to expect from you?

G. Ramsay: No. I mean, to be honest, I would say I’d have to put myself in a more awkward manner to become tougher on them. I scream for talent. I want to challenge everyone, because that’s where I’m at home. I have that level of perfection that’s been inside for a long time. Passing on that knowledge of making them better individuals is part of the enjoyment, I suppose – the payback for me. But you’re always going to be confronted and you’re always going to get sort of on the spot scenarios, and it’s quite interesting when you look at their individual characters. And of course it gets a little bit busy for the first couple of weeks because there’s so many of them and you’re trying to focus on the good ones and understand the weak points, and I came to help the weak ones, throw them some form of life line and if they don’t respond, then they’ve got to go. But even in Kitchen Nightmares I had a situation in my own restaurant last week in New York where one of the line cooks got upset when he overcooked the New York Strip and his response was, he just put his head down. I said, “Listen, your response stinks. You’re standing there like a petulant teenager. You’re 29 years of age. You earn $70,000 a year and you’re talking to me like you’re a baby. Get a grip. You can’t just sort of bow your head. What about the customers, how they’re with these guests and his guest is not eating because the food’s been sent back to the kitchen. Come on, get a grip.” So, that kind of stuff, unfortunately, goes on in every kitchen, whether it’s on TV or off TV.

But it’s really weird, isn’t it, when you look at the broad sector of characters that enter this industry, the biggest frustrating thing for me is that there are so many divisions of teaching how to cook properly. That’s the reason why I bought my first school last year, so I could standardize the practice for a talented chef. But the sad thing about it, there’s also so many that slip into the industry that don’t have qualifications and cooking is one of the very few jobs anywhere in the world that you don’t need a qualification to become a great chef. So that’s an issue.

Don’t forget, Hell’s Kitchen airs tonight, from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. on FOX.