Gordon Ramsay

(born November 8, 1966) is one of Britain's highest profile chefs. He is one of only three chefs in the country to maintain three Michelin stars for their restaurant (the others being Heston Blumenthal and Michel Roux).

Gordon was born in Scotland but was brought up in England after his family moved to Stratford-upon-Avon. He played football as teenager for Oxford United F.C.'s youth side and was spotted by a scout for Rangers. He completed trials for the Scottish club and became a professional player at the age of 15. After suffering a knee injury that left him unable to regain full fitness he was released from the club.

At the age of 19 Ramsay now turned his hand to cookery. He worked under Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux in London and Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon in Paris before becoming head chef of the newly-opened Aubergine restaurant in 1993. By 1996, the restaurant had been awarded two Michelin stars. In 1998 Ramsay opened his first own restaurant, the eponymous Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. The restaurant gained three Michelin stars in 1999, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve the feat. From there his empire has expanded rapidly, first opening Petrus where six bankers famously spent over £44,000 on wine during a single meal in 2001, and then Amaryllis and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. Restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught Hotels followed, the later branded under his protegee, Angela Hartnett's, name. Ramsay's company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, continued rapid expansion under Marcus Wareing as Chief Patron.

Ramsay has published six books on cooking and also appeared in two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries - Boiling Point in 1998 and Beyond Boiling Point in 2000. The series revealed that Ramsay is a hot-tempered man in the kitchen; he was seen yelling obscenities at his staff and throwing equipment around. Food critic A. A. Gill, who was famously ejected from Ramsay's Chelsea restaurant (along with his dining companion Joan Collins), has said that Ramsay is "a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being".

In 2004, Ramsay appeared in two British television series. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares aired on Channel 4, and saw the chef troubleshooting failing restaurants over a two-week period. Hell's Kitchen was a reality show, which aired on ITV, and saw Ramsay attempt to train 10 British celebrities to be chefs, as they ran a restaurant on Brick Lane which opened to the public for the two-week duration of the show.