Before he became a culinary mastermind, Gordon Ramsay’s first love was soccer, or football, as it’s known in the United Kingdom.
Growing up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (Shakespeare’s hometown), Ramsay, now 59, developed his soccer skills at an early age. He first set his sights on a professional sports career at the age of 12 when he joined Warwickshire’s Under-14 team.
The promising soccer player soon joined the Glasgow Rangers, a professional soccer club, when he was 15. “I was a naturally aggressive left-back, a cut-throat tackler,” he recalled to The Guardian in May 2002. “You may have got past once but there was never, ever, ever a second occasion. And I was fast, I was a great 100 meter sprinter.”
Ramsay’s time with the team as a youth player and trialist spanned three years until a knee injury prematurely ended his career. During training in 1985, he tore his cruciate ligament and sustained damage to the cartilage in his knee.
Forced to start over, Ramsay returned to school and began his culinary training at the age of 19. “I got into catering as a way of becoming independent and moving further away from the upset that was in mind on a daily basis,” he told the High Performance podcast in 2023. After earning a degree in hotel management at North Oxfordshire Technical College in 1987, he placed himself under the direction of some of Europe’s top chefs.
In London, Ramsay apprenticed with Marco Pierre White at Harvey’s, a two Michelin starred French restaurant, for three years before finding a mentor in Albert Roux at Le Gavroche. He later perfected his cooking skills in France, where he worked under master chefs Joel Robuchon and Guy Savoy.
In 1993, Ramsay struck out on his own as the head chef at Aubergine in London where, over the course of three years, he earned the restaurant a two-star Michelin rating and became part-owner. More personal prestige followed in 1995 when he was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the prestigious Catey Awards—an Oscars-like event for the hospitality industry.
After a falling out with Aubergine’s financial backers, Ramsay left to start his own establishment, opening Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London in 1998. Hailed as a destination for high-end foodies, the restaurant quickly established a reputation for French fine-dining, receiving three Michelin stars by 2001.
The next several years proved to be a whirlwind for the ambitious chef. He opened several new restaurants, including Petrus and a second Gordon Ramsay in London, as well as Gordon Ramsay au Trianon in France.
Named Chef of the Year (2000) and Independent Restaurateur of the Year (2006) at the Catey Awards, Ramsay brought his restaurant business to the United States with the opening of two establishments at The London NYC in 2006.
The celebrity chef has since expanded his reach around the globe, launching a TV empire and opening eateries in Australia, Asia, and Canada. As of 2026, he owns restaurants in 15 major American cities, including Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.
Over the course of his impressive career, Ramsay has personally received 8 Michelin stars, while his restaurants have earned 17 stars total.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
