Gordon Ramsay’s net worth in 2025 is the result of good business acumen as much as a great beef Wellington recipe.
The famously foul-mouthed chef has cooked up a fortune over the last three decades, first as one of the U.K.’s most celebrated restaurateurs, then as one of TV’s most beloved curmudgeons (with a heart of gold underneath all those curse words).
Ramsay credits his work ethic for his success, and he has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
“When I started this career, it was nothing to do with money—it was passion and the drive to be the best,” he told The New York Times. “The longevity comes down to not taking anything for granted.”
Read on to find out the ingredients to Ramsay’s success.
How did Gordon Ramsay become famous?
Ramsay was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and grew up dreaming of being a professional soccer player (or as he and other Brits would call it, a “footballer”), though he started cooking as a hobby in his teens. A career-ending injury dashed those dreams but drew his attention to a new passion: hospitality.
Ramsay went back to school to study hotel management, and while there, further developed his love of cooking. He trained under London chefs Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White, then in France with Joël Robuchon and Guy Savoy.
After a year-long sabbatical in which he cooked on a yacht in Bermuda, he returned to London in 1993 and became head chef (with a 10% ownership share) of the Rossmore, which was later renamed Aubergine. He stayed until July 1998, when he left to start his own eatery, The New York Times reported, a move that caused a massive staff walkout.
Later that year, Ramsay opened his eponymous eatery, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, in London’s Chelsea neighborhood.
In 1999, he became the subject of the documentary Boiling Point, followed by its sequel, Beyond Boiling Point, a year later. The original U.K. versions of Kitchen Nightmares (titled Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares) and Hell’s Kitchen each premiered in 2004. In 2005, Ramsay became a full-fledged star stateside with the Fox adaptation of Hell’s Kitchen. Two years later, the American Kitchen Nightmares premiered on Fox, further cementing Ramsay’s role as one of the world’s best and most cantankerous cooks—and one of the world’s wealthiest chefs.
Just make sure you don’t call him a “TV chef.”
“I’m not a TV chef,” he asserted to The New York Times. “I’m a serious chef, and I happen to work on TV.”
