Gordon Ramsay's Most Notable Feuds

It was Gordon Ramsay's skills as a chef that first brought him fame, winning two Michelin stars as head chef of London's Aubergine before opening his namesake Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 1998. This proved to be the first brick in what would become a restaurant empire, with his Gordon Ramsay Restaurants group eventually encompassing dozens of eateries throughout the world.

While Ramsay's cuisine may have made him a top chef, it was his hair-trigger temper and propensity for foul language that made him a television star, displayed in such series as Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and more. Yet anyone under the impression that Ramsay's abrasive, contentious temperament was an act he turned on for the TV cameras merely had to look at the headlines that followed him throughout the years, chronicling disputes with fellow chefs, other celebrities, and even the occasional family member.

There's no denying that Gordon Ramsay has brought television viewers countless hours of entertainment, yet there are also numerous well-documented examples of him butting heads with others — stories that, to be fair, have proven to be equally as entertaining as any of his TV projects. Read on for a deep dive into some of Gordon Ramsay's most notable feuds.

If there's another celebrity chef as famous as Gordon Ramsay in his native Britain, it's arguably Jamie Oliver. This didn't exactly draw them closer, though. The two chefs spent years embroiled in a very public feud. It all began back in 2009 when Ramsay made a nasty comment about the physical appearance of an Australian TV presenter that earned a rebuke from Oliver. "It's never good to criticize a woman," Oliver told The Sun (via the Telegraph). 

Ramsay clapped back, reported the Daily Mail, calling Oliver a "one-pot wonder" and then sniping to TMZ that the last time he complained about a dish was in "Jamie Oliver's restaurant." In 2015, Oliver shared his theory on Ramsay's motives with the Daily Mail. "Gordon will do anything to try to take the p**s out of me because he is deeply jealous and can't quite work out why I do what I do and why he can't do that," he said. "He is too busy shouting and screaming and making our industry look like a bunch of shouters and screamers."

The feud apparently ended by the time Oliver's restaurant empire fell apart. As Ramsay revealed on The Jonathan Ross Show, the two had apparently buried the hatchet and Ramsay reached out after hearing the news about Oliver. Ramsay further confirmed that he and his former rival are "absolutely" friends. 

Marcus Samuelsson can be added to the list of people who've publicly feuded with Gordon Ramsay. In fact, his 2012 memoir Yes, Chef contains a shocking allegation about the celebrity chef. 

In an excerpt shared by Eater New York, Samuelsson recalls picking up the phone and hearing Ramsay yelling at him. The issue: Samuelsson had earlier been asked by a reporter to single out his favorite British chefs, and Ramsay's name was left out. According to the book, Ramsay ended his diatribe with a threat. "I'm going to make sure you have a f***ing miserable time here. This is my city, you hear? Good luck, you f***ing black b***ard."

Ramsay's rep issued a denial, telling the Daily Mail, "We're shocked by these completely false and extremely offensive accusations." The rep continued, saying, "We can only think this bizarre denial and these malicious comments have been made in order to garner publicity for Mr. Samuelsson's book and therefore we will pursue such actions as we deem appropriate against Mr. Samuelsson and his publishers." A spokesperson for Samuelsson's publisher, Random House, issued a statement in response, insisting Samuelsson "stands by his statement regarding Mr. Ramsay and has no further comment."

In a 2009 Guardian profile of Mario Batali (nearly a decade before his much-publicized downfall), the chef revealed that he and Gordon Ramsay were in the midst of a feud. "Gordon bugs me," Batali declared, with Jay Rayner, the writer of the piece, recalling that he'd interviewed Batali 18 months earlier. In that interview, "Batali let Ramsay have both barrels, said his food was dull, outdated, that the man had no understanding of the importance of ingredients," wrote Rayner.

"Now he goes about town calling me Fanta Pants," revealed Batali, a reference to the bright orange shorts favored by the chef. Batali, however, took action. "I've banned him from my restaurants. Ramsay's people call trying to book tables and I say no. I won't have him in there," he insisted.

However, Batali also indicated he'd be open to some kind of detente. "If he called me himself and said, 'Let's sit down for a drink,' I'm sure it would be fine," Batali added. "We'd be cool. But right now it's not cool."

Sometimes Gordon Ramsay's feuds hit uncomfortably close to home, which was the case with the chef's father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, who had run Ramsay's business empire until the chef fired him in 2010. At the time, Hutcheson told the Mail on Sunday that Ramsay "locked me out of the business and sacked me and tried to make me the scapegoat, the bad guy (via the New York Post)." Admitting he'd "taken money out of the company," Hutcheson insisted he didn't do it "unethically."

More information emerged when Ramsay sued his wife's father the following year. The Daily Mail outlined the lawsuit's shocking claims that Hutcheson hacked into Ramsay's computer and had embezzled more than $2 million for his own personal use. 

Hutcheson countersued, alleging he was dismissed unfairly, but the whole thing was laid to rest in 2012 when Ramsay and Hutcheson agreed to a settlement. According to a statement provided to The Telegraph, the settlement's terms were "confidential but we can confirm that Chris Hutcheson is no longer a director or shareholder of Gordon Ramsay Holdings and all civil litigation and employment tribunal claims brought by each of the two parties and other family members have been withdrawn." Still, you have to imagine those family dinners are awkward, to say the least.

Although most of Gordon Ramsay's feuds are serious, this beef was more playful than tragic. In 2017, Gordon Ramsay invited Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show to serve as guest judges on an episode of his Fox series MasterChef Junior. Ahead of the episode, Ramsay and Miss Piggy got into it on Twitter after she declared viewers could watch her "trying to teach [Gordon Ramsay] how to cook." Tweeting insults to each other, Piggy slammed Ramsay as "a guy who finished second to the Swedish Chef at the annual [Lutefisk Bake Off]!" while adding that "a diva like moi is contractually obligated to be difficult." Ramsay fired back by pointing out that he made a habit of eliminating divas from his kitchen.

Meanwhile, Piggy also proved to be dismissive of Ramsay in an Entertainment Weekly interview about her MasterChef Junior appearance. "Gordon Ramsay? Which one was he? ... Oh yes, the one who was yelling all the time!" she quipped. "I thought his name was Gaylord? Anyway, Gordon was fantastic and polite with the young chefs, but for some reason he constantly seemed to be shouting at moi. I think I made him uncomfortable because I'm so much better than he is in the kitchen."

When speaking with The New Yorker in 2007, Gordon Ramsay made mention of his mentor Marco Pierre White, admitting he owes "everything" to the iconic chef. "Lightness, delicacy, finesse, balance — I wouldn't be where I am now if it weren't for Marco," Ramsay declared. 

Of course, working with the mercurial White was no picnic. According to an excerpt from White's memoir White Lies, which appeared in The Independent, he once berated Ramsay so badly he brought him to tears. "I don't recall what he'd done wrong but I yelled at him and he lost it," said White. "Gordon crouched down in the corner of the kitchen, buried his head in his hands and started sobbing."

That may not have been just tough love, though. Ramsay and White engaged in a series of verbal altercations since that time. Speaking with The Telegraph, White had nothing but scorn to heap on his former protégé. "I will never speak to him again," he said. White elaborated in a 2012 GQ interview with Piers Morgan, who pointed out that White had "severed" his relationship with Ramsay. "I had good reason to," White explained, revealing "the straw that broke the camel's back was when he arrived at my wedding with a camera crew and filmed from the bushes."

Not only was Gordon Ramsay on the outs with his former mentor, a similar scenario played out with Ramsay's own protégé, Chef Marcus Wareing. Wareing worked under Ramsay during his tenure at Aubergine, but eventually the two had a falling out due to a dispute over a restaurant. "If I never speak to that guy again in my life it wouldn't bother me one bit. Wouldn't give a f***," Wareing said in a 2008 interview with Waitrose Food Magazine, via the Evening Standard. "I admire Gordon, I learned a lot from him. But would I lose any sleep knowing he wouldn't be there? No chance." 

In 2014, Wareing told the Financial Times he and Ramsay still weren't on speaking terms, explaining that "we went into litigation." In a subsequent interview with British GQ in 2019, Wareing took full responsibility for the bad blood between them. "Listen, you must understand it was me who started it with Gordon," he explained. "I picked a fight. I no longer wanted to be kept in a corner, moaning and feeling like I had nothing to offer his business. So I spoke up. And, well, it got nasty."

British restaurant critic A.A. Gill, who passed away in 2016, was known for his acerbic wit and scathing reviews. One of his most legendary, recalled Eater, was Gill's critique of Gordon Ramsay while he was head chef at Aubergine. He reportedly described Ramsay — who'd once envisioned a career as a professional soccer player — as a "failed sportsman who acts like an 11-year-old."

Gill and some companions — including Dynasty actress Joan Collins — subsequently paid a visit to Ramsay's then-new eatery, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, but their dinner didn't last long. Shortly after they ordered, Ramsay ejected Gill and his pals, claiming he'd insulted a waiter who asked if he could take Gill's coat, reported The Independent. "Don't you have one of your own?" the critic quipped.

Ramsay later explained himself in an op-ed he wrote for The Independent, accusing Gill of "insulting" his staff. Gill "is not welcome at my restaurant," Ramsay wrote. "I don't respect him as a food critic and I don't have to stand there and cook for him." The Daily Mail's obituary of Gill included a quote by the critic in which he described Ramsay as "a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being."

British TV host Piers Morgan picks fights with celebrities about as often as most people floss their teeth, so it shouldn't be surprising that the former America's Got Talent judge was embroiled in a feud with Gordon Ramsay. 

As the Manchester Evening News reported, it was during a 2019 episode of Good Morning Britain that Morgan discussed how he and his wife, Susanna Reid, had attended the GQ Men of the Year Awards the previous night. Chef Ramsay was tasked with creating the menu for the event. As Morgan told viewers, he decided on the beef wellington and a crab dish while his wife was served a vegan meal, despite not asking for it. "The truth is, it was inedible, horrible gruel," declared Morgan of the meat-free meal. However, he admitted that the beef wellington was "delicious."

That wasn't the first time Morgan had slammed one of Ramsay's vegan dishes. Earlier that year, Morgan retweeted Ramsay's video of a new vegan roast at one of his restaurants, insisting it looked "utterly revolting." When Ramsay subsequently appeared on The Late Late Show, host James Corden showed him Morgan's Twitter critique. "So Piers Morgan is now a food critic," mused Ramsay. "Go and f*** yourself."

One of Gordon Ramsay's most notable dust-ups took place in the British town of Cornwall, where Ramsay purchased a home in 2015. Ramsay's neighbors were irked, reported the Daily Mail, when the chef tore down the original structure and built a new, modern-looking estate described as "a monstrosity" that looks like "a stack of containers."

Andrew Nisbet, Ramsay's next-door neighbor, griped about the celebrity chef to local newspaper Cornwall Live. "Considering the scale of the development and the detrimental effect it will have on the enjoyment of our property and others it is disappointing and demonstrates a lack of consideration for local residents' concerns," Nisbet said.

Perhaps not all neighbors were angry about the new build, though. When one neighbor in Cornwall sent him a gift of local asparagus, Ramsay took to Instagram, writing, "Now that's what I call love thy neighbor, see?" However, he couldn't help but take a shot at his less-friendly neighbors, adding, "I'm sure one local will whinge about the asparagus. God bless you (via Cornwall Live)."