Gordon Ramsay: Say No to Celebrity!

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Gordon Ramsay doesn't like being a celebrity chef. He told the Australian Associated Press in Sydney: I hate that word when everyone labels you as a celebrity chef. There is a very superficial glossy image around cooking today. Individuals enter the industry to become famous, which is bollocks. Having been involved in this for 21 years, I have worked my nuts off to get where I have before any sort of exposure in terms of TV or media interest. Celebrity image, however, means a lot to Ramsay. He'll become a pure image when he guest stars as a cartoon on The Simpsons, playing himself as he teaches Homer Simpson to cook. I want something that is sort of slightly angelic. I don't want to see this scrawny, crinkly, wrinkled face like the map of Wales coming out. Do you see any difference between "celebrity" and "celebrity image"? Gordon is in Australia promoting his autobiography, Humble Pie (Harper Collins Publishers Australia 2006). "I suppose in a way I am more scared of stopping than evolving," he said. Which sounds very much like another celebrity chef over-achiever, Wolfgang Puck. Mark Peel commented in Super Chef: He's always afraid of the future. He is not over-confident, and he's that way today. When Spago opened in Las Vegas quitely for lunch the first week and no one walked in for 25 minutes, Wolfgang was a mess. He is like that even after Spago, Chinois, Granita and the rest. (p. 47) Wolfgang himself added: At the end of the day there is what is today and what is tomorrow. Now, we can enjoy all these things, with the children, and look back and think, that's great, look back at so many friends,, that's a good life, and I have a good feeling. But I am not going to sit in my office and thing about all that. I never do. (p. 46) Is the key to being a super chef a certain amount of fear of failure combine with a desire for accolades and attention? Previous articles: Gordon Ramsay v James Bond Gordon Ramsay: Women Can't Cook Gordon Ramsay: A Chef For All Seasons Gordon Ramsay: In the Heat of the Kitchen Gordon Ramsay on Jay Leno: Funnier than Hell Hell's Kitchen a la Apprentice: You're Fired! Hell's Kitchen on ICE Sneak Peak: Hell's Kitchen, with Gordon Ramsay Gordon Ramsay Joins Richard Branson in Fox's Reality TV Hell [Chefs & Branding - complete] [Food Television - complete] [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to superchefblog