Personally, I don’t really like Jamie Oliver OR Gordon Ramsay. I think Jamie is a judgy bitch and I think Gordon is an abusive rage monster. But that’s before I even knew that Jamie and Gordon have apparently been engaged in some deep boy drama for years. How did I not know this? I follow most of the petty beefs between American chefs, I guess it didn’t occur to me that British chefs probably have petty beefs too. Well, People Magazine had an exhaustive (and funny) story of Jamie and Gordon’s history of sh-t talking, and apparently Jamie is now saying that he’s done with it and he doesn’t want to boyfight anymore.
Have infamous rivals Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay (who has not just a reputation for being a temperamental, scathing critic, but an entire show dedicated to that premise) finally put an end to their feud? Oliver, at the very least, thinks it’s time to make nice. In a new interview with Woman’s Day the British chef spoke out against their well-publicized verbal sparring matches.
“Gordon has been fairly horrible to me over the years and I did used to bite. Now I just shut up and take it. A bit of drama is always good for some PR,” he said. Oliver’s new attitude about his arch-enemy would put to bed public arguments that go all the way back to 2009, when Oliver responded to comments Ramsay made about the appearance of the Australian television host, saying “It’s never good to criticize a woman, especially when they’re loved by their country and you do it on national television.”
A month later, Ramsay had some harsh words for Oliver, nicknaming his competitor the “one-pot wonder.” Even then, he seemed to imply that their war of words was little more than a ploy to get both of them some media attention, and that he doesn’t take it seriously.
“But competition is healthy. It’s good to have that kind of rivalry,” he said. After that, tempers seemed to settle between the pair, but in early 2010, Ramsay quipped to TMZ that the last time he complained about a meal was at Oliver’s restaurant. Five years later, Ramsay was still instigating arguments with Oliver, this time criticizing Oliver for not showing up the opening one of one of his own restaurants in Hong Kong.
“[Ramsay] is deeply jealous and can’t quite work out why I do what I do and why he can’t do that. He is too busy shouting and screaming and making our industry look like a bunch of shouters and screamers,” Oliver responded at the time.
Oliver now hopes to put all that nastiness behind them.
“Our kids are around the same age and they don’t need to see their dads slagging each other off. It’s pathetic,” he said in the new interview.
It IS sort of pathetic, but not for the reason Jamie Oliver says. It’s pathetic because… this is what constitutes a British chef beef? This stuff is so… boring. Oooh, you cook in a crockpot! Well, you were mean to a woman! Well, you should have gone to your restaurant opening! Well, you shout too much! Come on. Where’s the beef?!?!? Here in America, we’ve got Anthony Bourdain devoting years of his life to mocking Paula Deen and Guy Fieri. We’ve got Giada de Laurentiis making Nicole Kidman her new nemesis. We’ve got Bobby Flay… being Bobby Flay (he’s really shady, what can I say?). Britain deserves a higher quality of drama from their celebrity chefs.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
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