No boyfriends. No talk of being famous. And NO swearing… when Event was invited into Gordon Ramsay’s family home, there was no doubt who’s the boss. But is 13-year-old Tilly about to rewrite all the rules with her own TV show?
Matilda & the Ramsay Bunch shows shows the youngest of Gordon Ramsay’s four children, Tilly, cooking simple, fun recipes such as burritos or cupcakes in the kitchen at their holiday home in Los Angeles
You can tell the truth about a man by the way he is with his children, and big, scary Gordon Ramsay is about to have his cover blown.
The most ferocious chef ever to rule a kitchen can reduce lesser mortals to human soup with his angry, foul-mouthed rants, but not today.
His 13-year-old daughter Tilly is snuggling up to him on the sofa, giggling at the idea that Dad would ever lose his temper at home.
‘No!’ she says, tossing dark blonde curls. ‘He just laughs all the time.’
This is not what we expect from the host of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and other shows in which he blows his top at anyone unwilling to learn from a chef with a multimillion-pound business empire and a total of 14 Michelin stars in restaurants across the world.
He’s clearly been working out at the gym and looks more intimidating than ever, with clear eyes blazing in that craggy face and remarkably big biceps bulging under a tight black T-shirt.
But is he secretly just a big softie at home?
‘Yeah, definitely,’ says Tilly, smiling and rolling one of those biceps between her fingers.
‘Cuddly Bear.’
‘They know I’ve said bad words. I say it is an industry language. They don’t swear. They don’t walk around shouting the f-word,’ says Gordon of his children
He doesn’t even wince at that, simply smiles and pats the legs that she has draped across him on the sofa at their London home on the edge of Wandsworth Common.
Ramsay is the King of the Kitchen Feud, the kind of chef who could start a fight with his own reflection in a saucepan, but being at home has mellowed him. He won’t even respond to the latest attack from Jamie Oliver, his long-time rival.
They have been bickering for years, and now Jamie says Gordon is ‘just a ranter’ who is always trying to take the mickey because he is ‘deeply jealous’ of the younger man’s success.
The new, cuddly Ramsay dismisses that as ‘a non topic’, but then Jamie Oliver has already apologised, saying: ‘It is very irresponsible of me to take the p*** again, because I don’t want his kids to get upset.’
The truth is that they probably don’t care.
The life that 13-year-old Tilly Ramsay leads is untouched by such showbiz spats, for the moment – although everything will change if she becomes a television star in her own right…
The house looks unremarkable from the outside: plenty of people in this prosperous part of London have electronic gates and Land Rovers with blacked-out windows on the drive.
You have to take your shoes off when you go in because a new, dark wooden floor has just been fitted. Then you see the kitchen, which is vast and impressive.
‘Mum tries to keep us all healthy, but on a Friday night we are allowed some crisps and dips after school, before dinner. That’s our weekly treat,’ said Tilly
Floor-to-ceiling windows allow the light of the garden to flood in. The stove alone cost £66,000.
There’s a long dining table made from a slice of some massive tree. A bulldog called Rumpole is dozing in the corner.
This is the room in which Tilly began to learn the family trade, and now she is getting her own television show with a series for CBBC.
Matilda & the Ramsay Bunch shows the youngest of the chef’s four children (her siblings are 16-year-old Megan, and 15-year-old twins Holly and Jack) cooking simple, fun recipes such as burritos or cupcakes in the kitchen at their holiday home in Los Angeles, while other members of the family help out – or in the case of her father, get in the way.
‘I sort of dip in and out, have a bit of banter and get the hell out of there,’ he says.
Actually, it’s cute and funny when he gets told off by his daughter for interfering with her ingredients: ‘I can do this!’
And she can. As well as being a good young cook, Tilly has a naturally relaxed presence on camera.
She looks comfortable today in a blue sweatshirt that says Pray For Snow, but is a bit shy in person – as any young teenager would be with a stranger in her home asking awkward questions.
So here’s one for Dad: is he not worried about the pressure this show might put her under at a vulnerable age?
Tilly’s favourite meal to cook for the family would be a beef Wellington, because it is what her dad likes best. Is she ever tempted to become a vegetarian? ‘No. I don’t think Dad would like that,’ she said
‘I think CBBC is a little bit different to Channel 4 primetime. I’m not just saying that to make a bulls**t excuse.
‘There is a bit of a safety net. They have already asked for a second series and I have said no because I don’t want to do anything until I see what Tilly and the kids feel.’
The Ramsay kids are not as intimidated by cameras as others might be, having had them in the kitchen or the garden all their lives.
The flagship Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea opened in 1998, the year before his eldest daughter Megan was born. It made him the first Scottish chef to earn three Michelin stars.
All four Ramsay children appeared on screen in the first series of The F-Word in 2005, when they helped raise turkeys in the back garden, and then saw the birds go off to slaughter.
Tilly was little more than a toddler, and her face was fraught with worry in the clip that showed Gordon urging them to say goodbye.
‘Bye bye turkeys,’ said her father. ‘See you in the oven!’
Son Jack was less squeamish, asking: ‘Can I see them be killed?’
He fell in love with the pigs they raised for series two, though.
Watching the chef discuss with his children where meat comes from, and how their pets are going to become tasty sausages, was actually one of the more touching and enlightening moments of The F-Word, which ran for five series until 2010.
On TV in Gordon Ramsay’s Festive Home Cooking with Gordon Ramsay, from left, Gordon, Tilly, Holly, Megan, Tana and Jack
Ramsay has no regrets: ‘We wanted them to understand where food comes from.’
Tilly turned 13 just before Christmas.
‘They are all close. Tilly and Jack are the serious foodies. Holly is the little fashion guru. Meg is the sort of mum who wants to correct them all the time and bring them back in line.’
Talking of discipline, does he ban them from swearing? He nods. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?
‘Good question,’ says Ramsay in his staccato, no-nonsense way.
‘They know I’ve said bad words. I say it is an industry language. They don’t swear. They don’t walk around shouting the f-word,’ says the man who spends hours on camera swearing like a chef who has just burnt his fingers in the soufflé.
‘Do they sit down and watch my programmes? Thankfully, everything is bleeped.
‘I suppose I was just too brutally honest in the beginning, and now I have got that reputation for swearing. We don’t swear at home.’
Not ever?
‘The odd s*** and c**p comes out. What can you do? We were listening to a song on Holly’s phone in the car on the way to the airport at Christmas time.
‘Lily Allen was singing: “F***you”. The whole song was just that. We all went silent. Holly went, “Oh my God, this is such a mistake.”
When asked where she likes to go on holiday, Tilly says: ‘I love the Maldives’
‘I said, “You’re not kidding.” We laughed for 30 seconds, then Tana said, “Right, that’s enough. Turn it off.’’’
Ramsay’s wife Tana enters the room bang on cue, looking immaculate in black and almost as chiselled as her best friend, Victoria Beckham.
We discuss multiple births, as something we have in common.
‘I managed twins, but triplets is a whole new ballgame,’ she says.
Gordon takes instant mock offence, protesting: ‘We managed twins!’
Tana smiles, relishing the chance to put him down, at least for fun.
‘No. Let’s be honest about it, come on. You put the weight on, darling, I managed the twins.’
Tilly giggles between them on the massive white sofa.
This £4 million house is immaculate in a minimalist fashion, with lilies in white vases and framed black-and-white portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali.
Tana is right about one thing: Ramsay became increasingly chunky as his children grew and his television career took off.
He has shed two stone over the last couple of years, though, thanks to his wife’s insistence on a healthier diet at home.
‘I was just saying how hard you are,’ he says to her.
‘I’m the one on the naughty step, the one who has to take a back seat.’
Tana laughs. ‘Someone has to be the grown-up.’
So, is she the one who has pushed Gordon to get fit? His muscles are really quite impressive, and there is an eye-catching vein on the right bicep that he picks at, absent-mindedly.
They spend part of their year in Los Angeles and seem to have joined the health and fitness craze there lately, even running Ironman races together.
Gordon grins. ‘To answer the question… yes!’
Tana flashes back: ‘Gordon is so much nicer when we come back from a run and he has had that head space. That’s the truth.’
Later, when she’s gone, he says: ‘It’s a very disciplined household. Tana is a stick. Literally. Being an ex-school teacher. It’s not fair to say she’s got worse. She’s got firmer.’
He is being astonishingly frank, but still prefers not to say anything about his relationship with his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, who used to run Gordon Ramsay Holdings until they fell out over certain deals and he was sacked in 2010. They are said not to be talking to each other any more.
The two men went to court but reached a private settlement in 2012, with Hutcheson said to have received £2 million.
The feud flared up again last year, the chef claiming Hutcheson had signed a deal on a London pub without his knowledge… Ramsay lost the case.
Gordon and Tana with David and Victoria Beckham. Gordon and David became close after Ramsay did the catering for a World Cup party in 2006
Tana accused her father of ‘systematically defrauding’ her husband, but the couple now insist that everything has been resolved.
There may even be an end in sight for his loudest and longest-running feud, with fellow chef and former mentor Marco Pierre White.
They fell out so badly after working together that White once vowed he would never talk to his protégé again.
‘The guy was incredible early on in my career,’ says Ramsay.
‘He was one of the very few chefs who taught me how to put food on a plate with great finesse.
‘But all that hype and years of fighting and arguing was utter bullsh*t. It’s actually quite sad.’
Then he shows off one of several framed photographs of Marco Pierre White that he has recently bought, and which his sworn enemy has signed: ‘To the Ram, with love, from the Bull.’
Nobody else would sign it like that, says Ramsay, who describes the gesture as ‘very gracious’. So, have they reconciled?
‘We’ve never had that meeting. Never sat down and said, “Let’s be chums.” It’s bull****. It doesn’t work like that. The more successful you become, the more people you p*** off. That’s one thing I’ve learned.’
Gordon and Tana at the start of the 2010 London Marathon
Would he go for a pint with Marco Pierre White, if the chef asked him to?
‘Of course I would go for a pint with him. I’m not quite sure how long we would stay for that pint … but yeah, definitely.’
Meanwhile, Tilly sees her father in a completely different way. He’s the old softie who smuggles sugary treats into the house when her mother’s not looking.
‘Dad definitely enjoys them more than Mum. He sometimes comes home with a couple of big packets of sweets and says, “There you go.” Mum is like, “Oh God.”’
These are a respite from the healthy diet that is otherwise imposed on the Ramsay children, almost all the time.
‘Mum tries to keep us all healthy, but on a Friday night we are allowed some crisps and dips after school, before dinner. That’s our weekly treat.’
Tilly’s favourite meal to cook for the family would be a beef Wellington, because it is what her dad likes best. Is she ever tempted to become a vegetarian?
‘No. I don’t think Dad would like that.
‘I don’t think he would be too impressed… but I think he would let me if I wanted to.’
Is he a hard task master?
‘No, he is not too hard. He makes sure everything is done, though. He is strict in a good way.’
And does he help with homework?
‘He tries…’
They watch Saturday Kitchen together sometimes, and have seen every episode of Modern Family. On a Saturday night, Gordon and Tana cook together.
‘Tilly helps whoever is taking the lead role,’ he says.
‘Saturday night we had toad-in-the-hole. Tilly weighed out the flour, put the mustard in, got all the ingredients together. The batter didn’t rise as well as it should have. That was Tana’s recipe.’
They both laugh. Rivalry is natural in their house.
‘Tilly’s always in the middle.’
The children all do their share of the household chores.
‘They tidy up after each and every dinner. It’s a system. It’s important they help set and clear the tables, it’s important they cook, it’s important they do their homework.
‘They are very conscious of cost. They will go to Nando’s with their friends.’
Let’s face it, these children are rather well off.
Ramsay is one of those chefs who gets accused of biting off more than he can chew, trying to run a business empire and be a television star rather than focus on the food at his restaurants, but Forbes magazine still estimates his personal wealth at £31 million.
Gordon with parents Gordon and Helen, sisters Diane and Yvonne and brother Ronnie. The family moved across the country 16 times from Johnstone in Scotland to Stratford-upon-Avon
When asked where she likes to go on holiday, Tilly says: ‘I love the Maldives.’
But Ramsay grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father who could not keep a job and moved the family across the country 16 times from Johnstone in Scotland to Stratford-upon-Avon.
Times were hard. He wants his children to know the value of things.
‘We start it young, with food. The less wasteful they are with food, the less frivolous they will be with money. We encourage hand-me-downs. Tilly thinks it is quite cool, playing hockey in Jack’s old rugby boots.’
Still, they do go on very cool holidays, often with their friends the Beckhams.
Gordon and David became close after Ramsay did the catering for a World Cup party in 2006, and their wives are said to be inseparable.
My own daughters are the same age as Tilly and very jealous that she gets to hang out with Brooklyn Beckham, who they tell me is the hottest boy on the planet. Does she see him that way?
‘No. He’s normal,’ says Tilly quietly. ‘They are like our really good family friends.’
She’s a bit young for Brooklyn, who is 16. Romeo Beckham is only 12. But she is not into boys in that way, for now.
‘They are just my friends. At the moment.’
Gordon says she can’t have a boyfriend until she is 16. Tilly blushes, punches him and says that’s unfair, Jack is going out with someone and he is only 15.
‘Yeah, but Jack’s a boy. He’s allowed a girlfriend.’
The look he gets for that would make milk curdle.
Jack has been telling fellow pupils at Dulwich College that he is not going to be a chef, according to his father.
‘He says, “No, I’m going to be a Marine. I want a proper job. I am not going to stay indoors in the warm all day next to a stove and make macaroni cheese.” He takes the mickey now. I like that.’
And his son has been pushing the boundaries, as teenagers do.
‘Jack wanted an Uber cab a few weeks ago, to go over to Blackheath and see his girlfriend. Forty quid. He asked his mum for it.
‘I overheard. I said, “How do you think I went to see my girlfriend at 15? I caught the bus.
‘School, activities, water polo, rugby, we are always there to make sure we pick up and drop off – we go to hell and back to get that done – but mate, if you want to take a taxi you have got to pay for that yourself.” He ended up taking the bus.’
They are famous, their friends are famous, but the word ‘fame’ is banned in the Ramsay household, like swearing.
‘We don’t really have that word, we don’t use it. We say “busy”. They know the fame is a result of the work.’
Now the work is going to make Tilly famous in her own right.
‘Is it a bad thing? I don’t think so. Are we pushy parents? Far from it. This is a very natural thing, you can see that on screen.’
Nevertheless, he is clearly the one in control. Tilly is sweet and clever but not the type to demand her own show, so whose idea was this, actually?
‘That’s a very good question,’ he says, hesitating.
‘I would have to say that the idea hatched out of a conversation late one night with Pat Llewellyn.’
She is a television producer who has made several chefs into stars, including Ramsay himself.
‘She got me to where I was and has an amazing eye for talent. We were filming a home cooking series here, three years back.
‘She said, “Can I have a word?” She saw the same things in Tilly as she did when she spotted Jamie Oliver as a 23-year-old at the River Café.
‘That level of confidence, the ability to have fun, hold your own and call it like it is.’
Now Tilly is donning her father’s chef whites for the cameras. Is this a way for the dynasty to continue?
‘I am not ready to retire,’ says Ramsay. ‘But if anyone thinks we are ever going to retire, trust me: we’ve got a little thoroughbred coming through the ranks, getting primed and ready to go.’
‘Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch’ starts on Tuesday at 4.55pm on CBBC
