Quotes
61 Motivational Gordon Ramsay Quotes to Make It to the Top
These are some of Gordon Ramsay’s most inspirational and famous quotes, on hard work, cooking, success and getting back up after criticism. Gordon Ramsay is a TV personality, chef, and writer born in Johnstone, Scotland. His most well known work is from the show ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ as a restaurant critic, in the attempt to push and help restaurant owners to make their restaurants the best in the business. Gordon is also known for ‘Hotel Hell’ and the ‘MasterChef’ series.
Check out these inspirational Gordon Ramsay quotes on his career as a chef, and life advice for hard work!
Here are 60 Motivational Gordon Ramsay Quotes:
Gordon Ramsay Quotes: Hard Work and Standards
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1. “Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up.” – Gordon Ramsay
2. “The secret is to make sure the business is running to perfection, with or without me.” – Gordon Ramsay
3. “When I get angry, I’m just being honest, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be any different. I, like any good chef, want everything to be perfect.” – Gordon Ramsay
4. “My mum doesn’t enjoy sometimes listening to me tell staff off, and I say to my mum, it’s a kitchen, not a hair-dressing salon.” – Gordon Ramsay
5. “All four of the children have grown up with that respect, and that, hey, if you want something in your life, you work hard for it.” – Gordon Ramsay
6. “What I’ve instilled in the kids, from day one, is a work ethic. So, the time we spend together is limited, but it’s quality.” – Gordon Ramsay
7. “The busier I got, the fitter I got. I think it’s the same in science, in the way that you need to be disciplined to take that time out, spend 90 minutes every other day processing what you got and what you’re doing. I think a lot of the bike, I think a lot on a swim, I think a lot on the run and that’s really good, important time for me.” – Gordon Ramsay
8. “Focus on your customers and make that restaurant synonymous to where you are in terms of area.” – Gordon Ramsay
9. “One lesson to any young chef out there: never mix family with business.” – Gordon Ramsay
10. “Swearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.” – Gordon Ramsay
11. “The minute you start compromising for the sake of massaging somebody’s ego, that’s it, game over.” – Gordon Ramsay
12. “I don’t run restaurants that are out of control. We are about establishing phenomenal foot-holdings with talent.” – Gordon Ramsay
13. “If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that’s exactly what I did.” – Gordon Ramsay
14. “I think pressure’s healthy, and very few can handle it.” – Gordon Ramsay
15. “Being assertive and somewhat really firm has to be backed up with being fair.” – Gordon Ramsay
16. “What’s frustrating more than anything is when chefs start to cut corners and believe that they are incognito in the way they send out appetizers, entrees, and they know it’s not 100 percent, but they think the customers can’t spot it.” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay Quotes: Inspiration, Success and Ambition
17. “Two key ingredients in any successful chef: a quick learner and someone with a sharp brain.” – Gordon Ramsay
18. “That journey of coming back to the very top is better than actually being at the top. You find out so much about yourself and who your friends are.” – Gordon Ramsay
19. “Anyone can open a restaurant. You just need a dinner party where everyone’s pissed and someone says, ‘Hey Tom, you should open a restaurant, this food’s delicious.’” – Gordon Ramsay
20. “I cook, I create, I’m incredibly excited by what I do, I’ve still got a lot to achieve.” – Gordon Ramsay
21. “I am a chef who happens to appear on the telly, that’s it.” – Gordon Ramsay
22. “I’d like to think I’m a great teacher.” – Gordon Ramsay
23. “I suppose your security is your success and your key to success is your fine palate.” – Gordon Ramsay
24. “Initially let your food do the talking. You’ll be surprised how far you go in a short period of time.” – Gordon Ramsay
25. “We are about creating a new wave of talent. We are the Manchester United of kitchens now. Am I playing full-time in the kitchen? I am a player-coach.” – Gordon Ramsay
26. “I’m not trying to take New York by storm. I just want to sneak in there, keep my head down, batten down the hatches and cook.” – Gordon Ramsay
27. “I still love football, though, and I think cooking is like football. It’s not a job, it’s a passion. When you become good at it, it’s a dream job and financially you need never to worry, ever.” – Gordon Ramsay
28. “Push your limit to the absolute extreme.” – Gordon Ramsay
29. “I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I’m too busy looking for the next cow.” – Gordon Ramsay
30. “You don’t come into cooking to get rich.” – Gordon Ramsay
31. “Best to start at the bottom & gradually climb up. It’s much more fun, too.” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay Quotes: Cooking, Chefs and Excellence
32. “I spend more time in the kitchen than I have in the dining room, for obvious reasons, however, I just want to sit and indulge.” – Gordon Ramsay
33. “Stopping the junk food and eating well is partially about cooking well and having the skills to do that.” – Gordon Ramsay
34. “There’s a bond among a kitchen staff, I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.” – Gordon Ramsay
35. “First of all, for me, the secret is in the ingredients. You don’t need to start spending fortunes on organic foods and start becoming way over budget. The better the ingredient, the littler that needs doing to it.” – Gordon Ramsay
36. “In order to create a little bit of confidence, start cooking with pasta. Pasta is phenomenal. Once you’ve cooked pasta properly for the first time it becomes second nature.” – Gordon Ramsay
37. “My childhood favorite is mum’s shepherd’s pie, Yorkshire pudding, and roasted potatoes. I remember coming home from school and going to the kitchen to help her. it’s because of her that I discovered my love for cooking.” – Gordon Ramsay
38. “There’s a bond among kitchen staff, I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.” – Gordon Ramsay
39. “Cooking is about passion, so it may look slightly temperamental in a way that it’s too assertive to the naked eye.” – Gordon Ramsay
40. “Eating out doesn’t have to be a formula. Eating out is about having fun. I get really frustrated when it’s badly done.” – Gordon Ramsay
41. “Cooking a dish is fine; cooking it under pressure is a completely different ballgame.” – Gordon Ramsay
42. “When you cook under pressure, you trade perfection.” – Gordon Ramsay
43. “I shoot from the hip.” – Gordon Ramsay
44. “On the personal front, obviously, you know, this industry fragments a lot of families. If there’s one thing I’ve learned with my children, teaching them how to cook early on in life has brought them closer to my industry. So if they’re gonna follow it as a career, they know how to cook.” – Gordon Ramsay
45. “Kitchens are hard environments and they form incredibly strong characters.” – Gordon Ramsay
46. “So when people ask me, What do you think of Michelin? I don’t cook for the guide, I cook for customers.” – Gordon Ramsay
47. “However amazing a dish looks, it is always the taste that lingers in your memory. Family and friends will appreciate a meal that tastes superb, even if you’ve brought the pan to the table.” – Gordon Ramsay
48. “Put the emotion in the food, because it’s so much more rewarding down the line.” – Gordon Ramsay
49. “When you’re a chef, you graze. You never get a chance to sit down and eat. They don’t actually sit down and eat before you cook. So when I finish work, the first thing I’ll do, and especially when I’m in New York, I’ll go for a run. And I’ll run 10 or 15k on my — and I run to gain my appetite.” – Gordon Ramsay
50. “Being a chef never seems like a job, it becomes a true passion.” – Gordon Ramsay
51. “I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay Quotes: Criticism and Resilience
52. “I’ve been on my arse before, but I have a lot of determination, and I’m not weak.” – Gordon Ramsay
53. “I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.” – Gordon Ramsay
54. “Stop taking things personally. Throughout the time with ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and ‘Hotel Hell,’ when they work, you don’t get any praise. When they fail, you get blamed.” – Gordon Ramsay
55. “I’ve never been one for pondering or questioning and thinking. Waste of time. Dust yourself down and get back up.” – Gordon Ramsay
56. “I am what I am. A fighter.” – Gordon Ramsay
57. “Stop taking things personally.” – Gordon Ramsay
58. “I’m Gordon Ramsay, for goodness sake; people know I’m volatile.” – Gordon Ramsay
59. “Find what’s hot, find what’s just opened and then look for the worst review of the week. There is so much to learn from watching a restaurant getting absolutely panned and having a bad experience. Go and see it for yourself.” – Gordon Ramsay
60. “They say cats have nine lives. I’ve had 12 already and I don’t know how many more I’ll have.” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay Quotes: Frequently Asked Questions
What are Gordon Ramsay’s most inspirational quotes?
Three that sum up his attitude: “Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up.” “Push your limit to the absolute extreme.” And on setbacks: “Dust yourself down and get back up.”
What does Gordon Ramsay say about cooking?
For Ramsay, it starts with ingredients: “The better the ingredient, the littler that needs doing to it.” He also says “it is always the taste that lingers in your memory,” and that “Being a chef never seems like a job, it becomes a true passion.”
What does Gordon Ramsay say about hard work?
Work ethic is the theme he returns to most, including with his own children: “What I’ve instilled in the kids, from day one, is a work ethic.” His advice to young cooks is just as direct: “If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs.”