Gordon Ramsay has candidly revealed that three of his own family members are his “toughest critics” while joking that his youngest son is his “only hope” for having a chef in the family.
The celebrity chef, who’s known for his blunt comments and fiery temper on TV, discussed his family and career during a recent interview with British GQ. When asked who his toughest critics are, he admitted it’s none other than his daughters, who he shares with spouse Tana Ramsay.
“I’d say my girls Tilly, Holly and Megan,” he said. “I’m so proud of them, but f*** me… 21, 23 and 24. They have no problem putting me in my place.”
When asked if his daughters plan to pursue a career in cooking, Ramsay said “no,” before explaining that it’s because they need to find their own “passion”. However, he joked that this means the youngest of his five children, Oscar, may be the only one to follow in his footsteps.
“They needed to find their passion, and I couldn’t be prouder knowing that they have,” he explained. “I suppose my son Oscar (aged three at the time) is my last hope of having a chef in the family. I’ve started putting him to bed with a f***ing whisk and a ladle.”
Along with Oscar, who recently turned four, and their three daughters, the Hell’s Kitchen star and his wife also have a 23-year-old son, Jack.
This isn’t the first time that Ramsay has opened up about his children’s careers. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2021, he also suggested Oscar is his “last hope of getting anyone” in his family “into the industry.”
“Our eldest daughter is working in PR. Holly, our middle daughter, is doing fashion. Tilly is taking a gap year. Jack has become a Royal Marine,” he explained. “Everyone’s left the nest and nobody wants to cook.”
Ramsay went on to jokingly explain how he wanted to “refine” Oscar’s “palette” to potentially spark the child’s interest in becoming a chef.
“He starts off with beautiful oatmeal in the morning with caramelised banana,” he said. “I’ll do him a little light scrambled egg on toast for lunch, and then for dinner tonight he had a roasted butternut squash soup.”
Fallon also questioned the future of Ramsay’s restaurant portfolio, noting that the chef’s children aren’t going to want to take over it because “that’s how life works”.
In response, Ramsay joked: “I think they’ve been watching to many reruns of Kitchen Nightmares, thinking, ‘F*** that. That’s not my career.’”
Meanwhile, Ramsay’s daughter Tilly has lived up to her label as her father’s toughest critic by poking fun at his cooking on social media. In a video shared to the cook’s TikTok account in 2020, Tilly and her father played a game of “This or That”. During the game, she shared that she preferred “mum’s cooking” over “dad’s cooking”. Along with her father, Tilly’s mother also has experience in the food industry, as she’s published six cookbooks.
Ramsay has also made fun of his children on TikTok. In August 2020, he duetted Holly’s video where she tried to cook one of his pasta dishes. In the clip, he asked his child “what she was doing” and told her she should have “peeled the potatoes” before cooking them.
He continued the bit in the caption, writing: “Holly!! I thought I taught you better than this.”
