Explaining the weirdly one-sided feud between 2 of the world’s most famous chefs
World-famous French chef Eric Ripert, whose flagship New York restaurant Le Bernardin has held three Michelin stars since 2005, has once again spewed his disdain against a particular chef and TV personality, Gordon Ramsay.
On Monday, Ripert fired yet another angry missive at the “Hell’s Kitchen” host, in what can only be described as a one-sided feud that has been going on for 14 years.
“I see on television some programs with some chefs that are promoting verbal abuse, stupid attitudes … well I’m going to say his name: Gordon Ramsay,” Ripert said on the radio show “Here & Now.” “I mean, what is he doing? What is the production company behind him doing? What is the TV network supporting that, what are they doing? It’s not the right thing to do. And each time I have an opportunity, I give it to Gordon.”
Ripert’s resentment toward Ramsay, at least publicly, goes back to 2010, when he told Philadelphia Inquirer food critic Craig LaBan, “‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is a scandal. I’m mad at Gordon because … I cannot believe they are promoting violence and humiliation [on his show]. That’s not the inspiration we want to give young chefs.”
Ramsay, the British chef whose eponymous London restaurant also has three Michelin stars, rose to commercial success by yelling at, demeaning and generally unleashing his fiery temper on restaurant workers and owners on his two reality shows, “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares.” Ripert, too, has ventured into TV as a frequent guest and judge on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef,” though his on-screen persona couldn’t be more different than Ramsay’s.
A practicing Buddhist, Ripert has regularly publicly denounced the glorification of the angry, dictatorship style of managing a professional kitchen. He trained in those settings, he said in the “Here & Now” interview, and even admitted that he used to engage in that managerial style early in his career — “emulating his mentors,” he said. However, one night, he had a “duh, wake up moment” and decided he no longer wanted to perpetuate the angry chef stereotype.
This isn’t new behavior for Ripert. Over the years, he has ripped TV executives for even creating shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares.” In 2011, at Symphony Hall in Boston, he and his late friend Anthony Bourdain spoke to a crowd about myriad happenings in the world of chefs. Ramsay once again came up.
“I’m scandalized by Ramsay’s treatment of people,” he told Bourdain. “At home or in work or in your car, who likes to be insulted? Who likes to be humiliated?”
In 2010, Ripert took to Twitter and said Ramsay is “a poor inspiration for professional chefs.” In 2012, he followed that up by saying Ramsay is “inspiring chefs to act like idiots” during an interview on stage with Bourdain in Tampa, Florida.
For all of Ripert’s scrutiny of Ramsay, the British chef has never publicly retaliated against Ripert. But he has sounded off on other detractors. Ramsay has publicly criticized or responded to several others who spoke out against him, including Bourdain, Marcus Samuelsson, Jamie Oliver, his former mentor Marco Pierre White and Mario Batali.
In 2016, ABC News reached out to Ramsay about Ripert’s views of him but did not hear back. SFGATE also sent a message to Gordon Ramsay’s press contact but did not hear back in time for publication.
