Desert Island
Discs with castaway Gordon Ramsay
Extracts
from programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 31 March at 11.15am.
Notes
to Editors
Please
credit Desert Island Discs if using quotes from this interview.
Transcript
extracts follow. GR: Gordon Ramsay; SL: Sue Lawley.
GR: Eating out is not about whispering... it's about having fun
and enjoying the food and the conversation. But at the end of the
day it's the food... And that’s what Michelin stars are all
about.
SL:
A lot of people say that Michelin stars are out of date, which is
why a lot of people have sent them back…
GR:
I disagree with that… out of date in the sense that as a footballer,
you’d want to win the FA cup, if you are an actor, you’d
want to win an Oscar, and we have 24 hours of glory in January as
a chef, and it's a Michelin star…
SL:
But you’ve got to maintain it, as your mentor Marco Pierre
has said, it's great to win it, but then the slog is in maintaining
it.
GR:
That’s right - as a cook, the reason why I respect the guide
itself is that you never know when the inspector is going to walk
through that door, no-one gets close to them, it's incognito and
it's all done for the public service…
SL:You
are now the only guy left in town with three Michelin stars in London…
the others have abdicated… Marco has sent his back, Nico has
sent his back… how does it feel, because you wanted to get
there because of their competition… you wanted to be as good
as them and now they are gone… or do you compete against yourself?
GR:
I’ve seen a lot of mistakes happen in front of me with other
big chefs and you go against their grain… you don’t become
complacent, you don’t take customers for granted… you
don’t think well that’s a success so I won’t change
that dish for twenty years because food is moving rapidly in this
country.
SL:
So you are 35 and you are not going to give it up at 40?
GR:
No definitely not!
Song
- Kim Wilde: Kids from America.
GR:
Why? It's been a long, long slog... Dad was involved in music in
a big way, he played alongside Marty Wilde on a few occasions and
he used to ask me along and listen to him which I was not interested
in at all but the fact that this guy had a daughter called Kim Wilde
really really excited me. Sadly I went to listen to him twice…
she didn’t turn up!
GR:
Kitchens are boisterous environments, there’s huge amounts
of insecurity throughout every cook that works in a kitchen. You’ve
got to prove yourself… it's not a hairdressing salon, it’s
a kitchen.
GR:
Dad never came to any of the restaurants, except that he was forever
saying that he was dying to meet Tana
and Megan - he had never met my wife or daughter although they spoke
two or three times on the telephone - and then sadly he was concerned
with a problem with his heart: he’d had a triple heart bypass.
It was really weird because he’d booked a table on the 21st
of January but then sadly on December 31, on New Year’s Eve,
he died of a heart attack at the age of 53 which was… er…
awkward… because I knew he was about to come and see exactly
what I’ve done, meet my wife, and meet Megan.
SL:
Your mother must have burst with pride over the past 10 years, what
with everything you’ve achieved…
GR:
Yes - Mum’s been a great foundation, alongside my father-in-law
in the sense that they have been there at the most crucial times.
Mum doesn’t enjoy coming to the restaurant and that’s
the bizzare thing about it - she’s been to Claridges once,
for the opening night - I think she feels comfortable, because that’s
not how she cooks for me, and it's not her surrounding - she could
go down to the Bridge Café in Taunton and order a Caesar
Salad or a lentil soup for £2.95 and enjoy it with her friends,
as opposed to London.
GR:
99% of the celebrity chefs I know don’t have restaurants, and
the reason I don’t class myself as a celebrity is that I don’t
go anywhere near Ready Steady, I don’t go anywhere near Can’t
Cook, Won't Cook, and my customers are more important to me than
anything.
Gordon’s
escape
GR:
I love diving… there’s something quite special being 35
- 40 metres under the water and just listening to your heart beat…
I’m obsessed with sharks - I went down in a great white shark
cage seven years ago in Florida - loved every minute of it.
Gordon’s
Pudding
GR:
Creme Brulee - we have these apples in the freezer, then we place
them in the juicer… and we create this wonderful Granny Smith
jus - like a fresh juice - and it is so delightful when you are
mixing this fresh juice to the richness of the Creme Brulee, so
vanilla Creme Brulee with Jus of Granny Smith!
Last
Record. Travis - Sing
GR:
We have good days and bad days in cooking... and when you’ve
had a bad day, when you’ve had 25 vegetarians walk in unannounced,
this is a song that puts it all into context.
Gordon’s
Book choice
GR:
Anthony Bordain and Kitchen Confidential. He’s done what no
chef has had the balls to do… to give a proper insight to the
hellish environment that kitchens have still today and you can never
get bored reading it. It's certainly not for light-hearted vegetarians.
Don’t go there!
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