By Christina Radish

Chef Gordon Ramsay at the Fox Television Network Party held at Meson G restaurant in Los Angeles, Calif. on January 17, 2005.

Each week, the intensity heats up, as the ambitious hopefuls try to prove they have what it takes to run their own restaurant. Weeding out the contestants with a sharp tongue, Ramsay keeps only those who possess the right combination of talent and desire, until only one is left standing.

The U.K. resident, with eight published cookbooks, spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about what it takes to have a successful culinary career.

MediaBlvd Magazine> How are this cycle’s group of chefs different from previous cycles?

Gordon Ramsay> I’m very excited about season four, more so than any other year before. When you look at the set-up, in terms of the level of professionalism, this year we’ve raised the bar. Looking for a chef is something I’ve personally stood by, and gotten very nervous about. I’d like to think that we have the most amazing chefs. Fox wants to run a show, and I run the restaurant, so it’s a great team of chefs, more so than any other year. There’s an amazing, talented group of females this year, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. It’s quite refreshing, really, on the back of the male dominated, chauvinistic stance that kitchens have today. So, I was really pleased. 

MediaBlvd> Did you tape a fourth and a fifth cycle of the show, back-to-back?

Gordon> Yes, we did. When you build a restaurant like the one on the show, it has the most amazing health and hygiene. It is properly air conditioned and properly irrigated with hot and cold running water, so the whole thing is built like a real restaurant. And, Fox is paying for it, so in terms of expenditure, it’s far more economical to do two seasons at once. Finding 30 chefs in that bunch wasn’t difficult. 

MediaBlvd> Are they going to air the fifth cycle this summer, since this is the first time you’re doing it in the spring?

Gordon> I cook for a living. I’m not a scheduler. We outsmarted ourselves and raised the bar even higher.                                           

MediaBlvd> When you see those first signature dishes and everybody knows you’re going to ask them to do that, do you sometimes wonder if these people have not watched the show?

Gordon> I get really frustrated, and I share that level of frustration on Kitchen Nightmares, because they know I’m coming. So, when a chef is that incompetent, stupid or lazy, in terms of health and hygiene, I get really frustrated. When people say, “Oh, you’re doing that for the cameras,” they’re wrong. I’m doing that because, if you work in this industry and are going to spend 25 or 30 years in the kitchen trying to master your craft, how stupid do you have to be to put together a venison tartar with capers, shallots, parsley, lemon juice and egg yolk, and combine that with a scallop tartar with ketchup, lime juice and white chocolate, bound together with caviar?  What type of nut is going to actually come out and eat, and pay top dollar for, that level of stupidity? You’d think they’d perfect it in a way that says they can keep it simple and focus on the ingredients. When we go out for lunch or dinner, let’s be honest, it is the flavor that holds the memory. It’s not how things look. The presentation is one thing, but the execution of flavor is what draws you back to a restaurant. The pistachio ice cream served inside a chocolate souffle -- that’s what you go for. It’s the flavor. That’s what bugs me about that level of stupidity. I’m not just saying it’s chefs here. We have it back in the U.K., and in France.           

MediaBlvd> Are the fireworks and intensity that go on during this show real, or is that ever done for the cameras?

Gordon> Of course, it’s real. There’s nothing played, for any camera. You see 42-44 minutes of the edited version, but I run service for four hours, from 6:00 until 10:00, and cook for 120 guests. So, it’s going to look like it’s combustive, tenacious and full of drama, and it is, but there’s no script. That’s why I fight, every week that that restaurant opens, to make sure I run the restaurant and not a show. We do have good days, and we do have bad days. We do have meltdowns and we do have tears. That goes on in any top-flight kitchen. Now, if I was running a mediocre, run-of-the-mill, Caesar salad, flip-a-burger type place, then there would be no heat.  When you decide to cook at that level, and you want it to be perfect, it’s harmony when it hits perfection. I’ve done nothing but keep it real. I think that is proven in the level of contestants that want to become good chefs, and who apply to get on the show.

MediaBlvd> Do you ever worry about all of the swearing you do in the kitchen?

Gordon> I don’t like cursing. That may sound slightly bizarre, but trust me, it’s not my fault, entirely. It’s the industry language, and any chef would be a hypocrite, if they didn’t admit to swearing in the kitchen. It’s something I’m not proud of. Every time, I get reminded of that by my mother. More importantly, I have four young children. My wife is a schoolteacher. I can switch it off. I have an outside life. I’m not forecasting for my first heart attack at the age of 41. And, I’m not going anywhere near a divorce. Trust me, I don’t enjoy cursing, and I really mean that.                       

MediaBlvd> What kind of chef are you looking for, to be able to run your new restaurant, The London, West Hollywood?

Gordon> I have to say, opening up in New York taught me a lot about that level of attention to detail. London’s a tough market. Paris is a tough market. But, New York is extraordinary.  Everything I learned and didn’t do in New York, I would put into place, at the London West Hollywood. It’s fascinating, when you look at the critics’ reviews. We had a great one in the New York Observer, and then the New York Times came and it was a devastation. We got two stars out of four. They said that I played it safe because there wasn’t fireworks. They judged the persona over the substance that was on the plate. Here, in L.A., there will be fireworks from the canapés right through to the desserts. More importantly, I’ve been here for three years now. I’ve been in New York for 15 months. You have to come out of the trap strong and explode from day one. And, more importantly, the ingredients there are phenomenal. It’s not going to be sedated, heavy, rich French cuisine. It’s going to be a light American, California-style cuisine with a bit of a Japanese influence. Everything is healthy and fresh. And, if you think customers are impatient in New York, wait until you see how impatient they are, here in L.A. One thing I can’t afford to get sucked up in is the trend formation of restaurants here. I’ve invested heavily. We have a 10-year lease. The style, the feel and the decor of the dining room is vibrant. It’s very L.A., with very cool fabrics, lots of silver, lots of nickel, brushed stainless steel and lots of cream fabric. It’s going to be fast, it’s going to be furious, and we have that level of intimacy and fun without being long-winded. That’s really important.                 

MediaBlvd> This cycle, you have a chef who’s an electrician, you have someone who’s a stay-at-home dad, and you have a receptionist. Why is it important to include those types of people, instead of just having executive chefs from various restaurants?

Gordon> I’d like to think that Hell’s Kitchen has become synonymous with giving anyone excited about food that level of opportunity. When you think about someone like Julia from the waffle house, with that level of taste and that kind of control, who is cooking run-of-the-mill, mainstream American cuisine, she could compete with an executive chef. When chefs enter this industry and they graduate from culinary school they chase silly titles, which means nothing.  What is an executive chef? It’s a chef that operates a computer that hits a P&L account and goes through a budgeting format with a food and beverage manager. If you’re going to be a chef, then cook. There’s no greater joy. Watching domestic, talented individuals, who are determined chefs that have the desire and want that chance to succeed, it’s far more exciting for me when you can pick out somebody from obscurity and bring them through, and propel the talent and run that against an executive chef, any day. At the age of 41, having cooked for 21 years, that is far more exciting for me because it is a natural level of ability, and they really do get excited. It’s a natural turn-on, as opposed to the excitement of chasing a title. There’s a big difference.

MediaBlvd> The winner of this cycle is going to get the executive chef position at The London, West Hollywood, which is a huge move for you, considering what happened with your restaurant in New York. How can you pick somebody, like the electrician, over somebody who has 20 years experience?

Gordon> Having an amazing team of chefs to draw upon, the stakes are raised higher this year, more than any other year, because of what I’m looking for. The position is not going to be the executive chef, in terms of running it lock, stock and barrel. That can’t happen. You can’t put that kind of pressure on a winner. The winner will be an executive chef within the setup of my restaurant, and will be responsible for the day-to-day running. New York was a tough opening, and an investment of $10 million. This is not a consultancy. This is my restaurant, where the level of scrutiny is 10 times greater. We own it. It’s not just to be visited two or three times a year, and it’s not a Vegas-style, buy-the-concept franchise. It’s my restaurant. That’s why I’m convinced that working with the winner of Hell’s Kitchen will enable me to make sure that person is catapulted. It will establish that level of longevity. The important part is making sure that this is a marathon we’re running, it’s not a 100-meter sprint. New York has taught me that. The winner of Hell’s Kitchen this year is not going to be running the London West Hollywood. They can’t, in the short time that I’ve been connected to that person. The team and I have been together since October 1993, and they are phenomenal chefs. They’re partners that will be together in making sure the London West Hollywood is a united front.

MediaBlvd> Why did you decide this season to give the winner the opportunity to really study with you?

Gordon> I cringe, sometimes, when everyone talks about a reality show with no integrity, so I thought about this idea of me looking for a chef. Is it a promotional marketing tool, in order to promote my restaurant? No, of course not. It doesn’t matter how good the marketing is, if you can’t deliver on the plate. You could have the best marketing, but the best marketing tool could be the worst effect for any restaurant. I’m putting my money where my mouth is. Sometimes, I get a lot of criticism from the industry because it’s not the real deal. Well, it is in the premiere league. If you want to go to the top, then of course you have to weather the storm. It’s not all plain sailing and it’s not all about creating little pitchers out of watermelons. I clearly get very frustrated when things go wrong, and putting my neck on the line and looking for a chef for my own restaurant was an investment, from my point of view, to put back into the longevity, to make sure that we continue searching for talent and propelling it. Fox was very happy. They brought the series forward. Last summer went down exceptionally well. It’s so nice to see the talent coming back onto the set of Hell’s Kitchen this year and helping judge. It’s almost like a governing body -- a committee. The female dominance this year has been second to none.  It’s been so refreshing to see that level of excitement. I want to put my money where my mouth is and prove to the industry that any winner of Hell’s Kitchen is more than qualified and capable of standing alone in my kitchen, that’s for sure.

MediaBlvd> Last year, you invited Atlanta’s favorite waffle house chef, Julia Williams, back on the show. Will she be back in the fifth cycle? 

Gordon> You’re absolutely right. To be honest, I can’t say that because I did meet up with her, and I had all the previous winners, back judging on season four. It was just so nice to see them grow in stature and maturity. Given that level of responsibility, it’s just quite nice to see how they handled that exposure. Not every chef deals with it properly. Some get slightly excited and a little bit overconfident, and then they miss out on the most important part. If you become a chef because you’re obsessed with becoming a celebrity, you’re not going to succeed. Getting my ass kicked and working my nuts off the way I did in France, and getting pushed around those kitchens, wasn’t about becoming famous. It’s about learning your craft and understanding what it takes to survive, in this industry. On the back of exposure from TV to books to Rachael Ray to Martha Stewart, the customer’s integrity is far greater than ever before. As a nation, just like the U.K., we don’t complain enough. The more you complain, in this country, the better the restaurants will be.

MediaBlvd> The Hell’s Kitchen 2 winner was from Long Island. The first two seasons of Top Chef were won by Long Islanders. You have a Long Islander on this cycle. What is it about Long Island that produces so many winning chefs?

Gordon> It’s amazing. It’s like that little place in Berkshire, called Bray, where you’ve got the Waterside Inn, a star establishment in the middle of the U.K. I don’t really know what it is about Long Island. It’s quite a fascinating area. We’ve just gone back to revisit Kitchen Nightmares, over the last couple of weeks, and it’s been so refreshing to see so much talent there. Long Island is producing more chefs than Paris. It’s buoyant. It’s on the outskirts of Manhattan, and so, they have access to phenomenal restaurants. I can’t say what it is. Maybe it’s something in the ingredients. We have a couple of contestants from Long Island this year, and a phenomenal array of chefs. Long Island seems to be the draw, at the moment.

MediaBlvd> With so many great chefs, how is it that four of the 10 restaurants on Kitchen Nightmares last season were in Long Island?

Gordon> That’s amazing. I’ve just come back from the revisit, and it’s just so refreshing to see them doing so well, in terms of where they are and how they’re doing. Of course, not everybody makes it, which is a great shame, but it’s something that I take really seriously. This year, 22,500 participants entered Hell’s Kitchen, for 15 to go through. And, I actually get put into this prosthetic mask. My name is Terrance, from Texas, and I’m actually made up as one of the contestants, so nobody spots it. It’s quite fascinating to see them on the bus, with my presence unknown to them. It’s a really different way of setting it up. Of course, the pressure is on this year, more than any other before, because of the sequence of events with my restaurant. I’m taking it more seriously than ever before, and the stakes are a lot higher. Running a restaurant is something you have to be working at, each and every day. It’s not a foregone conclusion that you’re a success. How many restaurants do we know, across the world, that customers visit once, and once only? The second visit is far more important. It’s not just about the cooking, sadly, and that’s what they need to understand. How many chefs do we know that prefer cooking for chefs than they do customers? It’s the level of support that determines the level of success that restaurant will have. It’s quite weird knocking that out of them, and telling them to forget cooking for chefs and to forget what chefs say about your food. The level of jealousy and insecurity in this industry is far greater than ever before. You have to focus on your customers and make that restaurant synonymous to where you are, in terms of area. You need to regionalize it, with the ingredients. Make sure you stay in touch with what’s keeping in the area, not what’s going on in Barcelona, or the middle of Paris. Stay with what’s happening, locally. That’s really important.

MediaBlvd> You have two chefs from western New York on this cycle. What can you say about Bobby and Shayna, as competitors?

Gordon> Honestly, Bobby and Shayna are tenacious and determined. It was really weird, when I actually sat on the bus this year, as a contestant. I went through prosthetic make-up, which was a hideous six hours of sitting there, and I’m not very good at sitting down for six minutes, let alone six hours. It was really weird to sit opposite Bobby, when he’s yelling at me, “I’m the black Gordon Ramsay, so good luck you guys because you’re going to need it. I’m the five-star general.” It was so funny because I was Terrance, from Texas, and I was absolutely peeing my pants with laughter, but trying to keep a straight face. I had long hair in a ponytail, which was really weird. Chefs don’t do ponytails, and shouldn’t do them because I guarantee that, whenever there’s a discovery of hair in the food, it’s guaranteed to be from the chef’s ponytail. Bobby is full of energy. He has the most amazing smile, and was someone who was really good, in terms of keeping the team together. He is naturally big, energetic and very flamboyant. He’s the kind of guy that would sometimes run out of steam. Don’t forget, we pushed the boat out even further, in terms of jeopardy, and some of the chefs got tired very quick. But, he had the most amazing level of assertiveness, which was nice. Shayna is an absolute sweetheart. She’s a natural cook, and she connected naturally with food. More importantly, she had some real determination, and a real fire in her belly. The level of talent on the female sector this year has been so refreshing, and I’m so pleased.

MediaBlvd> You have three chefs from Las Vegas this season. Is there something about Las Vegas, or its restaurants, that make people a natural for this sort of thing, or is it the sheer volume of chefs there?

Gordon> It’s the volume of chefs and the volume of interest, really. The customers are becoming far more sought after, than ever before. It’s an extraordinary place to be. When you think that every top chef in the world is there in Vegas, that makes it an even more competitive market. The fascinating thing is that Vegas has become the moniker of eating. So, of course, they’re going to produce talent because, when you work for a big chef, you aspire to be them. Once you have the knowledge and you have what you wanted from them, you want to pick up and move on. Vegas has created so much more excitement. Everyone had been drawn to European restaurants, but this has given American chefs such an opportunity to get into these restaurants and to get their culinary experience. It has really helped to turn Vegas around. What an exciting place to be. It’s amazing.

MediaBlvd> You and your compatriot, Jamie Oliver, have done an awful lot to change the stigma of English cooking over the years. Is that something that you feel a personal pride in? And, do you think there could be a knighthood in your future?

Gordon> Meeting the Queen and receiving the OBE (Order of the British Empire) was quite breathtaking. I wanted my mother there. It was very nice. Unfortunately, the canapes were a letdown. The next time I go to Buckingham Palace, I’ll bring my own food. Honestly, we’ve had a dogmatic approach in the U.K., in terms of being content. When you’re central Europe and you’re so close to France, Spain, Italy, you have this amazing amount of history on your doorstep to be indulged, like kidney pies, puddings, the fish and chips. That’s all being reinvented and put back on the map. I never go into cooking, thinking about being knighted. That’s quite scary. What I do go into it thinking about is making sure that we dispel any form of negative energy. It’s a very insecure, tough job to have and succeed at. So, if any young chef wants to put 10 or 15 years of their life into my kitchen, then they have to come out talented. If they don’t come out talented, then I look just as bad. In the U.K., we’re not done yet. We can’t compete with New York and L.A. We still can’t compete with Paris. We’re in the top 10, but we’re certainly not in the top five. From a chef’s point of view, the U.K. has so much more to do. It’s down to chefs like Jaime Oliver to continue pushing the boundaries.

MediaBlvd> Which of your shows have you enjoyed making the most, the Hell’s Kitchen series, your BBC Kitchen Nightmares, or the American version of Kitchen Nightmares?

Gordon> To be honest, I enjoy all three of them, really. Hell’s Kitchen is a competition. We can’t forget that. Of course, they’re not all going to win. That’s pretty obvious. Anyone finishing in the top six is a tremendous effort. I’m going to go through the weak ones and then nurse the talent. That’s the nature of the beast. Hell’s Kitchen is a cooking competition and highly competitive and sought after. The difference between Kitchen Nightmares U.K. and America is that they both have a different level of temperament. A dirty kitchen in the U.K. is the same as a dirty kitchen in South Bend, in the middle of Manhattan. The fascinating thing is that they both know I’m coming. When I discover something that’s really dirty and really badly practiced, it really frustrates me because that’s just laziness. If they’re that lazy when they know I’m coming, what are they like when they don’t know I’m coming? That scares me.

MediaBlvd> You’re pretty hard on all the chefs. Who is your harshest critic?Gordon> My biggest critics are my customers. In America, we have the food critic from the L.A. Times and the food critic from the New York Times. They are very influential, powerful critics.  On top of them, there’s one bigger critic, and that’s myself. You have no idea of the level of self-discipline, and how I constantly critique myself. When I make mistakes, I’m the first one to admit it. More importantly, if I do, the mistake doesn’t ever leave the kitchen. Critics are crucial.  Zagat is crucial. Michelin is absolutely crucial. The customers are highly critical, without a doubt. I welcome that criticism. But, the one bigger critic than everyone I’ve just mentioned is me. I’m my own biggest critic.