Gordon Ramsay opens new eatery in Dubai

Having seen most every episode of Kitchen Nightmares, meeting Gordon Ramsay at the launch of his new Dubai eatery yesterday - dressed in chef whites, surveying the dining room - it did provoke flashbacks of the numerous times he's given hapless restaurant owners a firm dressing down. The incredulity, the animation, the volume, it is only when you are near to his imposing figure, however, you are able to appreciate why his lambastes resonate with those on the receiving end. For it isn't really the amplitude which must strike home, but the obvious dedication to the craft and industry he has given almost 30 years to that is immediately apparent.
The Gordon Ramsay who showed up to the opening of his latest venture Bread Street Kitchen at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai, couldn't have been further from the shouty television personality he has cultivated. Charming and engaging, he creates an extremely vibrant atmosphere. Again it is his focus on culinary perfection, though, which emanates and provides an insight into why he has become arguably the most successful chef on the planet.
"Something unique about restaurants is the lighting," Ramsay began when explaining Bread Street Kitchen. "You always have to focus on the intimacy of a restaurant and I do that by testing it on my wife. If she likes it then I know it will keep the girls happy.
"It's got a hip and Manhattan but Cool Britannia feel."
As a chef though, when did he realise that the key to a successful restaurant wasn't wholly based on the food?
"Aged 27 I came back to London from Paris, opened Aubergine and got my a*** kicked. You don't know how to run a business at 27; you know how to run a kitchen. I'm 48 now, so that's 21 years in the making. That transition from a chef, to a chef- patron to a businessman - I've got a great team around me. I've managed to go through that process with one foot in the kitchen and one foot in the business.
"I travel. I'm like a magpie. I cherry pick all the magic bits from restaurants around the world. I come back to the nest and break them down and build them up in my own mind. Never copy, that's lazy!"
Maintaining three Michelin stars for the last 15 years is no mean feat in the food business, however Ramsay continues to impress those at the top. He again attributes this success to his team and the talent they have nursed. It was put to him what he looks for in the people he works with.
"Vision," was the straight-off-the-bat answer. "Also a solution. They all want to be part of the business, to have their percentages. I put pressure on them. You need to be accountable, so don't give me the problem, give me the solution. You have to deal with things and bounce back."
Ramsay said that alongside vision, his kitchen staff must have a willingness to succeed themselves. They need to be "hungry." How does a hungry young chef go on to be the next Gordon Ramsay?
"You get out of your comfort zone. You don't stay in a job too long. I think 12 to 18 months under chefs, four or five times across your career is enough. You take 20 per cent from each of them and start on your own. The better you get the less influence of theirs you see."
Bread Street Kitchen's gala opening is tonight.
david@khaleejtimes.com