WWAWD Michelin Star restaurants

[guest]

To Britfags:

Is Gordon Ramsey tough?

I know he played semi-pro soccer or whatever and is in very good shape for his age. But whenever a male contestant with any size pushes back against his verbal abuse, he yaps back like a privileged white lady until the situation escalated, the angry contestant threatens physicality, and he then backs down and hides behind the produces and demands the guy leave. He reminds me of Kevin Garnett in terms of being a fake hardo.

Could he actually defend himself in a fight?

He's obviously extremely tough mentally, but I don't think he's a fighting guy or ever was.

 

[WifeStoreWill]

I’ve been to several Michelin places but none of Ramsey’s. I’ve only been disappointed once or twice but you do pay a premium most of the time. Only one of them was cheap but it was in Hong Kong. There’s a place near me in DC called Albi that got a star recently and it’s very good. Not crazy expensive either so worth a shot for anyone in town.

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

What, they cut tires up into little stars and you eat them?

 

[guest]

There's a famous moment on the old Fear Factor where a clearly mentally ill contestant gets in Rogan's face and you can tell there was a big part of Rogan hoping the guy escalated things just so he could neutralize the child and show everyone how good a fighter he is.

There are several if not many incidents like this with Ramsey, but he always backs down just as he's escalated things to the point of violence and then gaslights the contestant and the audience claiming his adversary was unhinged or something.

I know the American version is played up for our less-evolved sensibilities, but Americans also love to see a bully get put in his place. There's never a moment where Gordon is forced to admit he was a prick for no reason or that he deserved to get his ass kicked. It's always framed so that either he was the tough guy or his adversary was unhinged and dangerous.

I don't watch his programs but I'll admit he's a great showman. I would just love to see him have to cash the checks he writes with his mouth, just once. Let some junkie chef from LA beat him unmercifully with a wooden spoon in front of the entire audience and see how it changes his persona.

I think the most authentic Ramsay (oxymoron) is the one in Boiling Point and Beyond Boiling Point, his first shows on UK TV. There you see him for what he essentially is. An extremely driven and competitive guy with a massive chip on his shoulder, a point to prove and an abrasive but charismatic way of doing it.

Interesting to compare and contrast it with MPW 10 or so years earlier in his TV show. Basically just a more confident and less chippy version of the same. Funny how many mannerisms and phrases ("Hey, big boy/You're....do you know that?/Come here you") Ramsay stole/"homaged" directly from his mentor.

Personally, I'm not that interested in the hard man stakes. The psychology and business drive angle is more interesting for me. Both are guys from poor backgrounds who had shit relationships with their fathers, moved from the provinces to London at am early age, reinvented themselves, didn't let go of their hangups but let them fuel them.

I think one of the main differences is that Marco realised fairly early on that chasing the high of winning in business was ultimately futile and not an end unto itself. He made his 10 or 20 mill, and basically retired to do his own thing. That's self-knowledge. Ramsay needs and craves the attention more than anything. He's a huge brand at this point and won't stop while the opportunity to keep going is available.