Dendrobranchiata Temporal range: Famennian–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Penaeus monodon
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Dendrobranchiata Bate, 1888
Superfamilies and families [1]
Penaeoidea Aciculopodidae † Aegeridae † Aristeidae Benthesicymidae Carpopenaeidae † Penaeidae Sicyoniidae Solenoceridae Sergestoidea Luciferidae Sergestidae
Synonyms [2]
Penaeidea Dana, 1852

Prawns are decapod crustaceans of the suborder Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian. They differ from other, similar crustaceans, such as Caridea (shrimp) and Stenopodidea (boxer shrimp) by the branching form of the gills and by the fact that they do not brood their eggs, but release them directly into the water. They may reach a length of over 330 millimetres (13 in) and a mass of 450 grams (1.0 lb), and are widely fished and farmed for human consumption.

Shrimp and prawns[link]

While Dendrobranchiata and Caridea belong to different suborders of Decapoda, they are very similar in appearance, and in many contexts such as commercial farming and fisheries, they are both often referred to as "shrimp" and "prawn" interchangeably. However, recent aquaculture literature increasingly uses the term "prawn" only for the freshwater forms of palaemonids and "shrimp" for the marine penaeids.^[3]

In the United Kingdom, the word "prawn" is more common on menus than "shrimp", while the opposite is the case in North America. The term "prawn" is also loosely used to describe any large shrimp, especially those that come 15 (or fewer) to the pound (such as "king prawns", yet sometimes known as "jumbo shrimp"). Australia and some other Commonwealth nations follow this British usage to an even greater extent, using the word "prawn" almost exclusively. When Australian comedian Paul Hogan used the phrase, "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you" in an American television advertisement,^[4] it was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say.

Description[link]

Together with other swimming Decapoda, Dendrobranchiata show the "caridoid facies", or shrimp-like form.^[5] The body is typically robust, and can be divided into a cephalothorax (head and thorax fused together) and a pleon (abdomen).^[5] The body is generally slightly flattened side-to-side.^[5] The largest species, Penaeus monodon, can reach a mass of 450 grams (16 oz) and a length of 336 millimetres (13.2 in).^[6]

Head[link]

The most conspicuous appendages arising from the head are the antennae. The first pair are biramous (having two flagella), except in Luciferidae, and are relatively small.^[7] The second pair can be 2–3 times the length of the body and are always uniramous (having a single flagellum).^[7] The mouthparts comprise pairs of mandibles, maxillules and maxillae, arising from the head, and three pairs of maxillipeds, arising from the thorax.^[8] A pair of stalked eyes points forwards from the head.^[9]

Thorax[link]

The carapace grows from the thorax to cover the cephalothorax, and extends forwards between the eyes into a rostrum.^[9] This is only as long as the stalked eyes in Benthesicymidae, Luciferidae and Sergestidae, but considerably longer in Aristeidae.^[9]

As well as the three pairs of maxillipeds, the thorax also bears five pairs of pereiopods, or walking legs; the first three of these end in small claws.^[10] The last two pereiopods are absent in Luciferidae and Acetes, but much longer than the preceding pereiopods in Hymenopenaeus and Xiphopenaeus.^[11]

The thoracic appendages carry gills, which are protected beneath the carapace.^[12] The gills are typically branched, and so resemble trees, lending the group its scientific name, Dendrobranchiata, from the Greek words δένδρον (dendron, tree) and βράγχια (branchia, gill).^[13]

Pleon[link]

The pleon, or abdomen, is similar in length to the cephalothorax.^[14] It has six segments, the first five bearing lamellar pleopods, and the last one bearing uropods.^[15] The pleopods are biramous, except in Sicyoniidae, where they are uniramous.^[11] The uropods and telson collectively form the tail fan; the uropods are not divided by a diaeresis, as they are in many other decapods.^[16] The telson is pointed and is usually armed with four pairs of setae or spines.^[16]

Internal anatomy[link]

Most of the musculature of a prawn is used for bending the pleon, and almost all the space in the pleon is filled by muscle.^[17] More than 17 muscles operate each of the pleopods, and a further 16 power the tail fan in the rapid backward movement of the caridoid escape reaction.^[18] These muscles, collectively, are the meat for which prawns are commercially fished and farmed.^[19]

The nervous system of prawns comprises a dorsal brain, and a ventral nerve cord, connected by two commissures around the oesophagus.^[20] The chief sensory inputs are visual input from the eyes, chemoreceptors on the antennae and in the mouth, and mechanoreceptors on the antennae and elsewhere.^[21]

The digestive system comprises a foregut, a midgut and a hindgut, and is situated dorsally.^[22] The foregut begins at the mouth, passes through the oesophagus, and opens into a sac which contains the grinding apparatus of the gastric mill.^[22] The hepatopancreas feeds into the midgut, where digestive enzymes are releaesed, and nutrients taken up.^[22] The hindgut forms faecal pellets, which are then passed out through the muscular anus.^[23]

The circulatory system is based around a compact, triangular heart, which pumps blood into three main arteries.^[24] Excretion is carried out through the gills, and by specialised glands located at the base of the antennae, and is mostly in the form of ammonia.^[25]

Life cycle[link]

Nauplius of an unidentified prawn from the family Penaeidae

A juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei (whiteleg prawn)

Prawns may be divided into two groups: those with an open thelycum (female genitalia) and those with a closed thelycum.^[26] In the open–thelycum species, mating takes place towards the end of the moulting cycle, and usually at sunset.^[27] In closed–thelycum species, mating takes place shortly after moulting, when the exoskeleton is still soft, and usually occurs in the night.^[28] Courtship and mating may take up to 3 hours in Penaeus monodon, while in Farfantepenaeus paulensis, mating lasts just 4–5 seconds.^[28] Spawning may occur several times during the moulting cycle, and usually occurs at night.^[29]

With the exception of Luciferidae, the eggs of prawns are shed directly into the water, rather than being brooded.^[30] The eggs hatch into nauplius larvae, which are followed by zoea larvae (initially protozoea, and later mysis) and then a postlarva, before reaching adulthood.^[30] The changes between moults are gradual, and so the development is anamorphic rather than metamorphic.^[30]

Uniquely among the Decapoda, the nauplii of Dendrobranchiata are free-swimming.^[30] There are 5 to 8 naupliar stages.^[31] The earlier stages have three pairs of appendages which are used for locomotion – two pairs of antennae and the mandibles. Later stages also have rudiments of other mouthparts, but the nauplius is unable to feed, and only lasts 24 to 68 hours.^[30] The body ends at a two-lobed telson, and the beginnings of a carapace emerge at this stage.^[31]

There are typically 5 or 6 zoea stages in Dendrobranchiata, divided into protozoea and mysis.^[30] In the protozoea larvae, the antennae are still used for locomotion, but the mandibles become specialised for mastication.^[31] All the thoracic somites (body segments) have formed, and a carapace is present, covering part of the thorax.^[31] It is smooth in the family Penaeidae, but bears many spines in the family Solenoceridae.^[31] The pleon (abdomen) is unsegmented in the first protozoea, and ends in a bilobed telson, which may be used for cleaning other appendages, or for steering.^[31] By the second protozoea, segmentation appears on the pleon,^[31] and by the third protozoea, which may also be called the metazoea, the uropods have appeared.^[32]

By the mysis stages, the pereiopods (thoracic appendages) start to be used instead of the antennae for locomotion.^[32] The larva swims backwards, with its tail upwards, spinning slowly as it goes.^[32] The carapace covers most of the segments of the thorax, and claws appear on the first three pereiopods.^[32] By the last mysis stage, the beginnings of pleopods have appeared on the first five segments of the abdomen.^[32]

The post-larva or juvenile stage is characterised by the use of the pleopods for locomotion.^[33] The claws become functional, but the gills are still rudimentary.^[33] The telson is narrower and only retains traces of its two-lobed development.^[33] Through a series of gradual changes over following moults, the animal takes on its adult form.^[33]

Systematics[link]

Dendrobranchiata were traditionally grouped together with Caridea as "Natantia" (the swimming decapoda), as opposed to the Reptantia (the walking decapods). In 1888, Charles Spence Bate recognised the differences in gill morphology, and separated Natantia into Dendrobranchiata, Phyllobranchiata and Trichobranchiata.^[34] Recent analyses using cladistics and molecular phylogenetics recognise Dendrobranchiata as the sister group to all other Decapoda, collectively called Pleocyemata.^[35]

Fossil Aeger (Aegeridae)

Before 2010, the earliest known fossil prawns come from rocks in Madagascar of Permo-Triassic age, 250 million years ago.^[36][37] In 2010, however, the discovery of Aciculopoda from Famennian–stage rocks in Oklahoma extended the group's fossil record back to 360 million years ago.^[38] The best known fossil prawns are from the Jurassic Solnhofen limestones from Germany.^[37]

Living prawns are divided among seven families, five in the superfamily Penaeoidea, and two in the Sergestoidea,^[2] although molecular evidence disagrees with some aspects of the current classifications.^[39] Collectively, these include 540 extant species, and nearly 100 exclusively fossil species.^[1] A further two families are known only from fossils.^[1]

Suborder Penaeoidea Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1815

† Aciculopodidae Feldmann & Schweitzer, 2010 – a single Famennian species, Aciculopoda mapesi ^[38]

† Aegeridae Burkenroad, 1963 – two Mesozoic genera: Aeger and Acanthochirana ^[40]

Aristeidae Wood-Mason, 1891 – 26 extant species in 9 genera, and one fossil genus ^[41]

Benthesicymidae Wood-Mason, 1891 – 41 species in 4 genera ^[41]

† Carpopenaeidae Garassino, 1994 – two Cretaceous species of Carpopenaeus ^[42]

Penaeidae Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1815 – 216 extant species in 26 genera, and several extinct genera, mostly Mesozoic ^[43]

Sicyoniidae Ortmann, 1898 – 43 species of Sicyonia ^[44]

Solenoceridae Wood-Mason, 1891 – 81 species in 9 genera ^[45]

Suborder Sergestoidea Dana, 1852

Luciferidae De Haan, 1849 – 7 species of Lucifer ^[45]

Sergestidae Dana, 1852 – 90 extant species in six genera, and two extinct monotypic genera ^[46]

Distribution[link]

The biodiversity of Dendrobranchiata decreases markedly at increasing latitudes; most species are only found in a region between 40° north and 40° south.^[47] Some species may occur at higher latitudes. For instance, Bentheogennema borealis is abundant at 57° north in the Pacific Ocean, while collections of Gennadas kempi have been made as far south as 61° south in the Antarctic Ocean.^[47]

Ecology and behaviour[link]

Fish, such as this Argyropelecus hemigymnus, are important predators of juvenile prawns, such as this Sicyonia.

There is a great deal of ecological variation within the suborder Dendrobranchiata. Some species of Sergestidae live in fresh water, but most prawns are exclusively marine.^[33] Species of Sergestidae and Benthesicymidae mostly live in deep water, and Solenoceridae species live offshore, while most Penaeidae species live in shallow inshore waters, and Lucifer is planktonic.^[33] Some species burrow in mud on the sea floor during the day and emerge at night to feed.^[33]

Prawns are "opportunistic omnivores",^[48] and their diet can include a range of food items from fine particles to large organisms. These may include fish, chaetognaths, krill, copepods, radiolarians, phytoplankton, nematocysts, ostracods and detritus.^[48] Prawns eat less around the time of ecdysis (moulting), probably because of the softness of the mouthparts, and must eat more than usual to compensate, once ecdysis is complete.^[48]

Prawns are an attractive food for predators, with a higher energy content than most other invertebrates.^[49] The larvae are prey to comb jellies, jellyfish, chaetognaths, fish and other crustaceans (such as mantis shrimp and crabs), and only a tiny proportion survive.^[50] Juveniles are targeted by a number of fish, cephalopods and birds; Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles experience 90% mortality in the 6–12 weeks they spend in Mexican lagoons, and this is thought to be due almost entirely to predation.^[50] Adult prawns are less susceptible to predation, but can fall prey to some fish.^[51]

Economic importance[link]

Marsupenaeus japonicus (Kuruma prawn) in an aquaculture facility in Taiwan

Dendrobranchiata are of huge importance. While in some countries, such as the United States, production is almost entirely through fisheries, other countries have concentrated on aquaculture (shrimp farms), including Ecuador where 95% of production is farmed; some countries produce similar amounts from fisheries and aquaculture, including Mexico, China, India and Indonesia.^[52]

Species from the family Aristeidae are important to deep-water fisheries, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea, where Aristaeomorpha foliacea is caught by trawlers.^[52] In Brazil, Aristaeomorpha foliacea, Aristaeopsis edwardsiana and Aristeus antillensis are of commercial importance.^[52] The shallow-water Penaeidae are of greater importance, however, and the most important species for fisheries is Fenneropenaeus chinensis, with a catch in 2005 of over 100,000 tons.^[35]

The most important species for aquaculture are Marsupenaeus japonicus (Kuruma prawn), Fenneropenaeus chinensis (Chinese prawn), Penaeus monodon (giant tiger prawn) and Litopenaeus vannamei (whiteleg prawn).^[35]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

	Crustaceans portal
	Arthropods portal

• Michael Türkay (2011). "Dendrobranchiata". World Register of Marine Species. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=106669. 
• J. K. Lowry. "Dendrobranchiata (Decapoda, Eucarida, Malacostraca)". Crustacea, the Higher Taxa. Australian Museum. http://www.crustacea.net/crustace/www/dendrobr.htm. 
• Arthropod Genomic Consortium. "Dendrobranchiata". ArthropodBase wiki. http://arthropodgenomes.org/wiki/Dendrobranchiata. 
• Media related to Dendrobranchiata at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Dendrobranchiata at Wikispecies

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Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay, 2010
Born	Gordon James Ramsay (1966-11-08) 8 November 1966 (age 45) Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Cooking style	French/Italian/British
Education	North Oxfordshire Technical College
Spouse	Tana Ramsay (m. 1996) «start: (1996-12-21)»"Marriage: Tana Ramsay to Gordon Ramsay" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Gordon_Ramsay)
Rating(s) Michelin stars Mobil Good Food Guide
Current restaurant(s) Restaurant Gordon Ramsay Boxwood Café Savoy Grill Maze Pétrus Banquette Verre Gordon Ramsay au Trianon Palace, Versailles Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt Cerise by Gordon Ramsay Gordon Ramsay at The London La Noisette The Narrow The Devonshire Rôtisserie Laurier Plane Food at Heathrow Airport T5
Previous restaurant(s) Gordon Ramsay at The Connaught Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's Amaryllis Aubergine
Television show(s) Boiling Point Beyond Boiling Point Kitchen Nightmares Hell's Kitchen (UK) Hell's Kitchen (US) The F Word Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live Gordon's Great Escape MasterChef (US) Ramsay's Best Restaurant
Official website
www.gordonramsay.com

Gordon James Ramsay, OBE (born 8 November 1966)^[1] is a British chef, television personality and restaurateur.^[2] He has been awarded 13 Michelin stars in total and currently holds 12.^[3][4][5]

Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, Ramsay's Best Restaurant, and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with the American versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and MasterChef.

Early life[link]

Gordon Ramsay was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland,^[6] and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England from the age of 5.^[7] Ramsay is the second of four children; he has an older sister, Diane, a younger brother, Ronnie, and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father Gordon (died 1997)^[8] was, at various times, a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his mother, Helen Cosgrove,^[9] and Yvonne^[8] have been nurses.^[10] Ramsay has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant", as his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was violent.^[8] In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town. In past public interviews, Ramsay has declined to describe his father as an alcoholic; however, his autobiography, Humble Pie,^[10] describes his early life as being marked by abuse and neglect from this "hard-drinking womaniser".^[10][11] At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family house into a flat in Banbury.^[12]

Football career[link]

Ramsay played football and was first chosen to play under-14 football at age 12. He was chosen to play for Warwickshire. His football career was marked by a number of injuries, causing him to remark later in life, "Perhaps I was doomed when it came to football".^[10] In mid-1984, Ramsay had a trial with Rangers, the club he supported as a boy. He seriously injured his knee, smashing the cartilage during training.^[13] Ramsay continued to train and play on the injured knee, tearing a cruciate ligament during a squash game. He never fully recovered from the double injury.^{[citation needed]}

Ramsay has claimed to have played two first team games for Rangers.^[14] According to his autobiography Ramsay played "a couple of non-league matches as a trialist" for Rangers^[15] and was signed by the club at the age of 15.^[16] In May 2002 he told The Observer newspaper that he played two first-team games, for Rangers against St Johnstone and Morton.^[17] However, according to Rangers historians, there is no evidence he ever played for the Rangers first-team and he was never a signed player.^[18]

As evidence of his time with Rangers, Ramsay has produced a team photo showing him in full kit, boasting that he played in a reserve match against Celtic. But while the caption mentions the other players by name, Ramsay is labelled simply as 'triallist'. And Rangers historian Robert McElroy said: 'It's all nonsense. The reserve team was really good but Ramsay wasn't even a signed player and wasn't in it.'^[19]However Allan Cairns, the photographer who took the picture in September 1985, said the photo was not one of Rangers first team but a side picked to play a testimonial match. A Rangers spokesman said: "Ramsay was a trialist in that testimonial game. He trained with us for a few months after that but then got injured."^[20]

Rangers revisited[link]

In series 4, episode 12 of The F Word (originally aired on 29 July 2008),^[21] Ramsay visited Ibrox, the home playing field of his favourite childhood team, Rangers, and exclaimed, "Home, Sweet Home" and said, "My dream came true when I was spotted in the mid-80s and I joined the youth team here in Ibrox." He related that one of his fondest memories is playing alongside one of Scotland's football legends, Ally McCoist, who said about Ramsay, "I remember him well and the one thing that never ever will change is that he's a competitive so-and-so and wants to do and be the best that he can." Ramsay recalled that, "the pain of being released on the back of an injury" was only assuaged many years later, "after receiving [his] third Michelin Star", and concluded that, "without the upset at Ibrox, I would not be the chef I am today."^[22]

Early cooking career[link]

By this time, Ramsay's interest in cooking had already begun, and rather than be known as "the football player with the gammy knee",^[10] at age 19, Ramsay paid more serious attention to his culinary education. After weighing his options, Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study Hotel Management. He describes his decision to enter catering college as "an accident, a complete accident".^[10]

In the late 1980s, he worked as a commis chef at the Roxburgh House Hotel, then ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms, until his sexual relationship with the owner's wife made the situation difficult.^[23] Ramsay then moved to London, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for the temperamental Marco Pierre White at Harveys.^[10]

After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. (While at Le Gavroche, he met Jean-Claude Breton, now his maître d' at Royal Hospital Road.) After working at Le Gavroche for a year, Albert Roux invited Ramsay to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in the French Alps, as his number two. From there, Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda.^[10]

Head chef[link]

Upon his return to London in 1993, Ramsay was offered the position of head chef at La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, Marco White re-entered his life, offering to set him up with a head chef position and 10% share in the Rossmore, owned by White's business partners. The restaurant was renamed Aubergine and went on to win its first Michelin star fourteen months later. In 1997, Aubergine won its second Michelin star. Despite the restaurant's success, a dispute with Ramsay's business owners and Ramsay's dream of running his own restaurant led to his leaving the partnership in 1997.^[10] In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. The restaurant gained its third Michelin star in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scotsman to achieve that feat.^[24]

From his first restaurant, Ramsay's empire has expanded rapidly, first opening Petrus, where six bankers famously spent over £44,000 on wine during a single meal in 2001,^[25] then Amaryllis in Glasgow (which he was later forced to close) and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. Restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught Hotels followed, the latter branded with his protégé, Angela Hartnett's, name. Ramsay has now begun opening restaurants outside the UK, beginning with Verre in Dubai. Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay both opened in Tokyo in 2005, and in November 2006, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened in New York City,^[26] winning top newcomer in the city’s coveted Zagat guide, despite mixed reviews from professional critics.^[27]

In 2007, Ramsay opened his first Irish restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.^[28] In May 2008 Ramsay opened his first US west coast restaurant, in Los Angeles, California. Situated in the former Bel-Age hotel on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, the hotel has been renovated and renamed The London West Hollywood. The restaurant is called Boxwood.

On 9 August 2011 Ramsay opened his first Canadian restaurant in Montreal. Laurier Gordon Ramsay, formerly Rotisserie Laurier BBQ, will continue on with the tradition of BBQ rotisserie but with an update Ramsay is known for.^[29] However, in February 2012 Danny Lavy — the owner of the restaurant — announced the restaurant was disassociating itself from Ramsay, citing a lack of involvement and understanding on Ramsay's part.^[30]

Awards[link]

Opened in 1998, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was Ramsay’s first solo restaurant, located at Royal Hospital Road, London. In 2001, it was voted Top Restaurant in the U.K. in the London Zagat Survey and was awarded its third Michelin star, making Gordon Ramsay the first Scottish chef to have ever won three Michelin stars.^[31] Though he spends more time on television than in the kitchen, Gordon Ramsay's Chelsea restaurant still managed to retain its three Michelin star status according to the latest edition of the guide.^[32] Ramsay is one of only four chefs in the UK to maintain three Michelin Stars for his restaurant (the others being Heston Blumenthal, Alain Ducasse and Alain Roux). He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 honours list for services to the hospitality industry, but almost missed the award when his plane was delayed.^[33]

In July 2006, Ramsay won the Catey award for "Independent Restaurateur of the Year", becoming only the third person to have won three Catey awards, the biggest awards of the UK hospitality industry. Ramsay's two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) and 2000 (Chef of the Year). The other two triple-winners are Michel Roux, and Jacquie Pern.

In September 2006, he was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry in the annual Caterersearch 100 list, published by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. He overtook Jamie Oliver, who had been top of the list in 2005.^[34]

Also in 2006, Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector at the University of St Andrews, but was beaten at the polls by Simon Pepper.^[35] Despite a publicity campaign, Ramsay never visited St Andrews and did not appear in press interviews.

Ramsay's flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, was voted London's top restaurant in food bible Harden's for eight years, but in 2008 was placed below Petrus, a restaurant run by former protégé Marcus Wareing.^[36]

Gordon Ramsay holdings[link]

All of Ramsay's business interests (restaurants, media, consultancy) are held in the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited. Run in partnership with his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, Ramsay owns a 69% stake valued at £67 million.^[37]

Whereas previous ventures acted as a combined consultant/brand, in November 2006 Ramsay announced plans to create three restaurants in the United States in partnership with private equity firm Blackstone Group, who are refurbishing each of the chosen hotels into five star locations at a cost of £100 million per hotel. At an investment of £3 million per restaurant for the 10-year lease, all the restaurants offer the chef’s trademark modern European cuisine, and opened in 2006/2007 at:

• Gordon Ramsay at the London Hotel in Manhattan, New York, October 2006^[26]
• Gordon Ramsay at the Cielo in Boca Raton, Florida
• Gordon Ramsay at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, California
• Gordon Ramsay at the Mirabelle in London

In late 2006 Gordon Ramsay Holdings purchased three London pubs which he converted into gastropubs. These are: The Narrow in Limehouse, which opened in March 2007, the Devonshire in Chiswick, which opened in October of that year and The Warrington in Maida Vale, which opened in February 2008. Both The Devonshire and The Warrington were subsequently sold in 2011, leaving The Narrow as the sole pub in GRH's portfolio.^[38]

Ramsay acts as a consultant to numerous catering organisations, and was recruited by Singapore Airlines as one of its "International Culinary Panel" consultants.^[39]

In May 2008 it was confirmed that Ramsay's protégé of 15 years, Marcus Wareing was going solo having opened and operated Pétrus at The Berkeley Hotel on behalf of Gordon Ramsay Holdings since 2003.^[40] With the name Pétrus owned by Gordon Ramsay Holdings, industry sources suggested it was likely to transfer to another restaurant in the group with the former La Noisette site identified as the most likely.^[41]

As of June 2009, Gordon Ramsay Holdings is reported to be in severe financial difficulty after a financial audit by accounting firm KPMG.^[42]

In April 2010, Jason Atherton, Executive chef of Maze restaurants worldwide resigned to open his own venue in Mayfair.^[43]

On 19 October 2010, the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited announced that Chris Hutcheson had left his position as CEO of Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd. Shortly after, Ramsay released a letter to the press describing how he had unraveled the "manipulative" Hutcheson's "complex life" after having him followed by a private detective. His father-in-law's "away days", wrote Ramsay, "were rarely what I thought they were". Company accounts show Hutchenson borrowed up to £1.5 million from Gordon Ramsay Holdings, of which he was chief executive, though he says he reported the borrowings to the company and paid the money back. Hutcheson said he had been "vaporised" and subjected to a "public hanging" by Ramsay, whom he described as a friendless egotist.^[44]

Television[link]

Ramsay's first foray in television was in two fly-on-the-kitchen-wall documentaries: Boiling Point (1998) and Beyond Boiling Point (2000).

Ramsay appeared on series three of Faking It in 2001 helping the prospective chef, a burger flipper named Ed Devlin, learn the trade. This episode won the 2001 BAFTA for "Best Factual TV Moment".^[45][46]

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 one week period. This series ran its fifth season in 2007. Hell's Kitchen was a reality show, which aired on ITV1, and saw Ramsay attempt to train ten 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.

In May 2005, the FOX network introduced Ramsay to American audiences in a US version of Hell's Kitchen produced by Granada Entertainment and A. Smith & Co. The show follows a similar premise as the original British series, showcasing Ramsay's perfectionism and infamous short temper. The show proved to be popular enough with audiences in the United States that, in August 2005, shortly following the Season 1 finale, Hell's Kitchen was picked up for a second season. The show has now run nine seasons. In addition, Ramsay had also hosted a US version of Kitchen Nightmares which premiered on Fox on 19 September 2007. The show's second season aired from September 2008 to January 2009; in September 2008, Fox announced that Kitchen Nightmares would return for a third season which aired from January 2010 to May 2010.

Ramsay at BBC Gardeners' World Live 2008

Ramsay has presented five series of a food-based magazine programme titled The F-Word; it launched on Channel 4 on 27 October 2005. The show is organised around several key, recurring features, notably a brigade competition, a guest cook competition, a food related investigative report and a series-long project of raising animals to be served in the finale. The guest cook (usually a celebrity) prepares a dish of their own choosing and places it in competition against a similar dish submitted by Ramsay. The dishes are judged by diners who are unaware of who cooked which dish and, if the guest wins (as they have on numerous occasions), their dish is served at Ramsay's restaurant.

In the first series of The F-Word, Ramsay mockingly named the turkeys he raised: Antony, Ainsley, Jamie, Delia, Gary and Nigella — all in reference to other celebrity chefs. During the second series, Ramsay named the two pigs that he was raising after Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine^[47] who found the naming highly amusing.^[48] In July 2006, Channel 4 announced that it had re-signed Ramsay to an exclusive four-year deal at the network, running until July 2011.^[49] During the third series, Ramsay reared lambs that had been selected from a farm in North Wales and he named them after two Welsh celebrities, Charlotte Church and Gavin Henson. The series became one of the highest rated shows aired on Channel 4 each week.^[50] During one episode of The F-Word, Ramsay cooked in Doncaster Prison in Marshgate for its inmates. The chef was so impressed by the speed at which a prisoner, Kieron Tarff, chopped vegetables that he offered him a job at his restaurant following his release in 2007.^[51]

In 2010, Ramsay served as a producer and judge on the US version of MasterChef.^[52] (A second season of the show began in June 2011, again starring Ramsay.) He starred in a travelogue about his visit to India, Gordon's Great Escape followed by a series set in Asia. He hosted the series Ramsay's Best Restaurant, which was the first UK series by Ramsay's own production company, One Potato Two Potato.

Ramsay joined several other celebrity chefs in the 2010 series, The Big Fish Fight, where he, along with fellow chef Jamie Oliver and a few others, spent time on a trawler boat to raise awareness about the discarding of hundreds of thousands of salt water fish.

In March 2012, Fox announced the coming of Ramsay's fourth series for the Fox network, Hotel Hell;^[53] the series is similar to Kitchen Nightmares, except that it focuses on struggling hotels, motels and other lodging establishments in the United States.^[54] Originally slated for debut 6 April 2012^[55] and 4 June 2012,^[56] the series has been delayed until later in the summer.^[57]

Guest appearances[link]

In September 2005, Ramsay, along with Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, Wolfgang Puck and Sanjeev Kapoor, were featured in CNN International's Quest, in which Richard Quest stepped into the shoes of celebrity chefs.^[58]

In 2006, Ramsay took part in a television series for ITV1, following the lead-up to Soccer Aid, a celebrity charity football match, in which he played only the first half, nursing an injury picked up in training. Ramsay captained the Rest of the World XI against an England XI captained by Robbie Williams. However, his involvement was limited after he received a four-inch cut in his calf.

During his second Top Gear appearance, he stated that his current cars are a Ferrari F430 and a Range Rover Sport Supercharged, the latter replacing the Bentley Continental GT he previously owned. On 14 May 2006, he appeared on Top Gear in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment. Ramsay held the top spot on Top Gear's celebrity leader board, with a lap time of 1.46.38 until overtaken by Simon Cowell.^[59]

Ramsay starred in part of a National Blood Service "Give Blood" television advertisement, in which he said that he would have died from a ruptured spleen^[60] had it not have been for another person's blood donation. On 13 October 2006, he was guest host on the first episode of Have I Got News for You's 32nd series. On 27 December 2007 Ramsay appeared in the Extras Christmas special.

In January 2008, Ramsay also guest featured on Channel 4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack as the Big Brother housemates took part in his Cookalong Live television show. Gordon spoke directly to the Big Brother House via the house plasma screens, regularly checking on the progress of the contestants.

In 2011, during the results show of American Idol, footage of the top 5 contestants taking on a challenge of cooking with Gordon Ramsay was shown. The Top 5 were given 10 minutes to make the best omelets.

Ramsay also made an appearance on The Simpsons episode "The Food Wife" in November 2011.

Legal proceedings[link]

In June 2006, Ramsay won a High Court case against the London Evening Standard newspaper, in which Victor Lewis Smith had alleged, after reports from previous owner Sue Ray, that scenes and the general condition of Bonaparte's had been faked for Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Ramsay was awarded £75,000 plus costs.^[61] Ramsay said at the time: "I won't let people write anything they want to about me. We have never done anything in a cynical fake way".

In June 2007, Ramsay's show was sued by the terminated general manager (Martin Hyde) of the New York restaurant Purnima (Dillon's), who also alleged fakery. Hyde had quit his position at the restaurant during the show, when Ramsay suggested that the owner hire top Indian Chef Vikas Khanna as the Consultant Chef for Purnima. The lawsuit alleged that "unknown to the viewing audience, some or all of Kitchen Nightmares are fake and the so-called 'problems uncovered and solved' by Ramsay are, for the most part, created by Ramsay and his staff for the purpose of making it appear that Ramsay is improving the restaurant".^[62] However, in August 2007, the case was dismissed voluntarily and ordered into arbitration as stipulated in their contract.^[63]

On 21 March 2012, Ramsay filed a $2.7 million lawsuit against his former partners of his restaurant in Montreal, Canada, the Laurier Gordon Ramsay (since renamed The Laurier 1936), over lost licensing fees and defamatory statements made against him.^[64][65]

Public image and reception[link]

Personality[link]

Ramsay's reputation is built upon his goal of culinary perfection. Since the airing of Boiling Point which followed Ramsay's quest of earning three Michelin stars, the chef has also become infamous for his fiery temperament and use of expletives.^[66] Ramsay once famously ejected food critic A. A. Gill along with his dining companion, Joan Collins, from his restaurant, leading Gill to state that "Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being".^[24] Ramsay admitted in his autobiography that he did not mind if Gill insulted his food, but a personal insult he was not going to stand for. Ramsay has also had confrontations with his kitchen staff, including one incident that resulted in the pastry chef calling the police.^[67] A 2005 interview claimed Ramsay had retained 85% of his staff since 1993.^[68]

Ramsay attributes his pugnacious management style to the influence of previous mentors, notably chefs Marco Pierre White and Guy Savoy, father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, and Jock Wallace, his manager while a footballer at Rangers.^[69]

Ramsay's ferocious temper has contributed to his media appeal in both the United Kingdom and the United States, where his programmes are produced.^[70][71] His fierce personality ensured that he was voted television's most terrifying celebrity in a Radio Times poll consisting of 3,000 people.^[72] MSN Careers featured an article about television's worst bosses, which listed Ramsay as the only non-fictional boss. They cited his frequent loss of his temper and his harsh critiques, notably when he picks on something other than one's cooking abilities, such as calling someone a "chunky monkey."^[73] He maintains that such behaviour within the kitchen is necessary and demonstrates passion.

Although Ramsay often mocks the French, one of his most trusted maîtres d, Jean-Claude Breton (Royal Hospital Road) is French.^[74][75]

In November 2007, Ramsay installed 29-year-old Clare Smyth as head chef at his three-Michelin-starred flagship restaurant on London’s Royal Hospital Road.^[76] Smyth is the second high profile appointment of a female chef by Ramsay, after Angela Hartnett.

Ramsay has been criticised for his frequent use of profanity on his programmes, first by British celebrity cook Delia Smith,^[77] then, in relation to Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, by a member of the Federal Parliament of Australia.^[78] In his autobiography, Ramsay himself said he was unaware of the extent of his swearing until he watched an episode of Boiling Point. While he stated he did not have a problem with it, "Mum was appalled".

On 5 June 2009, Ramsay started trading national TV insults with Australia's Nine Network, A Current Affair journalist Tracy Grimshaw. The day after his interview, he was a guest feature at the Melbourne Food and Wine festival. While doing his display, he added some comments pertaining to a person who's name "starts with a T" at which time an audience member completed his sentence by shouting out Tracy Grimshaw's name. Ramsay laughed and said, "Oh don't shout that out". This incident was taken out of context by Tracy Grimshaw where she made claims of Ramsay questioning her sexual orientation and responded by calling Ramsay an "arrogant, narcissist bully" and implied that Ramsay mistreats his wife.^[79][80] Ramsay eventually apologised, stating that his behavior "was a joke".^[81][82]

Ramsay has also drawn the ire of vegetarians. In 2005, he served ham to an unknowing vegetarian. He has also told the BBC that he has lied to vegetarian diners to conceal the presence of chicken stock in his soup.^[83]