it's easy to dislike a person like British chef Gordon Ramsay, the harsh language, the 'in your face' and often aggressive attitude. my first experience of him on the television i remember him hiding parma ham in a pizza then feeding it to a vegetarian who enjoyed it immensely, then telling him afterwards in a cocky manner and watching the poor guy turn white as he threw it up. i didn't entertain him for a few years after that stunt. i think it took quite a while before viewers came to accept him at all, never mind to actually like him.
One of my favourite television series was Kitchen Nightmares where he toured restaurants around England and later America turning round worthless businesses led by ambitious, but mostly deluded business owners, and in my opinion genuinely changing peoples lives for the better, leaving them with the skills to excel. good reality television.
i recently finished watching the first part of his new three part series titled "Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape" it's called this because things haven't been going well for the guy. in the new series he travels in India to find out about great Indian food from the richest and poorest places. a great show.
say what you want to say about the persona that is Gordon Ramsay, but, the bottom line is this: the guy is a winner. full stop. but a winner at what cost? well it comes at the cost of a few people finding him rude and i'm sure a few people being upset, but, the man is at the top of several trees with a list of accomplishments longer than an Indian banquet guest list in a career that doesn't take prisoners, it executes them. a person that constantly faces challenges (sometimes life threatening) runs marathons for charity and is constantly re-inventing himself and facing new fears without a moments hesitation.
personally i don't own a TV, and this suits me like smoke does a salmon. it helps me enjoy the sprinkling of television i have watched over the past year or two. no doubt a little of the guy goes along way, but i used to be a much rougher version of the person i am now. i upset plenty of people, rattled a few cages, told people how i saw it and thought very little of it. but i'm a smart guy and a cheeky monkey with it. i'll never forget leaving a woman in tears, then bumping into her years later and her thanking me saying that a bit of truth was what she needed. it's a mistake to be closed minded about any behaviour in a world where things are simply not as they seem, nor are they otherwise.
the media love to see a hero fall, but he's a fighter that won't stay down despite countless beatings. in modern Britain's age of extreme political correctness Gordon is a rare gem. the very nature of genius is to be at least a little mis-understood. and lets not forget, nobody needs a kick in the face but some people need a kick up the arse for their own good.
sorry, but it's true.
