After fights, feuds and a mugging will it be a peaceful Christmas in Gordon Ramsay's household?



In the last four years, the chef has experienced the flip side of success, going through major upheavals and bitter divisions in his business and family life

'At 46, I've never felt so much in control. I could have studied and got a master's degree and still not come out of it any better. It has made Tana (his wife) and I stronger,' said Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay might earn an estimated £24 million a year, be the holder of 12 Michelin stars and have an empire of restaurants, TV franchises and recipe books that spans the globe, but that doesn’t mean he lives in a bubble.



In the last four years, the chef has experienced the flip side of success, going through major upheavals and bitter divisions in his business and family life.



First, in early 2009, it was reported that Gordon Ramsay Holdings, the company that owns his restaurants, was in dire financial straits.



Then, in October 2010, Chris Hutcheson, Ramsay’s father-in-law, was controversially removed from his position as chief executive of the company.

More recently, he reveals, he was attacked at last month’s Ricky Hatton fight while chaperoning his 11-year-old son Jack and Brooklyn Beckham, and his daughter Megan, 14, was mugged by three men outside her school in south-west London.



'Working with family has its advantages but when it goes wrong it goes pear-shaped,' said Gordon

‘She was shaken up, but I told her she should take it as a wake-up call on how tough life is outside,’ says Ramsay, who explains that Holly, Jack’s twin sister, managed to run away, but Megan tripped over and three guys grabbed her phone.

‘The police came round and she went to an identity parade but we didn’t get them. It all happened so quickly, but she’s been very mature about it. She’s absolutely fine now.



‘She’s become more astute, which is good, because we don’t live in a bubble where their parents are successful, they have access to money and everything is just rosy.



'When you walk out the front door, you have to have your wits about you.’



Ramsay has certainly needed his wits about him of late.



The 46-year-old chef used a private detective to uncover what he later described as his father-in-law’s ‘complex life’, one that involved mistresses and children his family knew nothing about.



The resulting feud led to a court case, split the family and left his wife Tana estranged from her parents and siblings.



It’s typical of Ramsay’s 100mph lifestyle that he spent the day before sacking his father-in-law at the bottom of the ocean off Costa Rica, surrounded by bull sharks for a documentary he was making on the shark-fin trade.



‘I was convinced I was going to be eaten,’ he reveals.



‘My guide said when the dorsal fin arches, that’s when it attacks. Honestly, it was like lying under a Range Rover – and yet all I was concerned about was the company, the chefs, the restaurants. I’ve got 850 staff who need me in order to be kept in a job.’



Whether it’s diving with sharks, racing a Ducati Desmosedici round a track at 200mph or trying to match Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari 458, Ramsay admits he needs ‘that kind of adrenaline kick once or twice a year’.



You sense he’s constantly pushing himself to see how he’ll perform.



‘I’ve been in that intense situation before, literally on the verge of either drowning or killing myself,’ he says.



‘I pushed it to the extreme but that’s what keeps me at that level. I know how to control myself.’



While the craving for success has never left him, Gordon admits he's mellowed somewhat

He concedes that he’s addicted to work, spending the bulk of his time bouncing between his restaurants and TV commitments on both sides of the Atlantic, and being a husband and father to four children.



And on top of that, he’s had the Hutcheson affair to deal with. Just listening to him talk about it is exhausting.



‘You don’t like putting anyone out of a job but asking your father-in-law to step down and going through what I did was…’



He tails off, shaking his head.

‘It was either getting rid of him or the whole business model and structure was going to collapse. I suppose you get over that sort of hurt but he was another father figure.



'Then you come to terms with the hacking (of emails) and selling stories and having to take them to court, so it makes you strong.’

The family rift must have been especially hard for his wife.



‘Really difficult,’ he says. ‘She met her mum for the first time last week for lunch.

'I don’t mind being a sacrificial lamb, providing she and her mum rekindle that relationship. It was never about those two.’



He believes his mother-in-law felt guilt about turning her back on Tana and their four children.



‘You ignore your daughter, you ignore your grandchildren,’ he says, ‘and they are not little pawns in the game.’

Ultimately, the Ramsays decided that if Tana was being ostracised, their children weren’t going to be caught in the crossfire.



‘Working with family has its advantages but when it goes wrong it goes pear-shaped.’



Ramsay, who says he pays millions of pounds a year in tax yet has no plans to become a tax exile, claims the experience taught him invaluable lessons.



The proof, he insists, is that Gordon Ramsay Holdings has posted its best results in 12 years – ‘£4.8 million bottom line’.



‘At 46, I’ve never felt so much in control,’ he says. ‘I could have studied and got a master’s degree and still not come out of it any better. It has made Tana and I stronger.’

'I'm at my best when I'm under that pressure. Earning $300,000 an hour on American TV hasn't affected my ambition,' said Gordon (pictured on Hell's Kitchen)

Being in the firing line is nothing new to Ramsay; indeed, sometimes he appears to relish it.



Just before our interview, a minor Twitter storm erupted over Gordon Ramsay Holdings registering the name ‘The Spotted Pig’ for a pub it was looking to buy in Gloucestershire.

‘The Twitter haters’, as Ramsay calls them, were up in arms, insinuating he was trying to block a possible British opening of a well-known New York restaurant of the same name, which is part-owned by Mario Batali, an American chef he has crossed swords with in the past.



The Scot claims it was an innocent mistake but is irked by the withering comments on Twitter from rivals such as Anthony Bourdain and Jamie Oliver.



‘This Mario Batali in the States – I’ve never met the guy. We have a bit of banter, and I think it’s the same in sports. You know, whether it’s Man City and Man United or whether it’s boxers, you’ve got to keep up that competitive spirit. Is it malicious? No – is it hell.’



Ramsay insists he finds competition healthy – but maybe he can afford to.

‘Whether it’s Jamie (Oliver) trying to launch a TV programme in America or opening up Jamie’s Italian here, I think we all end up keeping each other on our toes.’



That said, it doesn’t sound like Britain’s most famous chefs are particularly close.



'Tana's the one they (their children) absolutely stand to attention to,' said Gordon

‘It grates me when Jamie keeps going on about, “Oh my God, he swears so much and it must be dreadful for his children.” Get over it. I don’t walk in the house and swear.



'Jesus, if only you knew the kind of discipline there is in my house, and how cool and relaxed it is. So you can’t win. Either way you cannot win. You just have to button it and shut up.’



This new-found willingness to turn the other cheek was tested last month at Ricky Hatton’s comeback fight in Manchester.



Ramsay was there with his son Jack and Brooklyn Beckham, having earlier that week hosted Victoria and the Beckham children at his home in Wandsworth.



‘The boys wanted to go for a pee, so I went to the toilet with them and this guy wanted a picture. I said to him very politely, “Not now” and the guy slapped me in the face.



'I grabbed his wrist and said, “You don’t want to do that.” Then the guy behind me in the queue grabbed him and it all kicked off. I grabbed the boys and got out.



‘Had I been ten years younger, who knows what would have happened. You stand there and you take a slap in front of your son. Are you kidding me? Can you imagine the headlines the next day if I’d reacted?’



Given his friendship with the Beckhams, what are the chances of persuading Brooklyn’s father that his last big challenge in football might be at Ramsay’s beloved Glasgow Rangers?

‘You’re having a laugh,’ he says. ‘David is actually quite a foodie now; he makes the most amazing risotto. I don’t think the food would go down too well in Glasgow. The pies are blue at Rangers, you know.’

Ramsay later explains that he was involved in talks this summer that could have seen Rangers, recently demoted to the bottom rung of the Scottish league system, transplanted into English football.

‘We were talking to a consortium about the potential to take them into the Conference and then work our way over the next five or six years into the Championship in England, and from there to the Premier League.



'I didn’t go public because it was something I was interested in but didn’t want everyone to know about.’



The plan to revitalise a club he’s supported all his life is another example of Ramsay’s drive and ambition, qualities he admits to being drawn to in friends such as Beckham and Simon Cowell (who famously suggested he should have Botox).

‘I see the success of Simon, and now he’s going through a s*** time with The X Factor. I think that’s when you see them at their best.

Gordon presenting David Beckham with an award on VH1. 'David is actually quite a foodie now; he makes the most amazing risotto,' he said

‘I see what David is doing now. I see the determination behind it all. It’s not about the photo shoots; it’s not the cars. It’s exactly the same with Simon. It’s the determination, and that’s where we feed off each other, in our respect for that level of quality.



‘I like being up against it. I’m at my best when I’m under that pressure. Earning $300,000 an hour on American TV hasn’t affected my ambition. It’s p***** a lot of people off and there are individuals who come out when I do something wrong or say something wrong. You’ve got to put up with that s***. You take the rough with the smooth; you become thick-skinned. You’ve got to go through the battering, through the storm.’



Given the buffeting he’s taken, Ramsay might be forgiven for putting his feet up on Christmas Day and allowing any one of his myriad top chefs to prepare a sumptuous festive feast for him and his family.



But no: he’ll be cooking Christmas lunch from his kitchen at home in south London – for the nation, live on Channel 4.

‘If I wasn’t working there’d be something wrong,’ he says.



‘As a chef, it’s our business, so it’s almost like a foregone conclusion. I enjoy working on Christmas Day because there’s no pressure – no Michelin Guide, no Good Food Guide, no critics. Chefs cook live anyway. Live is something I’ve never, ever been scared of.’

Ramsay’s maniacal work ethic propelled him from being a young footballer who was tossed on the scrapheap by Rangers after injuring his knee, through catering college and hotel kitchens, to training under some of the finest chefs in the world. Surely he should be satisfied by now?



‘I always think of Sir Alex Ferguson doing a three-hour training session on Christmas Day, and I think it’s the best thing to do,’ he says.

'Having three girls, I'm secretly bricking it, because I know I've got about three more years left with Megan (eldest child) before she falls in love,' said Gordon

He’s currently in training himself for his first Ironman contest, taking place in New Zealand in March.



‘The first thing I’ll do on Boxing Day is go for a mammoth run. People will think it’s slightly crazy doing a 4K swim, 180K bike ride and then a marathon at the age of 46, but I’m the strongest and fittest I’ve ever been.’



The drive to be fit is something he also encourages in his staff and in his children, who will help him prepare lunch on Christmas Day. He says it was agreed that Tana would take the lead when the children, now aged between ten and 14, were little.

‘I just wasn’t good with the chaos. And secondly, I was striving to achieve my third Michelin star, so you become slightly selfish.’



While the craving for success has never left him, Ramsay admits he’s mellowed somewhat. He explains that his experiences with his own father, whom he saw ‘drink his life away with frustration’, now inform the choices he makes.



‘I’m almost like their best friend now,’ he says of Megan, Jack, Holly and Matilda.



‘Tana’s the tough one. She’s the one they absolutely stand to attention to. Having three girls, I’m secretly bricking it, because I know I’ve got about three more years left with Megan before she falls in love.’



I suggest, given his track record for explosive bursts of temper and expletive-ridden tirades, that any prospective boyfriends will have much more to worry about.

‘I’ll send them all a nice Christmas present of a copy of Boiling Point,’ he smirks, referring to the infamous 1999 fly-on-the-wall documentary that followed him as he tried to secure a third star at his self-named restaurant on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea.



‘That was me at 32, running around like a headless chicken, an absolute psycho, a man on a mission.’



It seems some things never change.



‘Gordon’s Christmas Cookalong Live’ will be on Channel 4 from 10am on Christmas Day.

