Gordon Ramsay Regrets Being Named Gordon, Not Scott, While Struggling With Oxtail Fame
KEY POINTS
- •Gordon Ramsay reveals Netflix’s 'Being Gordon Ramsay' shows him opening four restaurants and a culinary academy in London’s 22 Bishopsgate.
- •He recounts his challenging childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon, where his mother worked multiple jobs and his father was unsupportive of his cooking.
- •Despite financial struggles—including selling oxtail instead of filet mignon to earn Michelin stars—Ramsay shares the ups and downs of his family and career.
Netflix’s 'Being Gordon Ramsay' serves up a sizzling peek into the fiery chef's life that's as messy as his family history. Ramsay, who might’ve been Scott if fate and his mother’s choice hadn’t intervened, survived doctors predicting two hours tops, a dad who thought ‘real men’ don’t cook, and a brother addicted for four decades. While mounting a skyscraper restaurant empire at 22 Bishopsgate in London, Gordon recalls sewing extra patches on secondhand trousers, nightly shifts of his mother, and rampant school lunch voucher shame back in poor Stratford-upon-Avon. Opening his first restaurant in 1998 meant selling oxtail since filet mignon was an unaffordable fairy tale, yet he snagged the coveted Michelin stars anyway. There’s heartbreak too: his dad never set foot in a Ramsay restaurant before dying at 53. The docuseries also recounts how Ramsay wooed future wife Tana, initially considering her out of his league despite meeting through her partner, and survived grueling 18-hour days under Michelin-star godfather Marco Pierre White. There's a cautionary closing from his closed Scottish eatery, Amaryllis: six-starred weekends couldn't save the weeknights from vacancy and £120 dinners that nobody in Glasgow was buying on a Monday. Congratulations, Gordon. You made it with oxtail and attitude. Bon appétit.
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Named Gordon instead of Scott, sold oxtail instead of filet, and never got dad’s approval — chef Ramsay’s life is a tragicomic recipe we all taste, even if our biggest milestone is assembling IKEA furniture without crying.
If your dad thought cooking wasn’t manly and you had to survive on patched-up trousers and oxtail, congratulations, you're Gordon Ramsay without the fame.
Opening a restaurant with no filet mignon budget sounds like a LinkedIn humble brag but it's just Tuesday for Ramsay—the man who’s Michelin-starred his way out of poverty.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 2/18/2026 | Author: Anneta Konstantinides
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