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Rarely does a compliment cross the lips of the usually vituperative .
As for grudges, once he’s made one he certainly knows how to hold it – as his daughter’s new mother-in-law, Caroline Peaty, can certainly attest.
But of all the enemies he’s made, there’s one Gordon has loathed more than any: his former boss, chef . He once described him as the living person he ‘dislikes the most’.
So what a surprise it is to hear on his new show, Being Gordon Ramsay, that after decades of denigrating him, he now has fond things to say about Marco, revering him – all of a sudden – as a father figure.
Extraordinarily, I can reveal this affection is very much reciprocated – so much so that after 30 years of war, peace has officially broken out between these two culinary titans.
Indeed Marco, 64, told me this week in an exclusive interview, how he now ‘loves’ Gordon, 59, whom he describes as a ‘beautiful’ man, and heaps praise on his former protege for being ‘brave’ enough to take part in the new documentary (albeit one produced by Ramsay’s own production company).
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In fact, the Daily Mail can further exclusively reveal that, so deep is this new-found bond, the two former enemies have collaborated to drop a common old foe – and fellow chef – Jamie Oliver, from a future project they were all considering working on together.
It’s true that Gordon owes much to Marco: he got his first big break in his restaurant, Harveys, in Wandsworth, south west London, in the 1980s.
As for grudges, once he’s made one Gordon Ramsay (pictured) certainly knows how to hold it – as his daughter’s new mother-in-law, Caroline Peaty, can certainly attest
But of all the enemies he’s made, there’s one Gordon has loathed more than any: his former boss, chef Marco Pierre White (pictured). He once described him as the living person he ‘dislikes the most’
Marco, the Enfant Terrible of the UK restaurant scene of the era, was known for his fiery temper and uncompromising standards that once reduced his tough guy apprentice to tears.
On his Netflix show, however, Gordon reflects warmly on those times, saying: ‘Marco was brutal in an incredible way. The hardest boss. When I started cooking, I didn’t have a father that “got” me and my career. I had a father that told me, you know, cooking was for women, it wasn’t a man’s job.
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'Then I got into a kitchen with the first British chef ever to win three [Michelin] stars, the most prolific chef in this country, Marco Pierre White and he was like in fact a father figure. He had this gift, this Picasso, he put food on a plate like no other.’
He adds: ‘I was Marco’s right hand man. I went to hell and back every day for 18 hours a day six days a week. But the skills I was learning was at a rate of knots. I became good very quickly and he brought that out of me.’
These are dramatically different terms from how Gordon used to talk about his old boss. He once described him as a ‘two faced’ bruiser, who was ‘so bitter’ about his former employee’s success.
He may have had a point: Marco infamously once posed on a magazine cover with a facsimile of Ramsay’s head on a platter and was quoted saying: ‘Everything Gordon does is contrived, unnatural, derivative.’
The insults continued: Gordon spoke about how Marco compared him to ‘dog ****’ when they got in each other’s way during one service at Harveys.
Meanwhile, Marco Jr, a former Big Brother contestant, was handed a three-year prison sentence in October last year for a £60,000 shoplifting spree.
