As any Google search will show, Gordon Ramsay is as synonymous with Hell’s Kitchen as Alicia Keys, Marvel Comics — and W42ST. Now, those ties could get a brick-and-mortar address. The fiery chef has thrown his support behind the proposed Caesars Palace Times Square casino, which is still winding its way through a high-stakes approval process. If the bid succeeds, Ramsay is ready to bring one of his restaurants to the heart of Times Square. We caught up with him to find out why he’s backing Caesars’ gamble and what it might mean for the neighborhood that shares a name with his famous brand.
Gordon Ramsay still remembers his first trip to New York. It was New Year’s Eve 1999, and he and his wife Tana jumped on a plane to celebrate with Daniel Boulud. “New York’s always been a huge source of inspiration,” he told W42ST. “The sort of closeness it has with Glasgow, London — that competitive edge. We were brought here early with the Savoy Group … and you get your first real insight into how competitive, how feisty a city it is. It clearly doesn’t sleep, but, man, it keeps you on your toes.”
The chef who turned Hell’s Kitchen into a global TV juggernaut and fine-casual brand is eyeing his boldest Manhattan move yet: joining the Caesars Palace Times Square bid with a new restaurant. He’s not settled on the concept — Ramsay’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay Steak, or the full “Hell’s Kitchen” experience are all on the table — but the pull of our neighborhood is obvious. “Hell’s Kitchen would be a dream… The steakhouse too — I’ve really understood and mastered how well they do steakhouses in America, it’s theater,” he said, before flashing the line: “But come on — Hell’s Kitchen. Rub your shoulders with Hell’s Kitchen, man, that’d be like a pig in shit, Phil.”
The name that made him a household figure started far from 9th Avenue. “One of the ITV producers said, ‘Gordon’s going to hell with a bunch of celebrities — let’s call it Hell’s Kitchen and go for it,’” he recalled of the 2004 UK series — broadcast live for 16 nights. “Absolute hell,” he laughed. “Within a week of that series going out, Fox phoned and said, ‘We want Hell’s Kitchen in America’… That was the birth of Hell’s Kitchen on Fox.”
For Ramsay, the words never felt like branding so much as biography. “Hell’s Kitchen for me is very similar to the sort of streets in Port Glasgow, Greenock, Gourock and Dennistoun where I grew up,” he said. “That sort of nitty gritty, real graft. You were unspoiled, grateful for everything you got, and you complained about zero.”
He does get to walk our streets — stealthily. “I always put my baseball cap on, glasses, scarf around my neck, and refuse to open my mouth so no one recognizes me,” he said. “If I spoke, everyone would know instantly.”
Times Square is already part of his New York story. In late 2022, he opened Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips just off the Crossroads of the World. “It got off to a great start,” he said. “It’s quintessentially a tiny little kiosk. We do a lot of to-go there… It’s great.”
Ramsay’s relationship with Caesars runs deep. He grinned at the memory of choosing Las Vegas for his wife’s milestone celebration this year: “Even on the eve of her 50th birthday at Caesars Palace, I still managed to squeeze in a tasting. I can’t help myself.” He’s been working with the company for years — Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas opened in 2011, then came Gordon Ramsay Burger and Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen in front of Caesars Palace in 2018 — and he’s still tickled by how the burger skeptics were proved wrong. “They said, ‘You’ll last two weeks — what Brit’s gonna cook a burger in Vegas?’ We did a beautiful blend of chuck, brisket and rib… brushed with Devonshire butter… Two and a half thousand burgers a day later,” he said. “It’s one of the busiest spots on the Strip.”
What would Caesars Palace Times Square mean for New York? He doesn’t shy from the debate. “Some will be skeptical and say it’s an intrusion,” he acknowledged. “But what that will do to surrounding businesses and the footfall in that area will reignite excitement. It is a bit of a holy grail, a landmark address… every decade, every 15 years, it needs oxygen, it needs revival, and I think we can do that in abundance, especially with something as iconic as Caesars Palace.”
There’s sentiment baked into it, too. “Growing up… watching those early fights on a black-and-white TV in a council estate — ‘live from Caesars Palace’ — that was just a dream,” he said. Planting that brand at the center of New York “will be like one of the most impeccable tides coming in and floating everything else up around us, because the knock-on effect will be incredible.” And the partnership appeals to his sense of service: “They give so much back… If we can do that for some of those neighborhoods surrounding Times Square, that’s the legacy, the torch we can ignite.”
He bristles — warmly — at the “celebrity chef” tag. “Trust you to kick off with a question that kicks me right in the nuts,” he joked when I asked if that’s what he is now. The answer that followed was classic Ramsay: self-aware and dead serious about restaurants. “I always think of the TV chefs in the ’90s — behind those personas there were no restaurants. I came from a restaurant background and mastered my craft… Restaurants are where I’m happiest.”
