Gordon Ramsay (32 page)
Authors: Neil Simpson
‘Number One chef around the world,’ Zagat might have said. For all the evidence shows that Gordon is speeding up, not slowing down as the years go by. ‘I’m shitting myself with the size of the business,’ he said of Gordon Ramsay Holdings in late 2008. ‘Normally we do two big
projects a year but last year was three and this year was four.’ But if next year it is five major openings the truth is that Gordon will probably thrive. Then he is likely to plan six or more for 2010.
His global ambition has already made him the world’s third highest-paid chef (top of the list is queen of American food TV Rachael Ray, number two is LA favourite Wolfgang Puck). Few really doubt that Gordon will soon overtake at least one of these names as he looks to expand into Russia and Australia, while opening new restaurants in Washington, Las Vegas and a host of other major cities.
With so much good stuff going on it is little wonder that Gordon and Tana were so happy when they had a rare night out together in London on the penultimate weekend of November 2008. They were dining with friends and staying over at a private club. Sunday morning should have been the perfect chance for a lazy breakfast before heading home to see their kids. It wasn’t. Sunday 23 November was the day the
News of the World
shocked everyone with one of the biggest scoops of the year. C
HEAT
‘
N
’ T
WO
V
EG
screamed the page one headline. Inside, spread over page after page, were incredible allegations of what its reporters said was a seven-year affair Gordon had had with a woman called Sarah Symonds. It said the pair had met back in 2001 and it gave an account of what the paper alleged was their most recent meeting, said to have taken place less than seven days earlier. The allegations went on and on. Sarah had got a train in from south Wales on the morning in question. She had taken a cab to the Marriott Hotel on London’s Grosvenor Square. She had checked into a £360 a night
first floor room. Then she had left on a shopping trip to Soho – coming back with three bottles of what the paper called a ‘legal sex drug’ plus some white wine and crisps.
The hotel in question adjoins Gordon’s flagship restaurant Maze. The paper said Gordon slipped out of his kitchens and into Sarah’s room at 8.15pm. He was photographed climbing into a silver, chauffeur-driven BMW an hour and a quarter later. The paper was very clear about what it said had happened in the intervening period.
No prizes for guessing that the media went wild. The story was one of the most searched-for items on the internet for days. And Gordon was under siege. The papers and television channels sent an army of reporters and cameramen to his house. They photographed Gordon and Tana, arm in arm, as they shrugged off the story.
‘It’s time for Sunday lunch, I’m starving,’ was what he said to reporters. The following day, Gordon cancelled a live appearance on
The Paul O’Grady Show
. Tana faced the press when she went out on the school run on Monday. ‘I’m good, thanks for asking,’ she shouted at reporters, well aware that dozens of commentators were writing articles speculating on her state of mind – and whether or not she would stand by her man.
Gordon was next to face the music. He had a busy week. He had a live Taste of Christmas event to host at a huge exhibition centre in London. He had
Cookalong Live
to work on. He had the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham to attend. There were books to be sold and restaurants to run. Everywhere he went, there were questions about the allegations. He brushed them off. ‘I didn’t do it, mum,’ he said at one event, knowing his
mother was in the audience. At another, he joked that Channel Four had a new show planned – Gordon Ramsay’s Bedroom Nightmares.
But, in truth, the real nightmare was still to come. For a major
News of the World
exclusive rarely ends after just one week’s revelations. Everyone was getting ready the following Sunday to see what more might be said. If you wanted gossip then the paper certainly didn’t disappoint. That Sunday’s issue had a long, detailed interview with Sarah Symonds herself. There were allegations of phone sex as well as real sex. Symonds even went as far as to allege that she hadn’t been Gordon’s only mistress in recent years. She said two other women were out there with tales to tell. As far as the press was concerned, the hunt was on, and everyone seemed to want to take part. Amazingly, the story had made it to the business pages as well as the news and gossip pages of some papers. Commentators were asking whether ‘brand Ramsay’ could survive – especially in the more moral climate of America. Was Gordon’s entire dream about to end?
Now that the dust has settled, it is clear that Gordon will survive. He has a reputation for being a fighter and had no intention of allowing the furore to adversely affect his family or his business. He is a man who has survived so many setbacks and has picked himself up off so many floors. The more that goes wrong, the more he fights to survive. And when he comes back, he tends to come back stronger, tougher and more successful than ever. He would never even contemplate throwing in the towel.
For when he does ever have a spare moment to reflect Gordon has to agree that his journey through life had
already been absolutely extraordinary. It has taken him from the council estates of Glasgow and the football stadium at Ibrox through the luxury yachts of Europe, the most expensive restaurants in Paris, London and New York to the television studios and sound stages of Hollywood. He has cooked for Prime Ministers, Presidents, movie stars and royalty. He has raised huge amounts of money for charity and tested himself against the very best in every area of his life. He has seen his mother beaten up, his father and good friends die, his brother battle hard drugs and his sisters thrive. He has fallen in love and raised a family that he so clearly adores. He would fight for that above all else.
Clinically competitive, Gordon has won just about every competition he has ever entered. This latest downturn on life’s rollercoaster will probably only give him more momentum for a ride back up. He remains incapable of turning down new challenges and as he takes in his new global audience there still seems to be no limits to his ambitions. ‘What would you like to come back as in our next life?’ a reporter asked him a few years ago.
‘Prime Minister,’ he had replied, with a smile but without a moment’s hesitation.
A few years down the line Gordon admits has enough that he wants to do in this life without worrying about coming back in another one. ‘I work my fucking arse off. I’m 41 years of age. I’m by no means done. I seriously think I’ve just started,’ he said recently. So watch out, world. The Gordon Ramsay story isn’t over yet …
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First published in paperback in 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84454-703-6
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