Is it fair to judge a chef by his television show?
The 41-year-old Michelin- starred British chef Gordon Ramsay, star of Fox’s scurrilously sensational unscripted television series “Hell’s Kitchen,” doesn’t care.
If his show distresses you, he suggested while promoting his new cookbook, “Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food” (Key Porter Books, $35), you can “turn it over.” (That’s Britspeak for “change the channel.”)
Anyone who judges a chef by his cookbook, however, would have to assume Ramsay is a bit of a pussycat.
“I use TV to fund my restaurants, so I don’t have to be governed by a board of directors who sit in my office and tell me what to do,” said Ramsay, who looked exhausted, dressed in a baby blue T-shirt, jeans and Nikes, after signing 300 or so books recently at Macy’s on State Street in Chicago. His surprisingly soft-spoken voice and deep, prematurely crinkled brow makes him seem fragile rather than frightening in person.
Ramsay’s show is fast and furious, channeling aggression, perfectionism and competition into creating winning food, but his new cookbook is warm and delightful, and it channels his energy and expertise into winning dishes for real life — the one outside of reality TV.
“I’ve got a responsibility on my shoulders with the children,” he said, in his mild, mile-a-minute off-camera voice. He has four kids younger than 9 with wife Tana, a teacher and cookbook author herself.
“We don’t do independent dinners to suit their needs. We cook, and they eat.”
Megan, Matilda and twins Jack and Holly each make their own ketchups, since bottled is banned in the house. They’ll eat lambs’ brains on toast and rabbit with tagliatelle (“they eat like horses,” he said), but don’t eat in restaurants because their parents don’t want to create food snobs.
“Just knowing how to eat well, and having etiquette table manners is paramount. Not eating till everyone has been served, not leaving without asking permission,” he said.
Anyway, like the show, his cookbook is about food done well and fast — but in a kinder, gentler way.
“The point was to say fast food doesn’t have to be junk food,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with a burger, there’s nothing with a Caesar salad — in moderation. But it’s so easy to make a burger. It’s so easy to make a soup together.”
And — no surprise here — Ramsay has little patience for anyone who says they don’t have the time, especially since he spent a month testing the idea that real cooking can be part of everyday life.
“I started out with raw ingredients … the kids are coming home, what do I do, I gotta pick them up, we’ve got homework, have to feed them. I did that for 30 days, and it was absolutely a nightmare. But I came out of it with the book — how to fragment your week and make sure that fast food never ever has to be junk food!”
And his everyday dishes — they take 30 to 45 minutes — do seem doable and very kid-friendly without sacrificing big flavors or imagination, like some quickie cookbooks.
“They are absolutely doable. Every page!” he said. “Ninety percent of the battle is organization.”
His kids’ favorite? The fast vegetable curry, which they are “absolutely obsessed with,” he said. “All you do then is make a fragrant rice — a beautiful steamed rice with marjoram or flat-leaf parsley, or even cloves or star anise — so lovely.”
And they’re nuts about his sticky lemon chicken, which he now makes on weekends.
“I have to say, (it) is to die for, absolutely so easy and so delicious, involving fruit and a sort of sweet and sour aspect, which makes it lot more exciting,” he said, sounding excited too.
“I serve them a wing or a drum or a thigh. It’s delicious eaten off of the bone. And it’s not doused in sedated barbecued sauce or tomato ketchup. A touch of sherry vinegar, a little soy, fresh lemon cooked through there?
“Yes, just absolutely beautiful.”
