Gordon Ramsay is the biggest cooking personality on television, and he’s also the best. We’re exploring why he’s conquered TV in this week’s Deeper Cut.
Gordon Ramsay is celebrating a milestone this TV season with the tenth season of MasterChef, but that’s not the only number in his career that’s staggering.
It’s been almost 15 years since Ramsay launched his first American TV series with Hell’s Kitchen, which premiered in May 2005. It’s been 12 years since the U.S. premiere of Kitchen Nightmares, which left the airwaves in 2014.
Since then, there’s also been MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, the MasterChef Celebrity Showdown specials, the American version of The F Word, Hotel Hell, Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape, and his two newest shows, Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back and Gordon Ramsay Uncharted.
And that’s just what’s been on American television. Add everything he’s had on British airwaves, and the lengthy list gets even longer.
It’s not easy to be a successful TV personality for a decade and a half. It’s even harder to still be contributing to television after a decade and a half, trying new things and still being relevant and holding onto the audience’s interest. That staying power is what makes Ramsay so remarkable.
So how does he do it? And why do we care?
Certainly it was his persona that first snagged the attention of the U.S. audience. It’s called Hell’s Kitchen for a reason, and the version of Gordon Ramsay that viewers were first introduced to was the most intense: outspoken, aggressive, and demanding perfection. He was someone who people had to pay attention to, and they tuned in to see how big the confrontations would be.
He was also breaking ground almost a year before Bravo launched Top Chef and well before competitive cooking took over the Food Network.
In a medium with ever-expanding options and often short attention spans, Ramsay reached out and grabbed viewers’ attention emphatically.
But if Hell’s Kitchen put him on the American map, it’s since become only the appetizer in his vast TV buffet. Gordon Ramsay is far more multifaceted than he’s given credit for, and that versatility is what drives his entire small-screen portfolio.
Take MasterChef, which is nearing the end of its milestone season. Ramsay is the rock of the U.S. incarnation of the franchise. In addition to being a producer, he’s the only judge who’s been on the program the entire time. Joe Bastianich left after five seasons, returning for seasons 9 and 10; Graham Elliot departed after six, and Christina Tosi appeared for three cycles.
That has made Ramsay the one consistent face (and voice) of the cooking competition. Through this and the MasterChef Junior spinoff, audiences have seen Ramsay the teacher and food critic, instead of the kitchen emperor. He still gets angry on occasion — not without reason — but here he segues into a more constructive environment where he’s educational and funny, and interactions are as much about learning as competing.
While there have been other cooking competitions before and since, none have had the same snap to them as Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef, and that’s because of the sole major element that both shows have in common: Gordon Ramsay.
Hell’s Kitchen has never ceased to be entertaining, while MasterChef took the competitive element of Hell’s Kitchen and married it to a kinder, gentler, more “everyman” approach… literally because anyone can be part of it.
And that’s a stone’s throw from what’s become Gordon Ramsay’s most interesting and an ever-increasing part of his TV career: the improvement shows, including Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell and now 24 Hours to Hell and Back.
Kitchen Nightmares, adapted from Ramsay’s already successful U.K. show of the same name, was an early entry that helped popularize the “celebrity makeover” genre (see: Bar Rescue, Restaurant Impossible, Hotel Impossible, etc.) After choosing to end the series in 2014, he spent three cycles lending his expertise to hoteliers in Hotel Hell, then returned to saving restaurants in a new format with 24 Hours to Hell and Back.
It’s these three shows that offer up the truest slice of who Gordon Ramsay is, and the biggest explanation for why he’s been so watchable over the last decade-plus.
They allow an audience to see the authentic Ramsay who’s not trying to wrangle a competition or work within a format where there are winners and losers. His sole mission is to help businesses in distress. And while that’s a challenge in its own right, he gets to spend more time having a dialogue with people and passing on knowledge. In learning more about these people, he also reveals more about himself.
The best example is a series that you may have missed: Gordon Behind Bars, which was made for the UK’s Channel 4 and aired here on BBC America. Ramsay ventured into Brixton Prison to try and utilize his skills to help convicts while openly speaking about his own brother’s struggle with drug addiction and the effect it had on him. That’s something deeply personal and painful, but he put it out there for the world.
Ramsay has lasted on TV — not even counting his cookbooks, other business ventures and actual restaurant operations around the world — because he’s far more than a personality.
The Gordon Ramsay fans see on TV is the genuine Gordon Ramsay, and he’s developed his small-screen work in such a way that audiences are exposed to more than just a persona or his culinary credentials. Each project shows off a different facet of his personality, from the competitive side to the collaborative one, enabling viewers to see him as a complete individual instead of another star talking at them.
He’s also continued to expand his proverbial palate, going in different directions whether it’s as a competition judge, a restaurant renovator, or doing travelogues like Gordon Ramsay Uncharted. It is rare to see any TV personality with that much versatility. But by constantly choosing different projects, Ramsay is always displaying his range — keeping audiences from stereotyping him while also continually challenging himself. After all, if you’re going to push others to be better, you have to push yourself the hardest of all.
To call him a “celebrity chef” would be a disservice. Yes, he’s both a celebrity and a chef, but what he brings to entertainment is much broader and with more merit than that.
Over almost 15 years, there’s not much that Gordon Ramsay hasn’t been able to do. TV audiences have seen him as a teacher and as a student — in a competitive environment pushing people toward the top and in a constructive environment helping people who have fallen down. His shows have taken place not only in restaurants, but in hotels, prison, and countries around the world.
Along the way, he’s imparted wisdom, delivered legendary one-liners (both funny and frightening), and proven he fits in as well with aspiring chefs as he does with the most prominent names in the industry. It’s no wonder that he’s continued to make a name for himself in TV because he’s crafted a universal appeal — both in terms of the work that he’s done and in that there’s something about him everyone can appreciate.
MasterChef airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Hell’s Kitchen and Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back will return later.
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