CLIP: What Gordon Ramsay Is Really Like Behind Closed Doors with Paul Ainsworth

0:00I suppose that was a bit of a sliding doors kind of moment. And I went there and the reason I knew I had to go there was because it was like nothing I'd seen. It was electric. It was, it was a different, it was, it was intense. It was everything. And it was, it was, it was scary. And like my mum, my mum didn't understand it because she didn't know who, she didn't know who Gordon was. Gordon wasn't, you know, like how Gordon is now and known like he is now. now and but my dad was like look he knows what he's doing if he thinks that he wants to go work for this guy because i had to be really honest with my mum and dad and say to them there's a good chance i could get sacked here and not make it this kitchen is relentless just because the the reputation on the circuit was you know raw hospital road is not for the faint-hearted and if you want to work there you've got to really want to work there and you've got to you've got to have what it takes and it's going to be um and it's going to be full on just like just like i suppose you know when a you know when a soldier thinks right well you know i want to i want to be a raw marine or i want to go i want to go to the next level and i want to go to it's always a risk yeah i want to go to sort of special selection or whatever you know that we come with that it is going to be it's going to be incredibly difficult and i think sometimes people think you know but why are chefs you know they're all this they're egotistical they're that and my first day there i this is so i've got the job right so you're not staging at this point you're actually full time i've got the job i've been offered the job my first day there i got thrown off service by gordon and and i was like holy this has never happened to be before in my life and i'm you know you're talking you know you're you're talking like thrown off service go down clean the fridge service finishes and he and i can hear these footsteps coming down the stairs and i'm like i'm thinking i'm gonna now get an absolute like i'm just gonna get turned over now like like absolute bollocking and he just said come here and he sat down and he said um do you know why i'm free off the service and i said yeah yeah i said i know i did wrong and uh he said paul he He said, when you're doing what we're doing and when you've, you know, and he told me about the risk and everything, all the money he's borrowed to finance Raw Hospital Road.

2:25And it's called Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. And with the greatest respect, that mistake I've made, the expectation that's in the dining room, the diner is at this table for around two hours, two and a half hours. And the clock is ticking. The expectation is through the roof. who this Gordon Ramsay, you know, he thinks he's the, you know, he thinks he's the, you know, the, you know, you know, the next best thing. You know, he's chasing the third star. All of that comes in intensity, comes a pressure. And there's never anything other than like, right, right now we haven't, it's not like the corporate environment where we can just disappear to the, you know, the photocopying room.

3:08And like, let's talk about it. Hang on, let's go to the boardroom. Let's have a sit down and let's work out. let's work out what went wrong yeah you haven't got it diners out there expectation is through the roof and it's only now ollie you know when i opened number six i then was that person and i then knew what that pressure felt like when i called the restaurant paul ainsworth at number six and know that like when people make those mistakes that it's actually the people leave and they go yeah went to that paul ainsworth's place pretty shit you know it's pretty average to be honest yeah didn't didn't didn't you know didn't enjoy it so that pressure is is is really really real and and then he and then he then went right back to when he was playing for rangers and the devastating you know injury this is all in the conversation all in the conversation this is my first day and it had you really spoken at all with him at this point not at all and he's a pretty deep meaningful conversation so do you know what else i took from that so not only did i take from that that yeah i get it it's your name above the door you know but i also took that it's not all people think oh it's all screaming and shouting and this is a guy that i am absorbing because he's now taking time to sit me down tell me why i made the mistake yeah understand why he had to kind of take me off at the service but then spend time with me and talk to me and nurture me and guide me yeah and that's he still you know he still does that now you know we still we still you know meet for a coffee now and i'll say what do you think about this and and i think you know something that's really really important that i always say to people is it's great to have a mentor and i've got incredible mentors in my life you know i have another mentor in my life that you know i've been with now for 20 you know 20 over 20 years you know a chap called derrick who's more of the business side of things but you know quite often now ollie we we aren't great at listening and that's something that I've always fortunately I've had I've had a skill that I've always been a good listener and if people just realize if they stopped sort of listening just to reply yeah and actually listen to grow and you don't always have to be the person in charge of the conversation you don't always have to be because I've I can meet up for coffee with someone like you know, Gordon or, you know, like Ross Braun is a big regular of our restaurants and become like a really, really, you know, great guy and friend.

5:41And, and, you know, I took him to St. Anadoc recently and you're like, we've one of the most greatest minds has ever, ever been like you, you just, you can just see just this mind. Yeah. But you know what? Technical mind, like the whole lot. Everything. Yeah. But when I'm with him, all he's interested in is what I'm up to and he just sort of listens but then when i've sort of will talk to him about business or this or it'll give me a comparison to an f1 garage or aero you know aerodynamics but that doesn't have any i don't know anything about aerodynamics but it'll give me examples i can relate to yeah that and then i listen to him but the fact that i'm sat with someone you know me did i ever think that be sat with people you know like that but they're great listeners and the people i absolutely admire in this world the greatest leaders are quite often the ones that sit there and listen not the loud shouty i want to be in charge it's you know it's you know it's about me and that for me is something that is you know if you want to be a great leader if you want to get on listen and you can see in people you can sometimes see in people that they're they're listening to what you're saying but they're not and they're almost like either lifting out their seat or there's this bundle of energy that's in their core and they're coming out and they're just like okay yeah i'm i can hear words stop talking stop talking and then they blah they they then they and you just i look at people like that and i just think do you know what you would be you would be so much better and i feel you'd probably you know have so much more to give and be better if you just listen and that's been you know that's been a big thing for me and and the mentors i have in my life the the people i've worked for you know the ones i truly have taken value from are yeah gary was the same he would spend time with people and people can look at gordon and you know and they they'll have an opinion and they'll say oh yeah you know the shouty sweary angry chef and i'm telling you now when you know people you know like you know the real gordon or you get to know like the real kind of gary rhodes and people like that they are they are incredible supportive nurturing