Gordon Ramsay Doesn’t Fake-Shout At Cooks

You can say what you like about Gordon Ramsay. Actually, you can't say what you like about Gordon Ramsay. Because if you do say what you like about Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay will sue your arse off.

Especially if you dare suggest that any of the situations on Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares were faked, as Victor Lewis Smith did in the Evening Standard not so long ago. And now, after a libel trial, Gordon Ramsay has won £75,000 out of it. Conclusive proof that, yes, some restaurant kitchens really are that much of a health hazard and, yes, Gordon Ramsay really is that much of a craggy-faced overbearing twat.

Gordon Ramsay has been all over the TV all over the world lately. In America, Gordon Ramsay hosts Hell's Kitchen - the reality TV show where a man who's been professionally trained to do a job shouts at people who haven't been professionally trained to do a job because they can't do the job as well as he can. In England, however, Gordon Ramsay has two shows. One is The F Word, where Gordon Ramsay cooks some food and then tells dick jokes to Martine McCutcheon.

And the other is Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, where Gordon Ramsay goes into an underperforming restaurant, stands in the middle of if and emits a constant bellow until the restaurant either improves or closes down. And Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is absolutely genuine, as the High Court decided yesterday. The Evening Standard claimed that an episode about Bonapartes restaurant and wine bar in Silsden, West Yorkshire was faked, and ended up paying Gordon Ramsay and Optomen Television £75,000 in damages. Solicitor Keith Schilling told the court:

"The defendants published an article on 3 November 2005 which alleged that the programme specialised in cynically faking scenes to make average restaurants look like public health hazards, driving some out of business. It alleged the claimants were guilty of 'gastronomic mendacity' by installing an incompetent chef and fabricating culinary disasters in order to wreck Bonapartes' reputation… No scenes had been faked, the kitchen was indeed untidy and a health hazard, the restaurant was already in financial difficulty before the programme was filmed, and the chef was not installed by the claimants. In fact it was the chef who first contacted the claimants in relation to participation in the programme."

Gordon Ramsay was at the hearing, and then said outside the court:

"I won't let people write anything they want about me - even I have limits and on this occasion the line was crossed."

So it's official - Gordon Ramsay doesn't fake his TV shows. It's less official, however, that Gordon Ramsay is a jumped-up dinner lady with an unrealistic sense of self-worth who, if he stopped for a second and looked around him, would realise that shouting about some food all the time in a pretend macho way is about as entertaining as having pins jabbed into your eyes. 

Read more:

TV chef Gordon Ramsay wins damages over "fake" slur - Reuters

[story by Stuart Heritage]