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. Reportedly Worked Odd Jobs Throughout His Adult Life
The beloved son of Annie Dupong Scott and James Watson Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Sr. was welcomed into the world in 1944 in Port Glasgow, Scotland. He was reportedly a true Scotsman in terms of his lifestyle, mannerisms, and preferences. Gordon claimed that his father struggled with alcoholism and would sometimes black out, further describing that it led to a volatile environment in the household. According to records, he tied the knot with Nancy Cosgrove, who worked as a nurse, in the 1960s. Together, they welcomed 4 children: Diane (1965), Gordon (1966), Ronnie (1968), and Yvonne (1970).
Gordon once revealed that the family relocated to England around the mid-1970s due to his father’s struggles and ended up living on council estates while trying to make ends meet. He even claimed that his father had trouble holding a job, stating that he served as a pool manager, shopkeeper, or welder, while their mother kept things afloat by working several jobs at once. The chef once described his father as a “hard-drinking womaniser,” and publicly alleged that he abused and neglected his wife and children in different ways.
“I, sadly, had a torrid relationship with my father,” Gordon said on the 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 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.
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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 has publicly opened up about his younger brother’s decades-long struggle with heroin addiction, 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.
