Gordon Ramsay is an hour late. At his restaurant in Claridge's, staff are silently setting tables with such precision you'd swear they used protractors. Everything looks perfect. But although the room has been designed to make well-heeled diners feel relaxed, waiting to meet Ramsay is a nerve-jangling experience. Because if the volcanic chef is behind schedule and in a bad mood, we could all be in line for one of his legendary roastings.
Suddenly the man himself bursts through the mirrored kitchen doors. "So sorry for being so late," he says. "I got held up. Bloody food critics. Hate them. Absolutely hate them." First impressions are surprising. Ramsay charms with friendly chat and quick-fire jokes. But it's a surprise to hear that food critics still bother him.
As Britain's top chef and the only one with five Michelin stars - three for the eponymous Chelsea restaurant, one for Claridge's and one for Amaryllis in Glasgow - he'd be forgiven for not giving a stuffed squid about what they say in the papers. But Ramsay cannot bear criticism. He bristles as he recalls some of the nastier reviews and remembers every word as if they've tumbled around in his head since the day they were printed.
Surely, after so many years at the top, he's too big to let critics bug him? "Oh, it still hurts," he admits. "I still take it personally. I can't help it. It's my dream to perform at this level, so it's hard if someone knocks those dreams."
Ramsay works so hard to keep his dream alive because his boyhood dream was shattered. Most people know he was a first team Glasgow Rangers player. But few realise the pain of being dropped by the club lasted until two years ago. "The first time any thoughts of being a footballer were removed was when I achieved my ultimate goal - winning my third Michelin star," says Ramsay.
"As a player you want to go on and represent your country and win an FA Cup medal. As an actor you want to win an Oscar, and as a chef three Michelin stars. There's never been a Scottish chef with three stars - you can't get more than that."
Born in Port Glasgow, Ramsay grew up in Johnstone as a Rangers fan like his father and uncles. His family moved to Stratford-Upon-Avon when Ramsay was nine, and he put all his efforts into playing football. While competing at county level, aged 14, he was spotted by a Rangers scout. Throughout the next year Ramsay lived for school holidays when he'd travel to Glasgow to train with the club until he was taken on as part of the Youth Training Scheme.
"There wasn't any form of contract or level of commitment then," remembers Ramsay. "You were just part of the club. You lived for it." But the pay-off was the pressure. Ramsay's parents, two sisters and one brother upped sticks from Stratford to move back to Glasgow to support their shining star. "My parents saw it as a chance to move back up to be beside their family and support me," he says. "But the pressure was immense, so I tried to keep on blanking it all out."
By the time he had reached 18. Ramsay had risen through the ranks to play two first team professional games - one at Ibrox and the other at St Johnstone. "The St Johnstone friendly was the first time I played with Coisty (Ally McCoist)," remembers Ramsay. "Davie Cooper, Ian Ferguson and Derek Ferguson were just breaking through in the year above me. So yeah - it was a dream."
But it was short-lived. Ramsay smashed a cartilage and was out of the game for 11 weeks. "I tried to come back too soon after it," he says. "There was no such thing as keyhole surgery in those days. Seven months later - stupidly - I played a game of squash. I tore a crucial ligament and was in plaster for four months.
"I was in so much pain, and so many things go through your mind. Your confidence is wiped out in one second. You become paranoid and don't believe your dream could be taken away at such an early age. I felt fine after the operation, plaster and rehab. But I came under scrutiny and Rangers could spot it. They said my leg wasn't the same. Deep down I knew it never felt the same."
The next season Rangers released him. Former manager Jock Wallace and former assistant manager Archie Knox broke the news to 19-year-old Ramsay and his father. They suggested he went into rehabilitation, stepped down a league, joined another club to become match fit and prove he was good enough to play for Rangers that way.
Ramsay's response? "No,no, no, no. If I couldn't play for Rangers then forget it. I wasn't about to scrape £45 a week for the next ten years." Suddenly Ramsay's life was turned upside down. "Mum and dad started falling out. I separated from my girlfriend. She was my childhood sweetheart and we'd been together since we were 15.
"I felt a lot of hurt. And although the football pressure had gone I felt the family pressure more. It was a pretty rough time. I wanted to get out. Had to get out. My sister was studying in Banbury so I went to live with her." That's when Ramsay embarked on the HND Hotel Management course that introduced him to the thrills of a professional kitchen.
"I had six weeks of being a waiter, which was a real disaster," he laughs. "I lasted four days as a waiter and spent the rest of the time in the kitchen. And I loved it. Instantly. Big time. The boisterousness, the hassle, the shouting, the screaming, the activity. I found a sense of freedom there."
Ramsay had found the adrenaline rush he missed from football. Over the next eight years he perfected his skills under Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux in London, and Guy Savoy in France. In 1993 Ramsay opened his first restaurant Aubergine in London and five years later opened his flagship Chelsea restaurant and was immortalised in the raucous documentary Boiling Point.
He's now reached the stage where he can zoom around the country in his Ferrari and, with an annual £40 million turnover, over 1,000 staff and nine restaurants worldwide, he can afford it.
Recently Ramsay, his wife Tana and their four children - Megan, five, three-year-old twins Jack and Holly, and 18-month-old Matilda - moved into a giant 'dream house' in south London with a 1,500sq ft kitchen. So life is good, and Ramsay appreciates that.
But whilst he is happy being Britain's top chef, every now and again he does wonder what life might have been like as a top professional footballer…
* article reproduced by kind permission of Players Club, official publication of the PFA
