The comment that caused Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay to feud for 10 years
Healthy competition is positive, but some competitors mainly spend a whole lot of time feuding. Madonna has had a feud with pretty much everyone, and not everyone in the culinary world gets along either. Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, for example, had a whopping 10-year spat—and all because of one remark by Jamie.
Now, I have to admit that Jamie’s remark was provoked by a dig from Gordon Ramsay. Gordon isn’t exactly known for his tact outside the kitchen either.
What a pig
Here’s what happened. Gordon Ramsay called Australian journalist Tracy Grimshaw a pig. A pig. Not very nice, and when The Sun asked Jamie about the remark, he said the following: “Aussies aren’t forgiving. Once you’re gone, you’re gone… It’s never good to criticise a woman, especially when they’re loved by their country and you do it on national television.”
Not exactly a very juicy remark, you might think, but Gordon took it completely the wrong way. He called Jamie an ‘one-pot wonder’ and said that the last time he had complained at a restaurant, it had been at one of Jamie Oliver’s spots.
The drama continues
That didn’t go down well with Jamie either, and so the high-school drama between two grown men (with overly large egos) continued. Jamie declared that he found Tana’s (Gordon’s wife’s) cookbook many times better than Ramsay’s own.
But then Gordon came back. AND HOW. He hosted The Nightly Show for a week, during which he absolutely tore Jamie apart. After that week, he came up with the following “apology letter”, which came across as anything but sincere: “I just want to say that I’m sorry. I have been hard on you this week, Jamie. I’ve called you fat, I’ve criticised your restaurants, called you fat, said you enjoyed prison sex, and called you fat.”
Pfff, childish, isn’t it? Jamie responded that they were both fathers and therefore should rise above it (true), and Gordon and his wife then took that as another dig because of his wife’s recent miscarriage. Eeuuh, okay…
Bankruptcy brings them back together
All’s well that ends well? Sort of. Jamie’s restaurants went bankrupt, and instead of publicly gloating about it, Gordon said that he was genuinely very sorry for him and wished Jamie strength. But honestly, he must have secretly been enjoying that immensely.
