Esquire Chats With Gordon Ramsay | Esquire Philippines - video Dailymotion

Esquire Philippines

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay sat down with Esquire Philippines to discuss his love for Filipino food, his mentorship style, and his constant drive to learn and improve, even after achieving great success. #EsquirePHVideo

Transcript

00:00Consistency is number one on our agenda wherever we are in the world and so it goes down to the

00:05training program. I look at the attitude of these young Filipino chefs and it's majestic.

00:11They remind me so much of myself at the age of 22.

00:22I'm so excited to be here in the Philippines. It means a lot. I think it's one of the sort

00:25of sleeping beauties of Asia and now some of the best restaurants in some of the most exciting

00:31cities in the world are Filipino. I've spent a lot of time in Australia recently and the US

00:37and hotspots in the top 10 is Filipino restaurants and so we've removed this blanket of

00:43discovery. There's this incredible excitement behind the Filipino cuisine and so having a

00:50chance to open here. We started this journey nearly two years ago. You're looking at the

00:54sites recruiting, the building, the menu but for me it comes down to the projects. I didn't think

00:59I could create a better fish and chips outside of London and to do it here in Manila with the

01:05lepo lepo fish it's extraordinary. So there's a rich culture here that needs to be respected.

01:11I love the regional diversity of Filipino cuisine as well and then you've got the the complexity

01:18you know the acids, the vinegar, the fish stews, the marinades, its fragrance and so Filipino

01:24cuisine for me now can equally sit alongside Thai, Southeast Asian. I've been a big lover of Korean,

01:33Vietnamese and Filipino cuisine now is ranked certainly in that top five. It's been a long

01:39time coming but there's something quite humble about the approach and there's something sort of

01:46almost reassuring in a way that it's not comfort, it's tradition but no waste. They maximize their

01:54flavor but most importantly the dishes are beautiful, really beautiful.

02:03Oh I think there's lots of challenging daily insights and nothing that we can't handle by

02:09the way and so consistency is number one on our agenda wherever we are in the world and so it

02:15goes down to the training program. I look at the attitude of these young Filipino chefs and

02:19it's majestic. They remind me so much of myself at the age of 22. They don't want to go home after

02:24their shift, they want to come in on their days off, they want to continue educating their palate

02:29and so when you're running an empire on the scale of what we're doing it needs to be consistent

02:35but I teach and we now have culinary academies around the world that are not

02:43two, three, four year courses. We're teaching dishes so you can get up to speed in 30 days with

02:5012 incredible dishes and I think that's been the key to the success in training.

02:59And the most fulfilling for me is seeing the level of execution in terms of just how

03:04quick these young chefs pick it up and they have this intrusion of social media today. They learn

03:09so much quicker because they're looking at their phones, they're looking at their apps and they're

03:13looking at these platforms so you know a great young chef can travel fast if they take notice

03:19to what's around them 24-7 so few chefs you know disregard that intrusion. I welcome it because

03:29it's the modern culture and it's similar to art, it's similar to fashion, similar to sport

03:35food is on all these platforms now so take advantage of that.

03:39I think my secret is staying relevant and having fun with it and so the seriousness is in the

03:44restaurants and the fun is on the platforms. I think we're about 120 million followers on all

03:49those platforms together and so 40 million plus of TikTok and when people ask me to critique

03:55the food I love that so with my down time and we get chance to have a go and have some fun.

04:02Also having three daughters that are young, up-and-coming, future generation potentially

04:08chefs. Matilda is a big, big lover of social media and so we have fun on that and I think

04:16that little bit of family dynamic can translate and make recipes less intimidating, a bit more

04:21fun and so we're lucky from all-day dining, all-day cooking, all-day eating, all-day

04:29from all-day dining to incredible burgers, to incredible restaurants, bar and grill,

04:35one-star, two-star, three-star mission. We need to be, we need to be diverse, we need to be

04:41multi-facet and so I want to show other young chefs that you can do it all, you can have a

04:48great reputation online and a great restaurant reputation. It doesn't need to be one or the other.

04:52I think on the personal front, winning three stars in France, three Michelin stars in France

05:04is the ultimate goal because they taught me how to cook. I got everything I wanted from some of

05:10the best chefs on the planet and so to have two stars, we are so close in Bordeaux and so we're

05:16one star away from achieving. I think after that every year we need, you know, a target, a plan.

05:24I have an Ironman coming up in July so I'm training for that currently so I can eat happily,

05:30I don't have to worry about my weight, I focus and I unwind as I train. So they're the two

05:37real key items on my agenda for 25. Three stars in France and to cross that line as an Ironman in July.

05:46I do spend a lot of time in the kitchen today. Am I behind the line running the fish station? No.

05:51Am I at the front of the orchestra conducting it? Yes I am. If we stay behind the line then no one

05:55gets taught. So that next stage of evolution and developing in terms of how to aspire to become a

06:02great leader, you need to transition and so understanding that transition is crucial. I've

06:08been a line cook, I've been behind the line 18-19 hours but if you don't let go it will take you

06:14down and I look at Alain Ducasse, Joe Robuchon, the late Joe Robuchon. Joe Robuchon had four

06:22three-star Michelin, Alain Ducasse today has three three-star Michelin. Great leaders in their field

06:28and so I think my responsibility now going forward is to emulate what I've been taught

06:33and to teach and to become the most unselfish chef on the planet and so that's the generosity

06:40in me to teach them to get them as good as or if not better than than Gordon Ramsay. I see

06:48examples like Claire Smith, you know first ever female in the UK to win three stars. She was by

06:55my side for 12 years so for her to step out on her own and to win the ultimate accolade, Matt

07:01Abbey will be the next one, Kim will be the next one after that. There could be a rising star in

07:07the kitchen here from a young talented Filipino female chef. So yeah we want future facing chefs

07:14and so that's the role. I want to pass the baton over soon but I'm not done yet.

Esquire Chats With Gordon Ramsay | Esquire Philippines

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