Traveling The Globe And Savoring Its Cuisine

I respectfully  dedicate thus publication to my mentor, Chef Gordon James Ramsay,  seen on in my Intro Media and often featured in the Natural Geographic Channel, is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality, and writer. His global restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 16 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a total of seven.

He and this author are two  of a kind, both of us having traveled the globe and  and sampled some of its most finest cuisine  as well as some of the worst. I consider him my mentor as someone with a deep interest in international affairs and I am also his wannabe friend.

Ramsay's interest in cooking began in his teenage years; rather than be known as "the football player with the gammy knee",he decided to pay more serious attention to his culinary education at age 19. Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study hotel management. He describes his decision to enter catering college as "a complete accident"

In the mid-1980's, he worked as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel. He ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms, until his sexual relationship with the owner's wife made the situation difficult.

Ramsay then moved to London, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for the temperamental Marco Pierre White at Harveys.

After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair, where he met Jean-Claude Breton, later his maître d'hôtel at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. 

After working at Le Gavroche for a year, Albert Roux invited Ramsay to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in the French Alps, as his number two. From there, a 23-year-old Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. In Master Chef series 3 episode 18, Gordon Ramsay stated that Guy Savoy was his mentor. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda.

The role on the boat saw him travel to Sicily and Sardinia, Italy, and learn about Italian cuisine.

As for the later chef. he has prepared fried mackerel in Michigan Upper Peninsula, fried Llama poop in Peru,  cooked  and gulped downkæstur hákarl, in Iceland which he threw up for 48 hours and even relished ramps Mountain Oysters (bull testicles) in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains.

Ramsay has historically expressed a dislike for vegetarianism and veganism. In the first episode of the second series of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (2005), he offered pizza to a vegetarian and said it was vegetarian. After he took a bite, Ramsay said that it contained ham, laughing and asked if he wanted more. In 2003, when asked for his most recent lie, he said "To a table of vegetarians who had artichoke soup. I told them it was made with vegetable stock when it was chicken stock."

In a 2007 interview, he joked: "My biggest nightmare would be if the kids ever came up to me and said 'Dad, I'm a vegetarian.' Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them."

In 2016, when asked on Twitter whether he was allergic to anything, he wrote "Vegans" and followed up with: "It's a joke jack it's not vegans! It's vegetarians".

In 2006, on the second series of The F Word, Ramsay showed a softened stance on vegetarianism after learning about intensive pig farming practices, including castration and tail docking.

Gordon Ramsay Plane Food is a restaurant owned by chef Gordon Ramsay and located within Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport, London. The restaurant cost £2.5 million to build and is located within the airside area of the airport. It opened in 2008 alongside the rest of Terminal 5, and with several other Ramsay-related openings that year. Ramsay said that he aimed to keep the menu lean without the use of heavy sauces, and menus are also offered for quick dining as well as takeaway cool boxes which contain a three course meal to be eaten on a plane.

Critics have been mostly positive, although one initial poor review by Jan Moir was picked up by the mainstream media. The concept of the cool boxes was also praised. It was Ramsay's first airport-based restaurant, and in 2013 he announced that he was planning to take the concept to a number of airports within the United States.

The interior is decorated with a marble bar, above which hangs a painting by Barnaby Gorton worth £90,000.

There are large windows at one end of the restaurant, which look out onto the airport itself.

The restaurant has a seating capacity for 175 diners.

As with all restaurants at Terminal 5, Plane Food cannot use gas equipment due to safety reasons and so electric ovens and hobs are used instead as well as a single microwave.

The cutlery is also a standard airport size so that the knives cannot be used as weapons.

Ramsay requires that staff who are working at Plane Food must gain work experience in another one of his restaurants first

Pricing is similar to other restaurants owned by Ramsay, and it is intended to bring a fine dining experience out of specialist airport lounges and make it available to any traveller. 

Starters include a pea, leek, and goat cheese tart, while mains include sea bass which is steamed and served alongside lemongrass and white asparagus. Chocolate fondue with marshmallows and waffles are among the options for dessert as well as a knickerbocker glory.

Traditional fine dining dishes are also included on the menu, such as Sevruga caviar.

Ramsay said in interviews around the launch of the restaurant that he aimed to keep "it all very lean, lean, lean. No heavy sauces"

A specific menu is offered for quick dining, called "Plane Fast". This has multiple-course meals which aim to be served within 25 minutes.

In 2006, on the second series o Ramsay showed a softened stance on vegetarianism after learning about intensive pig farming practices, including castration and tail docking, while letting two young family piglets live in an intensive farm. On the programme, Ramsay commented: "It's enough to make anyone turn fucking vegetarian, for God's sake. And I've always sort of knocked vegetarians and vegans for missing out on the most amazing flavour you can get from meat. But you can see why so many people change instantly"

In 2019, he launched a vegan menu at his restaurants for Veganuary, and introduced more vegan items to his restaurants, such as a vegan roast.

Ramsay said in 2016 that he exercises semi-competitively for his general well-being. He said he has seen overweight and unfit chefs collapse or become unable to move quickly around the kitchen. He often competes in Ironman events, marathons, and triathlons. He also eats very little per meal and prefers to graze throughout the day, partly due to the habit he built up as a judge and chef and also because of his busy schedule.

He has a black belt in karate.

Ramsay reportedly told Joe Wicks that cycling has improved his physical and mental health, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Regrettably, I have never had the pleasure of meeting this gourmet and entrepeur, someone whom I consider the word's greatest chef, but I hope to someday accomplish that lofty goal.

As for myself, I can hardly cook and old-fashioned American hotdog, but as my wife and I will continue to travel to globe, I will always pay homage to the one man who can prepare the world's great delicacies  to perfection,

This book was written with sincere appreciation  to Chef Gordon James Ramsay, whom I consider the greatest chef on this planet to date.