Review
Posted in: Books > Cookbooks
17 / 04 / 2008
There are not many books that I finish in just a few days, but Gordon Ramsay's new book Playing with Fire is a book that I just couldn’t put down. Unlike Gordon Ramsay’s autobiography, Humble Pie, Playing with Fire concentrates on the business side of his culinary empire, which I simply found fascinating and eye opening.
Playing with Fire starts out talking about his job as a Sous chef in London through to becoming an internationally recognized celebrity chef. But it didn’t just happen overnight and Gordon discusses his many successes as well as his failures and mistakes. Only a proud man will admit his failures and Gordon doesn’t hold back on any. Add to this, I couldn’t believe some of the secrets that Gordon admits in the book about Gordon Ramsay Holdings. I won’t spoil them here, you’ll need to read the book.
I found the chapter on Intellectual Property thoroughly interesting as Gordon explains how he discovered that licensing and publishing was a means to making money. These included licensees to buy the rights to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in a country or publishing cookbooks or TV shows. He talks about the unbelievable amounts of money Hollywood offered and he accepted for projects like Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen. He talks about how one day he woke up understanding the power of the brand and of his own image.
On the restaurant side, Gordon talks about challenges facing all restaurants – managing reservations. He talks about the commercial success of introducing a reservations system which allowed the reservations staff to make a booking at any Gordon Ramsey Restaurant. Instead of when someone calls for a reservations and the restaurant is full they are nearly always able to offer a table at an alternative Gordon Ramsay restaurant in London.
Gordon considers himself a good boss and the fact of the matter is that he has been able to succeed in business because of the team behind him. There’s the chefs and waiters in all the restaurants, the training teams, human resources and administration staff. But the most important person in the team is Gordon’s fathers-in-law Chris who is the deal maker. It’s Chris that has been able to negotiate many of the deals with corporations like Blackstone Private Equity firm which leases restaurant space in many of their luxury hotels in Europe and America.
If you liked Humble Pie, then definitely grab a copy of Playing with Fire by Gordon Ramsay. If you’re considering to open a restaurant or have a restaurant this essential reading.
Don’t take just take my word, here’s a video of Gordon talking about Playing with Fire.
Playing with Fire
Gordon Ramsay
978-0007259892
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