TV chefs and bitter rivals Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver took brutal, public digs at each other for over a decade as their feud made headlines for years. But it was in fact a personal tragedy that ended their rift. The world-famous celebrity chefs had an ongoing rivalry for years and while their snipes were often light-hearted, Gordon’s frequent digs seemingly got to Jamie on occasion.
Now Jamie Oliver’s new series on Channel 4, Fast and Simple, sees the TV chef return to screens to share his step-by-step speedy guides to creating mouth-watering food fast – and reveals some of his top chef tips.
The chefs’ feud is believed to have began back in 2009 when Jamie criticised Ramsay for comparing Australian journalist Tracey Grimshaw to a pig. As reported by The Mirror, he told The Sun: “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.”
Gordon apologised to Ms Grimshaw but said the Naked Chef was a “‘one pot wonder”. He said: “Everything kind of gets mixed in – hands in. It’s a very different style to me. He sticks it in the oven, comes back three hours later and it’s done. We cook differently. I use basic ingredients taken up with a lot more excitement. But competition is healthy. It’s good to have that kind of rivalry.”
Gordon added fuel to the fire as he was also asked when he had last complained about a meal and answered: “Last time I had dinner at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant.”
Upping the ante, Jamie then hailed Gordon’s wife Tana’s cookbook better than the Hell’s Kitchen star’s. In 2010, Gordon made additional negative comments in which he called Jamie a mere cook instead of a chef.
Ramsay also criticised Oliver’s promotion of healthy eating. “It’s all very well to spout off now about sugar tax and supermarkets,” Ramsay told Radio Times in 2017. “None of that was spoken about when he was label-slapping with Sainsbury’s for ten years.”
Gordon then repeatedly teased Jamie over his weight and cooking while hosting The Nightly Show in March 2017. Gordon penned a mock-apology letter to Jamie which read: “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.
“What I said was hurtful, Jamie. I don’t want to make you cry. The last thing I want to do is look at your cute face and think: blubber, blubber, blubber.”
But Jamie’s comments proved to be a turning point in the long-running feud, and led to an enraged Gordon vowing never to speak to him again unless he apologised to “mortified” wife Tana.
The previous year, Gordon and Tana had suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage when she was five months pregnant with son Rocky, and Gordon saw Jamie’s comments as a dig about them having one fewer child.
Ramsay took offense at Oliver’s remarks and the duo became embroiled in an extraordinary row over the comments.
Gordon accused Jamie of ‘judging’ him for having four children at the time compared with the star’s five. When Jamie was asked about Gordon’s Nightly Show remarks by The Sun in August, he said: ‘”I was doing TV years before him, so maybe five years ago it would have bothered me and I may have responded.
“But he’s got four kids and I’ve got five kids, and I don’t want to be slagging off some kids’ dad on telly. It’s not nice.”
Gordon said he interpreted the comments as a dig after what was “a s*** year”. He told Radio Times that their long-term ‘feud’ was ‘fun’ until Jamie made the comment.
He said: ‘”Jamie turned round and said, ‘I’ve got five kids, he’s got four kids.’ To judge someone else’s family on the amount of kids you have…boys will always fight and butt heads but Tana was mortified, I mean really mortified.”
Jamie had been one of the first to express his sympathies to Gordon and Tana following their loss, and he insisted his comments were intended to be “fairly grown-up and reasonable”.
“I don’t want personal spats in public with someone that, to be honest, I don’t even really know any more… I don’t think he liked me taking the high ground,” he told the Radio Times.
“I think that’s basically it. So, I’m going to take the high ground now and say I wish him all the best, and all success. Good luck to him. But we have both got kids, and I don’t know what sort of example we’re setting if we’re arguing like we’re in the playground.”
Despite years of animosity, the two supposedly quashed the feud for good in 2019. In an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, Ramsay confirmed they were friends. It was at a similar time when Jamie’s restaurant empire went bust.
Gordon expressed his sympathy for Jamie and commended his talents. “Listen, that was devastating,” Ramsay told Ross. “I don’t think anyone likes to revel in that kind of failure. And also yeah, the bottom line is, he’s a great guy, great chef, and it was sad to see, you know, him disappear overnight.”
The chef added the families even barbecued together while on holiday in Cornwall in 2018. Then on TikTok in August this year, Ramsay admitted that his wife uses Jamie’s cookbooks to whip up lasagne and shepherd’s pie when she’s having guests over, and also posted a TikTok clip of himself with one of his rival’s recipe books.
