Kriti Mehrotra
Directed by Dionne Bromfield, Netflix’s ‘Being Gordon Ramsay’ is a very honest and insightful 6-part documentary series following the celebrity chef as he navigates his family and his global empire. He has never shied away from asserting that he hails from a dysfunctional family or that his past is what serves as his motivation every day, but he delves into them much more in this production. Therefore, of course, there is a significant focus on his father too, especially because he was reportedly not at all supportive of his namesake and allegedly looked down upon his choice of career.
Gordon Ramsay Sr. Worked Odd Jobs Throughout His Adult Life
Born to Annie Dupong Scott and James Watson Ramsay in 1944 in Port Glasgow, Scotland, Gordon Ramsay Sr. was reportedly a true Scotsman in terms of his lifestyle, mannerisms, and preferences. However, things changed over the years as he allegedly started abusing alcohol to such an extent that he often blacked out and turned violent towards his own family, whether it be his wife or kids. According to records, he had tied the knot with nurse Nancy Cosgrove in the 1960s, following which they welcomed 4 children: Diane in 1965, Gordon in 1966, Ronnie in 1968, and Yvonne in 1970.
Gordon himself once revealed that the family relocated to England around the mid-1970s owing to his father’s struggles, only to end up in council estates while trying to make ends meet. He even indicated the latter had trouble holding a job, so while the inconsi stently served as a pool manager, shopkeeper, or welder, the matriarch kept things afloat by working several jobs at once. As if that’s not enough, the chef once described his father as a “hard-drinking womaniser” who abused as well as neglected not only his patient wife but also all four of his children in different ways.
“I, sadly, had a torrid relationship with my father,” Gordon said in the aforementioned show. “I just couldn’t wait to spend time out of the house, away from him… I had to sit there, you know, at weekends, and almost watch him ruin his life through alcohol.” He has since also revealed that his mother was the one who instilled in him a passion for food, driving him to take up jobs in restaurants when he moved out of home at the tender age of 16. Nevertheless, he remained in contact with his family, so he heard his father’s opinion of “cooking was for women; it wasn’t a man’s job” when he decided on his career path, as per his own account in the documentary.
Gordon Ramsay Sr. Passed Away at Age 53 in 1997
It was in 1997 when Gordon Sr. passed away in Margate, England, from a sudden heart attack — he was 53 at the time and reportedly had no prior indication of such severe health issues. At the time, the relationship he shared with his children was still tumultuous, yet they were in contact from time to time, and his namesake had even met him for breakfast in the weeks/months prior. The chef, who opened his very first restaurant in 1998, told LadBible their “last breakfast” together was at a “tiny little sh**hole” in Margate that had him wishing he could cook his father something soon.
Unfortunately, Gordon could never realize his dream of feeding his father, and despite all of the latter’s comments about his profession or his having turned into a snob, he still misses him. That’s why the chef still sometimes goes to that same location in Margate and “just sort of sit, not far from the harbour, and I look at that little sh**hole – it’s changed hands now, but I know the room. I know the site, and I just think, ‘yeah, if only’. But that didn’t happen, sadly.”
On the flip side, though, because of all the alleged abuse as well as violence, Gordon has revealed that it is because of his father that he knew what not to do while parenting his young ones. “In many ways,” he candidly admitted in the documentary series, “I am using that awful relationship to become a better dad.” It’s imperative to note that the chef is also well aware of the genetic component in addiction because his younger brother has been addicted to heroin for 4 decades, which is part of why he made ‘Gordon Ramsay on Cocaine’ in 2017. The other part was to educate his young ones and highlight the problems of cocaine use in the restaurant industry.
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