If things had gone differently, Gordon Ramsay might have become a footballer. But a torn cruciate ligament ended his sporting ambitions, sending him down a very different path into the kitchen. Despite enjoying keeping fit, Gordon has revealed there was a time he was in poor shape – weighing 18 stone – and he feared it was putting his marriage to wife Tana at risk.
He told the Mail in 2018 that he “looked like a sack of s**t” and asked himself, “How did Tana stay around?” Gordon claimed his wife got “better-looking and more gorgeous”, while he was a “fat f**k”. He decided to take action and started training, combining cardio, strength work and recovery, according to Men’s Health. He’s now a keen fitness fan – and he swears by a Mediterranean staple.
Gordon, who once worked as a private chef aboard a superyacht in his 20s, told Business Traveller about his love of olive oil: “I fell in love not just with those olive groves, but with what olive oil means in Italy. It’s like what Petrus means in Bordeaux.”
He further credits swapping dairy for olive oil with helping him lose 20 pounds. “I feel incredibly healthy. I’ll take a tablespoon of olive oil over five knobs of butter any day.”
A 2018 review reported that people on olive oil-heavy diets lost more weight than those eating little, and it remains a cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet – an eating pattern consistently linked to better weight management.
Gordon has since become a committed endurance athlete, taking on marathons, ultra-marathons and Ironman competitions. So what’s on his menu these days?
Speaking to Jason Fox from SAS: Who Dares Wins during a Men’s Health feature two years ago, Gordon emphasised that nutritious food “doesn’t have to be boring food”.
He said: “We have a protein shake in the morning, scrambled eggs for lunch, and then something poached for dinner, whether it’s poached chicken or fish. We don’t do lots of salads, but it’s finding that balance.”
When it comes to resisting temptation in the kitchen, Gordon adopts a strict approach. “The role of a chef today is way more prolific than it was 20-30 years ago and we need to be fit, we need to be smart, and we need to set that example to the team. We are super disciplined as well. I’ll eat two mouthfuls of a delicious dish and then ignore it, and it’s painful.
“You sit there like a green-eyed monster desperate to devour that whole plate and I’ll discipline myself to two mouthfuls, then I’ll get out of that plate and it pains me because I know if I eat a fourth, fifth, or sixth mouthful, then that’s it, it’s game over.”
Catch Gordon in Rise of the Rockstar Chef on BBC Two tonight (Thursday, November 5), from 9pm to 10pm.
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This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
