Gordon Ramsay Eats His Last Meal

Today, Josh is cooking Gordon Ramsay’s last meal.

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0:00 Gordon’s Last Meal Menu
0:29 The Controversial Grilled Cheese
1:43 Rehearsal For The Funeral
2:38 1st Course – Full English Breakfast
3:00 Growing Up In Government Housing
4:05 Chefs & Athletes
5:55 Never Pick A Favorite Child
6:54 The Hot Ones Wings
7:19 2nd Course – Butter Chicken, In-N-Out, & Buffalo Wings
8:03 Seeking Adventure & Memento Mori
8:46 Gordon Loves In-N-Out
10:04 Fondness for Fish Head Curry
12:05 Hungry for New Techniques
13:02 Motivation vs. Abuse
14:46 Depression in The Restaurant Industry
17:14 Toxic Work Environments
19:25 US Culinary Schools Are Depressing
20:20 Kitchen Nightmares
21:28 3rd Course – Beef Wellington & Gin & Tonic
23:57 Wellington Criticism from Mrs. Ramsay
24:59 Get Drunk At Gordon’s Funeral
25:45 Gordon Is Too Busy To Think About Death
27:33 Chefs Have The Worst Eating Habits
28:15 Josh Almost Worked In Restaurants
30:16 Gordon Loves the Pressure
31:04 4th Course – Sticky Toffee Pudding & Deep Fried Mars Bar
32:40 Gordon’s Hardworking Mom
31:33 Lessons On Parenting
35:57 Connection Through Grief
36:58 Gordon’s Cooking Legacy
37:53 Who’s The One Person You’d Want To Share Your Last Meal With?
38:00 What Song Do You Want Played At Your Funeral?
38:13 Who Is The One Footballer You Wish You Could Have Slide-Tackled?
38:24 What’s Your Biggest Fear?
38:29 How Many Jamie Olivers Could You Beat In A Fight?
38:42 What’s Your Greatest Regret?
38:52 Which Burbank Parking Lot Would You Like To Wrestle Josh In?
39:20 Gordon’s Last Words

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Right, I’m Gordon Ramsay, and my last meal would be a full English breakfast. Butter chicken, chicken wings, and an In-N-Out burger. Beef Wellington with a delicious Monkey 47 Gin and Tonic. And then finally, a delicious sticky toffee pudding, deep fried Mars bar for dessert. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat, and we’re all gonna die. Today we’re joined by world renowned chef, television icon, recipient of 17 Michelin stars, and YouTube’s most controversial grilled cheesemaker. Gordon Ramsay, welcome to the show. You had to get that one in the end, didn’t you?

I, listen, you are one of the most successful chefs of all time, one of the most successful people of all time, and you still got punk kids like me taking the piss out of a single grilled cheese you made, and I apologize officially for that.

You’re like a sort of seventh kid, I didn’t know I had. Because you just come back and constantly irritate me. And rightly so with that grilled cheese. I’m not gonna explain the issues, but I was in the arse end of nowhere. I was up against the time.

And those little moments, would you believe, we sort of. We do in our downtime. But, I will admit it, live, for the first time, with you personally, it wasn’t good enough. Everybody, that’s emotional growth. Can we give it up for Gordon on that? I’m gonna blame Justin Mandel. Justin Mandel was supposed to be our, sort of, amazing, social media, hot, producing talent. And, man, he said, looks good, it looks good. And then when those comments started coming, I’m saying, Just, he said, yeah, dive for cover. Hide quickly.

Hey man, sometimes the dish just gotta go out. Also, if I’m your seventh kid, I didn’t receive a Christmas present this year, but that’s totally fine. We got next year. It’s coming. Alright, we are eating your last meal today. Is that something you’ve thought about before? So, not really.

I’m not a good person to sort of start talking about morbid death. And, every time I’ve gone to see grandparents, and, you know, uncles and aunts that are on their, sort of, death bed, God forbid. This meal’s always served through a bloody tube. So, I get asked this question multiple times.

You’re the first person that I’ve actually sat down and spoken about. So, I would like to celebrate my last meal a couple of years before I die. That’s a much smarter option. Just to sort of, you know, have a look at what the party’s gonna run like. Who’s getting inebriated? Who’s good?

Who’s bad? Who’s slagging me off? Who’s talking well? And also I think when it does finally happen, it’s going to be a massive celebration. I hope I get an invite to that even though I didn’t get one to the Christmas party. It’s coming. Gordon, for your first course, we have a full English breakfast. We have your own soft scrambled eggs with some fresh white winter truffle, ‘Tis the season, roasted cherry, tomatoes, fried bread, a hash brown or potato rosti as you might call it, back bacon, bangers, blood sausage, enjoy.

Man, I’m like a pig in shit right now. You and me both, dude. I swear to God. Just two pigs swimming around in shit. Man, first of all, my mum would kill me if she saw me putting white truffle on my scrambled eggs. She would kick my ass. Let’s get that absolutely clear.

I grew up in a council estate. I’m not too sure what the reference is in the U.S. Like government housing, yeah. Government housing. And scrambled eggs was a dream. And so, this reminiscence right back, you know, to sort of five, six years of age.

And you just woke up with the smell of bacon. Mum would bake bread. The thought of, you know, $250 a kilo white truffles on my scrambled egg, man, she would kick my ass. So I’m gonna tuck in. Your mom ain’t here right now, it’s just us, man. Yeah, uh, delicious, thank you.

That looks good. This is the Scottish diet, by the way. Okay, this is, this is something that, every time I go home to Scotland, I always get into a greasy spoon little cafe. And it’s a sort of, it’s, it’s, it’s a sort of happy

And a sad ending, because it takes me back, but the last breakfast I had, in Scotland was with my father. And it was sadly the last time before he, uh, died. But we just sat there eating an amazing full English breakfast. You grew up in council estates, you grew

Up desperately poor, your dad, for a large part of your life, was abusive and a deadbeat, and your mom tried her best to provide. You seem like you’ve found salvation through sports, through football. What lessons about mental toughness did you learn from that that you took into the cooking world?

Yeah, that’s a good question. I think that level of resilience. You know, when you know you just don’t have a choice to go back, you need to go forward. So that additional drive is self motivating. You dig deep and find gears that you felt you never had.

I had the added pressure of having a younger brother, 15 months apart, that was sadly getting into drugs. So that was a moment that I was reflecting, here’s the flip side of this. Yeah. If you don’t get your shit together, you could be, you know, like your father, and turn out

Like your kid brother. So, you take that negativity and you use that, you know, area and moment in your life to, to, to springboard. To get the hell out of there. And that sport connects, driving the team, captaining the team, being super on it, self motivated. Really plays well, especially when you’re

Running a business. No, absolutely. You’ve got to establish a leader. And I’ve always been a firm believer in dusting yourself down. So, what is it? What’s the problem? And, you know, come back to me with a solution. I actually, one of the chefs that really took

Me under his wing, Kris Morningstar, I hope you’re watching this, buddy. But he refused to hire kids from culinary school, only hired athletes. I mean, his CDC was a fullback at UCLA, his sous chef, now Food and Wine best new chef was a softball player because he was like athletes understand hierarchy

They understand what it means to be uncomfortable and they understand how to get through those situations with solutions. Today, you fast track, you know, 25 years later. Just the, just, just, just, the power of a chef today both, you know, male and female They are built like athletes

Marketing tools, peak of their game, physical fitness. And so I think chefs down the line will end up being like sports players, they’ll be traded, they’ll be, uh, bought, they’ll be signed. Because that’s the way it’s going, and that’s what they deserve. No, absolutely. I want to talk real quick about your brother.

You mentioned that he was younger than you, ended up being a heroin addict, living on the streets. You and him obviously grew up in roughly the same environment. Yeah. Do you think it’s nature, nurture, pure spirit of will, that you ended up a titan of industry, and he ended up on the streets?

Combination of both. Yeah. I think when you favor, a child. Within a family. He was my father’s blue eyed boy. And then when that letdown takes place, the ramification on his shoulders was devastating. So dad and him fell out. He tried to get into the army. He got caught stealing.

So he never progressed into those first rounds of that training. I think when you favor someone, and I always get asked, hey, you got six kids, who’s your favorite? It depends who I’m with. Yeah. Because we have our moments across that 12 month period where we get quality time together, one on one.

But you should never single one out in a large family and saying, that’s my favorite, because it could come back to bite you on the ass. Where do I rank in terms of your favorite children? You, right now, have just put one foot on the

Ladder because these truffles in the scrambled egg, this is delicious, by the way. Thank you. I was gonna say, don’t, don’t critique our food like you did with the Hot Ones wings, man, you tore them apart. Those wings were shit. And that was like sucking on my grandad’s toenails. They were that bad. Sean knew they were bad. Okay, and when you got a sauce like that, masking, that dried chicken, I said, next time around, I’ll supply the wings. Well hey, speaking of wings. We got course number two coming up. – [Josh] All right, Gordon, for course number two, we have butter chicken, we have garlic naan, we have basmati rice, we also have an In-N-Out Double-Double animal style, of course, and then we have some buffalo chicken wings. These have been wet brined overnight, a light flour

Dust, and then fried at 375 till crispy and juicy and way better than Hot Ones. Bloody amazing. I mean, seriously, honestly, this is just a heaven. I mean, even though I didn’t want to talk about my sort of funeral, now you give me an idea of a perfect

Menu, but I want to be there, as opposed to being laid in a [BLEEP] box that I can’t talk to anyone. So, that’s why we should do a rehearsal a year before. I kind of feel like you’re never gonna die though. I feel like you’ve been training your whole life to

Just one day meet death and tell him to go [BLEEP] himself. I’ve been close, you know. Yeah? Yeah, we’ve been, we’ve been knocking on death’s door a few times. I get a little bit, uh, knocky with the shiny floor stuff. I gotta get back to the reality of how I started

And those firm reminders of what it’s like being back at the coalface. So, I need to go off piste. And jumping out of a helicopter in the middle of the Amazon, Guyana, rappelling down a waterfall, 300 foot, and, you know, out hunting giant caiman at night

To eat and sauce and diving with great white sharks. There’s always that moment that I just love that, that, that moment, but you do have that, oh, shit moment as well at the same time. God. – [Josh] Yeah. This could have gone so horribly wrong. Hey, it’s a memento mori.

Remind yourself, you have to remind yourself of life. Please, dig in. I’ll eat wherever you eat. I’m gonna start with the burger. Because, these guys are incredible. The fact that everything’s sourced locally, they stay within California. It’s a perfect drive thru, you don’t get any hassle.

I bring the window down, I give them a little $100 bill as a big thank you, and I pick up my Double-Double. Yeah, heaven. Truly, it’s the best burger. I grew up eating this. Oh, God. Oh, man. Bloody hell. I mean, this is like delivered to set.

I mean, this is obviously 20 minutes, half an hour old, but like, it’s still so good. It’s amazing. And also, I took them as an inspiration. Where at my first burger store in Vegas. Everyone said, you’ll never work, you’ll never work. And so how do we come up with the difference?

How do we, how do we stand out from the crowd? So I used the Bankerman’s suite downstairs for about nine months. I had all these little miniature barbecues I started doing the blend with the chuck, rib, and then the secret and the turning point for me is when I started basting

These burgers in Devonshire butter and our Devonshire cows are full of fat and the grass and what they graze It’s just incredible. So, that dark yellow butter? Yeah, really, but when it caramelizes, Josh, over those coals, the flavor was just, like, this perfect beignoisette.

And that was what set our burgers apart in Vegas. And so still to this day, they’re brushed with this beautiful Devonshire butter. Um, yeah, incredible. In-N-Out, they’re brushing these with mustard on the animal style. God, that’s so good. Tell me about the fish head curry that you ate

With the Indian dishwashers in your first restaurant job when you were a teen. That got me to where I am today. And those moments in life when I’m sat with a bunch of amazing Pakistani men that were incredible kitchen porters. Night Chef, failed to turn up.

I was last in, so I was first to be called. I was absolutely screwed. Half past three in the morning, I was just coming to like the sort of 21st hour, four hours to go. Set all the trays up for breakfast. And the two guys, you know, grabbed me by

The T-shirt and said, hey, you gotta come and eat. I said, I can’t eat this time of the morning. I could smell this amazing curry coming from the staff canteen. Went in there, lights were down. There was water in plastic beakers and these bright orange cups.

And then they just hand me this, this incredible salmon head fish curry. I kid you not, it was a turning point, because I just could not believe I’m cooking in this five star hotel. The food is shit, and now with these kitchen porters, they’ve just given me one of the most flavorsome curries.

It was that moment. I was respectful, then wanted to start working more nights, after that, but when I left that shift, um, I picked up a catering magazine, one of our trade mags, and on the cover was Marco Pierre White. And still to this day, every time someone mentions curry,

And even to understand how to make one properly, I had to respect for the guys that really took care of me. I went to India, and whilst we were filming for the TV, but the real reason was to pay respect to those kitchen porters that made that salmon head fish curry,

Because that was a break that I never saw coming, and I seized the moment. Left at 8 o’clock in the morning. Ran over to the train station. Jumped on the shuttle. Got to Marco about half past nine. And told him that, I’d just finished an all nighter.

And, I want to work for you. Incredible, man. Well, please dig into our, butter chicken curry a la Burbank. Oh, my God. Uh, amazing. And the secret about this is the butter chicken is the tomato gravy. It’s fragrant. It’s got a nice sense of garam masala. And it’s not too rich.

Oh my god. I love that you talk about actually learning Indian technique because so many, especially fine dining chefs, who have all the Michelin stars. They talk about, I cook Thai flavors with French technique. Everything ends in with French technique, but to me, Indian technique, making the Tarka, like scorching the

Spices with the hot oil, it’s so unique and so endemic to why the cuisine is so good. Yeah, but also, there’s part medicinal, in terms of how they grew up. After coming out of Rajasthan, I went down to Kerala. Yeah. And I spent 10 days in an ashram.

And I thought I understood vegetarian cuisine, but oh my God, the local villages sent their kids to schooling there. And so the discipline with these 8, 9, 10 year old kids and the way they were cooking was incredible. That’s what I need to do, Josh.

And even though everyone thinks, you’re at the top, why are you doing this? No, I need to continue adding chapters and I can’t let go, especially the learning technique. So there’s something quite nice about being schooled, but also you have to have the humility to be downbeaten because it’s easy at the top.

Do you think you’re sort of, well, eat a chicken wing, eat a chicken wing. I’ll ask uncomfortable questions later. Do you think you’re sort of addicted to being downbeaten in that way? Because I mean, you grew up, sports tends to be a pretty abusive world, kitchens tend to be a pretty abusive world.

I guess depending on your definition of motivation versus abuse, but you had a line in your book Humble Pie, 2007, that said, with my dad, the abuse had no point, but with Marco Pierre White, the more he screwed you, the better you became. To you, what’s the difference between motivation

And abuse in that way? Yeah, it really depends on how you are, how you perceive that individually. I think there’s always something incredibly positive to come out of something wrong. And so, being on my ass in life, and having that sort of daunting, you know, thought.

Shit, can I get out of this council estate? Can I get away from, my dad? Can I better my life? Can I make a better life for my family? One day I didn’t even think about them. Because right, right then you’re selfish. You’re focused and so you’re driven.

And so, whether you’re on a basketball court, playing for the Lakers, or in a Super Bowl, or in a top five kitchen. The price to pay for that knowledge is ruthless. And the training ground before you get to those big moments is horrific. And so, you have to be prepared to take

The consequences. And with Marco, I took the consequences. But I never complained about that. And all that bullshit about him made me cry. We still laugh about it now, in terms of. And I told him, on many occasions, Marco, stop dining out on that one. And people asked what was he really like.

The guy was a genius. The guy was an absolute freaking genius. 19 years of age when I stood by his side, so. He was only what, 25, 26 at that time? Six years older than me, 25. God, that’s like a horse walking a dog. It’s incredible. Crazy. They are delicious. Thank you.

You’ve also said that the restaurant industry has lost too many chefs to addiction, suicide, depression. Those are all things that are called diseases of despair. And one of your chefs, David Dempsey, also suffered that fate. What is it about restaurants that uniquely foster those problems and also how do we fix it?

Yeah, God, that’s a tough question. First of all, you’re never gonna fix that overnight. – [Josh] Sure. I think the, the frustrating part is a bit like sport. Everyone thinks it’s a cool image and it’s a rock and roll image, but it’s not. It’s a trained, mentally, physically, adapted, you know, mindset.

And so those that can’t get there think that some controlled substance will help you get there. If you’d turn around and said to me the night, you know, we had dinner at Harvey Nichols, the night he died, I’d never have believed you. Because this guy was just so hyped and energetic and

Excited and I started to realize, you know, that he had issues, but nowhere near of that magnitude. And so, it’s not a rock and roll lifestyle. It’s a complete, controlled, disciplined environment. And we spoke earlier about the discipline of chefs today. It’s on par with athletes.

And so, a lot of individuals think that you need that substance because it’s rock and roll. to stay at that level, it’s absolute bullshit. – [Josh] Yeah. It’s the worst. And that’s the downside of the industry, because when they’re not making it, and they get depressed, and they

Get mentally scarred because they haven’t achieved what they set out to, no one’s managing their expectations. Yeah. And so, you can’t dream of playing in the Premier League unless you’re good enough to be in there. It’s the same as cooking. You can’t dream of cooking a three star unless

You’re cut out for that. And I think the sad thing is there’s no fast track. You don’t get catapulted overnight. There’s no such thing, in any success. And so, it’s rife in the industry and that’s what led me to make that documentary. And going to Honduras, Colombia, and then

Making that shit, and three star Michelin cocaine was just a real eye opener and scary. I mean, literally. Because it was, it was petrifying to how easy we made it. And to how quick we got it. And then to see 37.5 tons of it entering the UK. – [Josh] Unreal.

And I lose a chef because he’s taking a couple of grams, after we had dinner. Uh, yeah. Mortifying. It was interesting you said that one of the reasons people get depressed in kitchens and turn to substances like that is because simply they haven’t made it, they haven’t

Achieved, do you have any regrets with the way that you have acted say going back to the Boiling Point documentary? About the way that you’ve acted in high pressure situations. No, not at all. No regrets. Have I handled kitchens completely differently? Of course I have. I got trained like that.

So certainly not playing the victim. Didn’t know any better. Of course. Certainly couldn’t ever run a business. But boy could I cook my ass off. And the biggest thing I ever did when I won my third Michelin star was I stood back. Reflect, review, divide and conquer, hand the reins over.

You look at people like Alain Ducasse and sadly the late Joël Robuchon, they ain’t got four three star restaurants. They haven’t been anywhere near them for the last ten years. Yeah. And so, I go back to those days at, in Robuchon’s kitchen, and I thought Marco was tough.

This guy was an absolute nutbag. And if it wasn’t copper pans, it was plates and, the kitchen was a bit like this. We were all behind this line. There was 12 of us stuck behind there. And then opposite the hot plate was this toilet.

And, I was bursting for a pee, about half past nine. I hadn’t set the last table, and there was a key in the pass. And so, I grabbed the key, ran into the toilet, and came out, and, I got absolutely pummeled because it was the toilet for Michel Robuchon, and no staff were

Allowed to piss in there. And so I didn’t quite believe how sort of weird that was, that the cooks need to pee, but we had to go outside, down the, hallway, I thought I was just being super quick, but man, I got the biggest bollock in my

Entire life, and so at the time you didn’t think much of it, but it’s not until you reflect later on in life. You think Jesus Christ I’m getting screamed at because I pissed in the toilet. You know, I didn’t shit on the side and wipe my ass. I left him

Toilet paper, sprayed the aerosol can and so I did everything right, but yeah, and so are those kitchens changing dramatically? Is it the same in every three star? They’re all different. – [Josh] Yeah. And they have different ways of getting the best out of you.

You know, from Marco to you, down to people like Clare Smyth, hopefully with each successive generation it gets easier for those below you. But I mean, studying the sort of methods of the CIA and just how these culinary schools work over here is depressing, because these kids go into these culinary

Schools, they get sandbagged with 50, 60, sometimes 150, 200, thousand dollar loans. They come out after two or three years. They can’t take a job that they want to learn. They have to take a job to pay and rid the debts and so their career is sandbagged and that’s frustrating.

So we have to turn that on its head and these kids should be coming out of that. Three, six month, nine training schemes into businesses for their career, not to down grade their loans. Because it’s detrimental, it’s counterintuitive to the future of the industry.

I mean, for as many people as complain about your rough edges on TV, yelling at, you know, bullshit restaurant owners. – [Gordon] Yeah. You seem like you care so, so, so deeply about, one, the people in the industry succeeding, and two, the industry

As a whole, and I just, I deeply admire that. Yeah, it’s a tough one, isn’t it? Because Kitchen Nightmares, is a tough love scenario. And I’m screwed either way. When they’re successful and you relaunch, you don’t get praise. When they close and fail, you get blamed. Yeah.

But let’s not forget, they asked me in. And behind me, I’ve never ignored it, but I’ve got an amazing culinary team. There’s a great art team, there’s shit hot producers that really know their stuff. And we’ve done our homework before we get there.

I get in there, I have to eat shit foods, I’m telling them truthfully, and they’re looking at me like they’re a bit, wow, how can you be so rude? No, that’s not rude. I’m being honest with you. Get your shit together. And you can’t save everyone. I try so hard. Yeah.

I literally try so hard. I’ve been accused of carrying mice in my pocket to sticking a mouse in [BLEEP] That’s what that was. I thought you were just happy to see me, Gordon. No, no, no, no. But, and then, all sorts, accused of, you know, um, fire alarms being set.

I mean, the shit we get from that show, I walk away and I’m like, get the Pepto Bismol out. Start, uh, start working on the, uh, on the, the stomach ulcers quickly. Ready for course number three? There’s more food? Oh, there’s so much more.

Jesus Christ, this is not a funeral, this is a feast. Gordon, for course number three, we have your beef wellington. We cooked it exactly to your specifications. We have a tenderloin cooked to medium rare, surrounded by mushroom duxelles, wrapped in prosciutto, wrapped in a chive crepe, and then wrapped in glazed puff pastry, a

Little bit of flake salt and thyme on top, and of course a red wine demi on the side. Then we have your Monkey 47 Gin and Tonic, made with Mediterranean tonic water. And a fresh lime wheel. Mate, it looks majestic. – [Josh] Thank you so much.

– [Gordon] I mean, honestly, this thing lost its way, back in the 90s. And so when we first opened Claridge’s, early 2000, I wanted to sort of be a little bit more, sort of, disruptive with the retro. And I’m fed up with that old fart mentality that nothing should change.

Our job was to change it. And so, this thing imploded. I remember the general manager turning around and saying, You got a 21 pound lunch menu. You’re degrading the hotel. It’s too cheap. And I said, No, no. We’re filling the hotel. This place is a ghost town.

We’re filling it and this was on the menu and it was absolutely flying out and now It’s a wellington sensation. I mean the amount of shit that I get on my phone with wellingtons, some of them look like my granddad’s slippers. Some of them look like the inside my granddad’s

Underpants. But the other ones look beautiful and this I can tell you now looks stunning. I give all credit to Trevor. Trevor actually did this I just sat back and watched. Shall I? Absolutely, please. Beautiful. So, it’s funny because, the chef’s cut is this cut, the first cut. – [Josh] Yeah.

Okay, because that’s the bit with a little beef in there. And we can’t give that to the customer because that’s the bit that’s always sandwiched. But we used to save those bits for the end of service. And then just sit there at the end of the, evening and eat the wellington ends.

This is beautiful. I mean, absolutely beautiful. – [Josh] Wow. Whoever made this, I swear to God, I mean, look at that, baby. That is beautiful. One of my favorite restaurant memories is, served a, private dinner and we had about 50 mason jars that were filled with, uh, foie gras torchon and

We took it all out and I was instructed to scrape it all out into a large bowl. Thank you so much. And then we just took leftover biscuits and we sat there drinking the dregs of bottles of wine and swiping biscuits in foie gras torchon.

See, oh my God, we used to do a beautiful foie gras sauce with chicken wings and then for our dinner at Harvey’s with Marco and we used to eat the dregs of the sauce and the chicken wings and that’s why from the age of 19 I loved chicken wings

And then this looks beautiful. Dig in. Oh my goodness. Thank you. – [Josh] A bit of red wine demi on the side, of course. Amazing. Beef cooked beautifully. It’s funny, I remember getting my mum up to the launch at, the, restaurant at Claridge’s,

And I made one of these for her, and she sent it back. I’m sat there in the kitchen, and there’s like 45 chefs, and they’re, Mrs.Ramsay table one. I said, what? What do you mean? She’s joking? She’s taking the piss? She said, no, she wants it more cooked. I’m like, for sake.

I don’t want beef with blood in it, Gordon. I need beef with flavor. I’m like, mom, you can’t overcook a wellington. She said, well, then don’t serve it to me. I’m like, oh my God. Michelin critics got nothing on Mrs. Ramsay, damn. Honestly, no.

And she was staying, they very kindly put her up in the penthouse suite. And she got into the suite. And the butler was knocking on the door and said, Mrs. Ramsay, can I run your bath? And she said, certainly not, I can run my own.

So she had no idea that we were trying to look after her. But that’s what moms are like, right? Yeah, I love that. I mean, the working class roots, man. You can tell it in your blood. This is delicious. Seasoned beautifully. Oh my God. Man. I took too big of a bite.

Cheers, man. Monkey 47. There’s a gin called Gordon’s that I’m not a big fan of. And so, I went on that gin trail and 47 has got the sort of tannins and the spice and it’s just just an amazing way to sit and enjoy a gin and tonic.

I want people to get absolutely paralytic at my funeral. I want to make sure there’s cars for them all, SUVs to take them home. I don’t want anyone catching, uh, the bus or the train. And I want them carried out of my funeral wake. Gordon, that is one thing that I can absolutely

Guarantee you, I will bring to your funeral. I will bring the paralytic drunkenness. I once showed up to a Hanukkah party with a beer bong and six bottles of Manischewitz, and they were gone, and that funnel was stained purple. Believe me you. I don’t think of dying. I’m 57, I’ve just turned 57.

I feel better, stronger than I did at 37. But surely it’s gonna come for you one day. I mean, not in the near distant future, Josh. Do you know something I don’t? No, like, you know, I know that we all struggle with mortality, and I know that some people really bury

Themselves in work, and they bury themselves in the shit, the pain, the suffering, to distract themselves from death. I’m not saying you’ve been doing that. No, I find the balance. I find the balance. My escape is either doing triathlons, and half marathons, uh, marathons, Ironman, and then the

Guilty pleasure is diving, because then you are 30, 40 meters under, you’ve got great visibility, and you’re answering to nobody. And it’s the best feeling in the world, you’re just hearing your breath, nice and slow, looking at the depth, checking the gauge, and then just looking for the next big shark.

So you never meditate on the idea of death, I mean you are surrounded by it constantly with the sharks and the narcos and all that, but do you ever actually meditate on the idea of death, on what your legacy is going to be, on what the feeling of nothingness is? No. No.

Do you have any idea how busy I am, Josh? I’m saying that’s by design, yeah, of course. Yeah, I know, but we find the balance. Sure, sure, sure. You have way too much time on your hands, young man. You’re right. You need to work harder and get some more wrinkles on your face.

Alright dude, sign me up to work as a commis in one of your restaurants, because I’m sick of thinking about death. I just want to grind at this point. Listen, we’re all going to die, somewhere down the line. I’d like it to be a quick, painless death. But, I we’ve just extended the

Family, you including, and so now two SUVs going out to dinner and the shops. So I think. I call shotgun. Just, finding that balance and eating properly. Because chefs have the world’s worst eating habits, because we graze. And any chef that would tell you that we sit down and eat

Dinner before we go and cook dinner is absolute bullshit. Trash raccoons. Yeah, but just, just literally, trash raccoons. A trash raccoon. You’re a little raccoon roaming around the kitchen, grabbing things with your little claws, eating them over the trash. They [BLEEP] stink raccoons. Chef’s stink? Are you kidding me?

Yeah, but that’s, that’s B.O. That’s, that’s after a hard night’s sweat, right? So we graze. We graze four or five times a day, tiny bowls. And I’m a firm believer in going into service on your toes, like ballerinas. Nimble, on it, fast moving, and tasting everything. Then, you perfect. Yeah.

You’d make a great chef. Yeah? Thank you. I’d, honestly, I was choosing between going into the restaurant world and going into the media world and had it not been for a relationship that I was in at the time where I decided I wanted comfortability, I would have jumped into the restaurant world and

Then I always wondered the alternate reality, what would have happened? What do you think would have happened if you would have been a footballer? Yeah, I mean, that sadly got taken away from me at an early age. And then, of course, you know, in your early

30s, you’re sort of, you know, you’re out, and the career’s done. You’ve got sort of 10 to 12 years at that level, so, you gotta make it. But I was more worried about a girl I was seeing at the age of 19 when, I’d just got to London.

And she said, I’ve got you a great job, and it’s, it’s working for one of the banks, and it’s seven till three as the head chef. I’m like, what? Corporate dining, seven to three, you’ve got weekends off and seven nights a week.

Don’t be a chef if you want to take that role. Don’t, don’t, don’t do that. Learn that craft, but, I did think, do you sacrifice the relationship that you’re in love with this amazing girl, for your career? So you sacrifice that moment in a relationship. Otherwise, you could be running a three star

Michelin restaurant today. And all I got is this show! Thanks so much for stopping by! No, no, but one more question. But is that, you pinned it on the personal relationship that you couldn’t sort of dedicate that time. Through the lens of that relationship, it was a different person

That I thought I wanted to be. I tried to suppress those parts of me that loved being constantly under pressure, that loved the intensity I tried to convince myself that I was somebody who, no, I should, I should live with balance. That is not for everybody. I dropped out of college.

I could not, once my sports eligibility was up. I couldn’t bring myself to go to class. I’ve tried working a full desk job in two hours there, and it is literally physically torturous my skin crawls, but when I’m working the line, when I’m in a weight room, when I’m

Doing conditioning. It’s the happiest I am, my mind goes blank and I can just move. It’s almost like you’re in a fugue state. It feels natural. Yeah, that’s interesting because I absolutely adore pressure. – [Josh] Yeah. And whether it’s going live, whether it’s cooking,

You know, an amazing event, or whether it’s behind the line at a three star Michelin, and you’re just, all of a sudden, you’re conducting this orchestra of utter perfection. And there’s those moments that are sort of captivating, that you know it doesn’t get any better than this.

And that sacrifice is all coming in to these last three or four minutes, when it’s just all coming onto that plate, and this canvas just, just takes on a whole new meaning. You need to be absolutely driven and semi selfish. And that’s, that’s hard for people to accept.

Selfish, yeah, because you’ve got to get from A to B and then B jumps very quickly to D. F, G, if you get it right. Gordon, for your final course of the final meal of your life, we have sticky toffee pudding with a perfect vanilla ice cream quenelle on top, a little bit of edible flour, and then the complete opposite, a deep fried Mars bar served on newspaper, aka fish wrap.

Man, honestly, I want to find out, which knobhead, put together a deep fried Mars bar. Just when Scotland was breaking through and becoming a sort of pillar in European cuisine, some idiot comes up with a deep fried Mars bar. Guaranteed they were pissed as a fart.

Got home one night, thought they were getting some fish fingers from the bloody fryer. It was frozen Mars bars, and they decided to coat it in some batter and deep fried it. But this thing blew up in Scotland and became Almost like a staple in the Scottish diet. Unreal.

And so you put it on your menu for your last meal out of spite. Yeah. Just to, just to realign the Scottishness in me. But, uh, it’s a crazy idea. And it’s just, it’s sort of like a Snickers bar, but look at that. I mean, honestly. – That is. – No.

That, I mean. No. No, no. Look at that. I mean Gordon, cheers, buddy. Um, cheers, my man. Cheers. [BLEEP] Disgusting. I want to find that little asshole who put that thing together and give him a kick up the ass, because just when we’re breaking through with the beautiful venison, hand dived scallops from the west coast of Scotland, beautiful Dublin Bay prawns, amazing whiskey. This [BLEEP] idiot puts a deep fried Mars bar together.

Watch your ass, Gordon’s coming for you. Man. This, however, the sticky toffee pudding, this, reminds me, of mum. A prolific, amazing chef. It’s funny isn’t it, when you grow up and you watch mum have three jobs and you think, mum, why are you working so hard? You end up actually doing the same.

Because it’s in your DNA. And, Christmas Day morning, you know, we wake up, we want to open a couple of presents that we’ve got, and mum’s not finished work. But this was the one go to dessert that she always did for our special birthdays. Incredible. And it’s, it is, it is incredible.

Yeah, we did a little bit of scotch in the caramel. As in, I have heard you like to reconnect with your Scottish roots through the fine delicacies, so we put some scotch in the caramel. Delicious. I mean, it’s just absolute heaven. I think I would like to put this dessert inside that coffin.

The ancient Egyptians used to do that for good luck. Is that right? There you go. Talking about your mom making this dish, you now, of course, are raising a very large family of your own. I think you can take a lot of good lessons from bad behaviors.

What did you learn from your dad about how not to father? That dreadful word, when they turn around and say, I told you so. And so, that’s the condescending, you know, bullshit that you never want to tell your kids. Six amazing kids, we’re incredibly lucky. And all I’ve taught our children is that,

You know, find your passion, find your way. And do with fame, fortune, money. They all work. Meg, our eldest, is an amazing police officer. Jack is in the Royal Marines. And so he’s, you know, dedicating his life to, the Marines. Tilly’s at university. Holly’s into fashion. Oscar’s playing Herod in a nativity play.

He had, he had, he had two words to say in his play, and he balls them up, because he spotted, he spotted his mum, and then obviously Jess is months old. But I always say, the earlier you tell me, the more I can do.

And so, unlike my father, I didn’t have a close relationship with him. He was always the condescending type, I told you so. Kids want to hear, what have we got? How do we salvage? And what’s the comeback? And honestly, that comeback for me has been my life.

Because that journey upwards has been one of the most exciting journeys. Because I still feel like I’m coming back from that moment. And every time I teach these kids a lesson, and we’re allowed. to make tiny mistakes, but just don’t repeat that mistake. That’s beautiful. It’s like, simultaneously having that empathy, but

Also that drive to push them. Because if you wanted to, you could have raised, I think there’s a British saying, toffee nosed? Yeah. Toffee nosed little, uh, little kids? Yeah, little shits. Yeah, no. Funny thing is, when we used to start traveling and, you know, sitting in, amazing business or first class, I’d

Always say to them, think what you could do with the money when you get there. We’ll get you on together. We’re all bloody getting off. And if you think we’re paying, you know, $10,000 for a business class ticket because you’re a Ramsay, forget it. Get, turn right.

Every time they got their allowance every month, a couple hundred dollars, if they saved that up, across the 12 month period, I would match that at Christmas for them. And they’d got to stay true to their form by saving every dollar, uh, and so when

You start that practice at sort of 10, 11, 12, 13, they got their part time jobs, all of a sudden their minds are focused about their career paths. And so, yeah, that was the opposite way that I grew up. And so, they are super disciplined and they are on it, man.

I’m also curious what you learned about the strength of your family from the death of your unborn son who passed at 20 weeks in the womb. Yeah, that was awful. That kind of, uh, situation, was devastating. And it was, incredibly moving to see the tightness.

And then, you know, any, any woman having to experience that was just awful. But what it did do, it made us incredibly closer. And so, we’d never have Oscar had we not lost, you know, Rocky. And so, now with Jesse. And so, you know, there’s, there’s positivity coming

Out of that, but it’s just amazing how you, you bond. That room, we’re closed, it was, no interruptions, and we just had that moment together as a family. And those moments are powerful, because it unites, and it’s, it was a touching moment. And every time someone meets our kids, they

Always say, my God, I can’t believe they’re so normal. Yeah, they are, beyond normal, humble, and uh, I suppose the only worry I’ve got is that no one wants to cook for a living. I think I’ve scared the shit out of them all, so it’s like.

Wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on! What if you had another son who said just express regret about maybe not cooking for a living? So there you go, so there you go, but uh, uh, Tilly’s sort of. How does your hair go like that? Tilly’s, Tilly’s, Tilly’s getting there, but, they

Have an amazing appreciation for life and, and, and, and respect, but when they go to the restaurants without us, they are super polite. And I was desperate to realign myself with a family that was the opposite to what I grew up with. And so everything I saw and witnessed, I did the

Opposite with my family. I’ll say when death finally does come knocking on your door, know that all seven of your children, stand on their own two feet. Gordon, you ready to get in the lightning round? Uh, yes. What is that lightning round? What is that?

I’d just like to ask you a couple questions. It’ll go fast. It’ll go fast. Other than me, who’s the one person dead or alive you’d share your actual last meal with? Oh God, that’s a tough one. It’s gotta be my wife. What song do you want played at your funeral?

It’s gotta be Adele, Set Fire to the Rain. Cause that’s, that’s, that’s been my life. Yeah. It’s hot, uh, boisterous, uh, and bloody exciting. And I’m there, rip shit off gin. Who’s the one footballer you wish you could have slide tackled?

Uh, I did it once in the back garden, on New Year’s Eve, one night, with David. Uh, yeah, I would say David Beckham. Love that. What’s your biggest fear? My biggest fear is getting old. How many Jamie Olivers could you beat in a fight? If you need clarifying, answers on that,

I can tell you. But how many Jamie Olivers could you beat in a fight? Oh, I’d give him a nine round head start and tie both hands behind my back. I’m not worried about him. Jesus. What’s your greatest regret in life? My greatest regret in life, not doing a sub ten hour Ironman. There’s still time. Mate, there is. There is. Which Burbank parking lot would you want to wrestle me in? Who wrote that question? Who wrote that question? That wasn’t me. You got your choice.

Bob’s Big Boy, 7-Eleven, Pinocchio’s Italian Deli, you choose, I’m there. I would do it on the counter of In-N-Out Burger, yeah, with a Double-Double each side. Gordon, thank you so much man, incredible conversation. It was. Thanks, bro. Of course, and everybody, make sure to check out Gordon’s

YouTube channel, check out his new show, Idiot Sandwich, I’m on there, cooking sandwiches with Rhett and Link, and what a hell of a time that was. Before then, Gordon, if you want to say your last words to that camera right there. Uh, my God, my last words, uh, you know, I’ve eaten so

Much food, honestly, right now, I need a big shit. The man, the chef, the poet, the TV icon, Gordon Ramsay, everybody, thank you again so much, man, this was incredible. Everybody, thank you so much for stopping by, you know the deal. Really well done, everybody, honestly. – [Josh] Face the reality of mortality head on with our new Last Meals hat and tee, available now at mythical.com