Gordon Ramsay is getting candid about past experiences with food critics.
When the topic of restaurant reviewers came up on the Feb. 20 episode of The Graham Norton Show, the celebrity chef began a story by sharing, “You know, I kicked out Joan Collins by accident.”
“She was with a critic that absolutely panned the restaurant prior and they turned back up literally a few months later,” he went on.
“And I said to this critic, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” Ramsay, 59, recalled, noting that Collins, as his guest, was “furious.”
However, the Kitchen Nightmares host clarified that he made amends with the Dynasty star.
“I did apologize to Joan after,” he said.
“It’s hard, though, isn’t it, when you’re under that kind of criticism, when you’re being judged by individuals that know less about food than you,” he admitted.
The culinary star’s comments echo an anecdote he shared in the first episode of his new Netflix documentary series, Being Gordon Ramsay.
“One of the most prolific critics had a brutal personal vendetta,” he says in the show. “When he walked in with Joan Collins, he thought that I wouldn’t have the balls to do anything to him ‘cause he’s sat with the glamorous, amazing Joan Collins.”
“And yeah, I couldn’t wait for him to sit down, get the menu, time 20 minutes and ask him to get the hell out of that restaurant because whether you’re with Joan Collins or sat with the queen, you’re still going out, mate – you’re not sitting here,” he continued.
Ramsay concluded, “I know it was wrong, but that’s what happens when women like Joan Collins come to dinner with knobheads.”
The restaurateur gives a candid look into his life in the series, which premiered on the streaming platform on Feb. 18.
Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the premiere, the dad of six said he wanted to take viewers beyond the “shiny” culinary shows he’s known for, such as MasterChef.
“I wanted to show the other side, the other half of me and I don’t think that’s been done properly,” he said. “And so it wasn’t sanitized and set up where it looked slightly, ‘oh God, this is boring.’ It was real and not many people have seen me in my pajamas.”
