A Tasty Read (Humble Pie - Gordon Ramsay)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Humble Pie - Gordon Ramsay
Date:	05/02/08 (300 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good honest insight to Gordon Ramsey

Disadvantages: Would have liked to read more about his adult life

Gordon Ramsey is one of my favourite celebrity chefs because he really does have a passion for his cooking and reading his autobiography has confirmed my feelings for him. The book comes across as being very frank and honest, something I do admire, and he does actually state that he can't abide liars in his kitchen. I don't really have any reasons to doubt what he says in this book and therefore read it with sympathy, empathy and admiration for what he has been through and achieved.

He starts by telling us of his childhood and the continuous moving around they did as a family. This was down to his father's terrible lifestyle of drink, music and women. He got himself into a lot of debt and consequently the family had to move around to dodge the collectors. His father was not a nice man at all and I think Gordon has taken a step back when writing about him. It must be hard to relive those years in the written word and explain about what should have been the best time of your life - your childhood - as being one of the worst periods. Being one of four children, Gordon was by no means alone in his misery and all the children suffered at his father's hands at one time or another and they all seemed to have dealt with it differently. Gordon has obviously become the most successful and this is simply down to the drive he has for his chosen career.

Probably half of the book is taken up with memories of his childhood, and while these are interesting, I much preferred the second half when he talked about his career journey. It takes one hell of a commitment to be a chef, and this was something I never really appreciated fully until I read this book. Gordon explains how he trained in various kitchens belonging to some of the most amazing chefs in this country, but he then goes on to tell us about his move to Paris and how he stepped down the career ladder quite a few times and worked his way back up, just so he could work with more and more well known, amazing chefs to gain as much experience and training of different aspects of cooking and different foods as he could.

The money was awful in the early days and it was a struggle to even live, let alone have a wife and child to support, but he did it and to her credit, his wife Tana, has stuck by him through everything. Not every wife could put up with seeing so little of their husband because he was always at work. Gordon readily admits to working 18 hour days in his kitchens and 6, sometimes 7 day weeks. I would find this incredibly hard as a wife so Tana has gained my respect as well.

I was pleasantly surprised that while reading this I didn't come across anywhere near as many swear words as I had expected. Gordon Ramsey is as much famous for cursing at everyone in his kitchen as he is for cooking but he seemed a little more restrained in the book. The times he did swear were well placed and exactly the right sort of context for the paragraph or sentence. I am no prude when it comes to swearing and nothing really offends me, but it was nice not to have it littered with the F word.

I was in admiration for this man after reading his story. He is a simple and honest, hardworking yet family orientated guy and I really do like him. He has had a rough time with the press and their desire to cast him as a bully but anyone who works for him and is as passionate about their job as he is, love him to death and will vouch for him all the way. This is proved by their loyalty in many ways through the book, with long standing staff and chefs who go on to head up a new restaurant for Gordon in other countries.

What really comes through though is the man behind the persona. I like Gordon Ramsey as a celebrity chef before but now as well as a chef I like him as a person. He has shown me through his autobiography what a decent bloke he is. Reading about his brothers addiction to heroine and everything Gordon did to help confirmed he was compassionate and caring and the chapters revolving around his children and how he will never spoil them to compensate for his awful childhood, proves to me he is level headed and forward thinking when it comes to his family. With sections briefly touching on his TV shows and how he felt about them I was in even higher delight to get a backstage view of shows like Hell's Kitchen - it is an eye opener!

My new ambition? - To eat in one of his restaurants one day and maybe get my book autographed! 

Summary: RECOMMENDED