LONDON:
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay goes behind the camera for new series, Edge knife: chasing Michelin stars, which highlights restaurants working to achieve coveted culinary distinction. The multi-star restaurateur and television personality is an executive producer of the eight-part Apple TV+ series premiering Friday, which visits restaurants in the United States, Britain, Italy, the Nordics and Mexico looking to win, or keep, states.
“(It) is kind of a real reflection on what’s going on in these companies: what’s at stake, what kind of danger is up for grabs, and then the emotions,” Ramsay told Reuters. “It’s a real, unscripted version of life in the culinary world and how far you go for the badge of honor.
The episodes see host Jesse Burgess meeting with chefs as they put together menus, star dishes and seek to impress that lonely diner who may be a secret Michelin inspector. There is also the contribution of anonymous Michelin inspectors, voiced by the actors. “We ask them questions and they answer. In reality, everything was very secretive so that none of the producers or anyone actually saw the actual inspectors,” Burgess said. “They just judge the food on the plate.”
The first Michelin guide was published by the French Tire Company in 1900, with the Restaurant Star rating introduced in the 1920s. The Guides annual awards awards up to three stars.
Ramsay received his first Michelin star when he was head chef at London restaurant Aubergine. His Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has organized three stars since 2001.
“You become an overnight sensation and then you have the fight and the slug to keep it going, you have to understand the word delegation, teaching, creating, and most importantly, passing the baton,” he said. “I have one foot in the kitchen and one foot in the media world and I’m there 16 hours a day? No, of course I’m not. I’m there like a conductor and I’ll sign things, but I want to hear them. And so maintaining it is where the real work begins.”
Asked if he always gets nervous when Michelin issues new editions of the guide, Ramsay said: “I get nervous, no one likes to lose, (going) to two stars is unique, but it’s a big rude if you do it. I’m often asked, ‘What would you do if you lost one star?’ “Then I would fight and bring him back.”
