UPDATE 12.15pm: Gordon Ramsay said this morning his response was “to say silent” - apart from the following series of points: video.

***

Parliaments are no strangers to the absurd, but for sheer incongruity it’s hard to match a report by the Senate last year on Gordon Ramsay’s swearing.

Adding a dash of predictability. Photo: Angelo Soulas

A submission (pdf here) from the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide states in its introduction:

The revelation that the ‘F word’ was used 80 times in a one hour program raises many questions.

Indeed. You can picture a monsignor penning that line in the dim study of a parish house and muttering: “... So I’m f***ed if I know where to start.”

When I first started watching Ramsay, the language brought a mixture of entertainment and comedy to food programming. You waited for the inevitable explosion. It was as if he was bellowing some magic ingredient into the food. Beef and vegetables with jus - topped with complete bastard.

Ramsay’s mouth has him in the spotlight again, but now it’s more than just expressing his passion for food and or his extreme motivational technique. His attack on Tracy Grimshaw was insulting, tasteless, and unnecessarily personal. When she answered him last night on A Current Affair, at the top of the show, she got personal with him too.

The Senate inquiry was initiated by South Australian Liberal Cory Bernardi after a particular episode of Kitchen Nightmares which would give Platoon a run for its money on the profanity meter.

It looked at broader issues around the effectiveness of broadcasting regulations, but the final report was clear that Gordon Ramsay had prompted it.

This row with Grimshaw will pass. Both of them are big enough to wear it. And they both know it.

The longer-term problem for me with Ramsay, an unquestionably gifted chef and driven man, is what he has done to swearing. It used to be for difference, emphasis, spontaneity, and humour. He has made swearing pedestrian and packaged, like the very pre-prepared sachets and tins in a kitchen that would trigger another trademark Ramsay outburst. The US version of Kitchen Nightmares, in particular, lost its spark.

Maybe I just watched too many episodes of The F Word. But I like my cursing to be special. Swearing should be for the best and worst moments of your day, and your life. Gordon Ramsay has made bad language vanilla.

To be clear: just like, I don’t know, pretty much everyone I’ve ever met, cursing is fine with me. A sprinkling, or more, of expletives can be the perfect way to tell a joke or simply express yourself. But you don’t need to swear to communicate. Barack Obama changed America without once dropping an f-bomb from the stump.

It would be interesting to see a profanity-free Gordon Ramsay TV show. He might need to oversee a team of chefs making only simple things – like, say, toast – but it would be a breath of fresh air. Just like he was when he first arrived on our screens.

What do you think? Should Ramsay keep going as he has been? Or is it time for him to change a few things. Share your (profanity-free, if you can) comments below.

31 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Jodie says:

      09:29am | 09/06/09

      It shows his lack of education and originality if the only sentences he can string together are full of profanities.

      He might have ‘small man’ syndrome (in personal ways) and can only feel important when he is attempting to intimidate others. Then again, maybe he need to have the ‘tough guy’ image because his cooking is quite ordinary.

      Not much is heard in reference to his restaurants just re-heating dishes cooked elsewhere.

      He is a pig and I hope he is awfully proud of the example he is setting for his children!

    • Graham says:

      09:30am | 09/06/09

      Gordon Ramsay is just a foul-mouthed food snob.  Not the greatest chef in the world as he seems to think.  It appears his aim is to get people OUT of the profession rather than get them into it.

    • Andrew T says:

      10:22am | 09/06/09

      I think the senate enquiry was spot on. Ramsey certainly breached the code of practice and highlighted that there is a growing problem with a lack of courtesy and manners in our society. Like you I am not a non curser but there is a time and place for it - and it is not 80 times at 8.30 at night.

      Personally I am fed up with Ramsey. He is a bully and bullies get boring after a while.

    • Rob says:

      10:58am | 09/06/09

      I personally agree wholeheartedly that he is helping to make the use of profanity acceptable.
      I can recall growing up in England 25 years ago a time when saying “bloody hell” or “bugger” was considered as much as you can get away with in conversation. I can also recall the first time I heard my mum say f*ck, it amazed. But not as much as the first time I heard my gran say it. It was at that time (I was around 22 so 10 years ago) still a bit of a taboo subject.
      Now we live in a time when f*ck is acceptable. I personally have no problems with it and probably use it a little too much. But I’m starting to grow wary of a society where it’s used as common practice to tell someone to f*ck off.
      I now wait with baited breath for the time I start to hear people drop the C bomb with such aplomb and comedy timing.
      However, on Gordon Ramsey as a person. He’s merely the latest in a long line of ‘celebrities’ who overuses profanity. It’s just he’s the one in the spot light at the moment. Don’t take his use of profanity as any reflection on him as a man or a parent as I don’t think it has any. As I said, I now know my mum used to drop the F bomb in conversation with friends and she still managed to bring me in what I’d describe as a very good way!

    • Tom Alister says:

      11:09am | 09/06/09

      There are so many celebrity chefs these days I can barely keep up (and I have so much free time I don’t even register a long-weekend). We have even thrown reality tv into the mix with the first series of Australian MasterChef. I’m still waiting for a dancing cook show, in a house, on an island where I can vote people off…

      For any chef (or tribe member) to be successful they need to have something unique to offer.

      Ramsay managed to carve out a niche for himself with his profanity, it’s been his point of difference. I don’t think he could survive a personality shift ad his hardcore enthusiasts would probably abandon him for it.

      I want to know if any real fans are sick of his f**king but still have a healthy appetite for his cooking? If the audience that has always hated him still hates him, well that doesn’t necessarily indicate a rise to vocal boiling point does it?

    • Al says:

      12:26pm | 09/06/09

      I absolutely loved the first season of Kitchen Nightmares. It seemed to me that Ramsey was truly affecting peoples lives in a good way.

      He does appear to be a bully though and there’s really no excuse for being so mean to whatsherface.  But how much of this can be considered to be an attempt to cause a stir and make a lovely kerfuddle in the Aussie press? I think he’s succesfully attempted to get the whole nation in a tizz over this and he’s no doubt fairly chuffed with himself (albeit with a very ticked off PR person)

    • Shelley says:

      12:40pm | 09/06/09

      Ramsay is sooo yesterday. A one trick pony.

      I’m way over this man. He’s trying to scare up some cash to pay for his jet set lifestyle and this is free publicity.

      Move him along to make way for something fresh and original .

    • Chris says:

      12:44pm | 09/06/09

      More of Jamie Oliver pleeeeeeeeease!!

    • ken of Boronia says:

      01:04pm | 09/06/09

      Gordon Ramsay is so insecure!  He is constantly selling himself and the over use of the f-bomb is all part of the marketing he feels he has to constantly do.  Best way to deal with him is make him into a nobody, don’t watch his show, don’t put his name to print, don’t give him airtime. 
      Anyone who has to put others down in self-promotion deserves to be ignored.

    • Mel says:

      01:28pm | 09/06/09

      So bored of Gordon Ramsey! Always trying to bignote himself, even on Rove - sunday night- he had to tell everyone of his size 15 feet, obviously hinting at something. Good on Rove for his witty replies and at one point of the interview commenting “i’m bored with this, lets move onto your Final 5 (questions). Thanks Rove, i’m bored too!

    • davo says:

      01:54pm | 09/06/09

      2 problems:
      1. people actually watch crap like this on TV, then expect to be taken seriously in a conversation.
      2. The idiot media make a big deal out of nothing as usual.

    • Rob says:

      01:54pm | 09/06/09

      Ramsey is a has-been and if not for his swearing would never had risen to prominence .
      time to move on

    • stephen says:

      02:16pm | 09/06/09

      He’s interesting. 10 out of 10 for that.

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      02:19pm | 09/06/09

      A most disagreeable man whose constant use of the “F” word turned me off his cooking show a long time ago.  Why do people believe that the use of such words is necessary in a conversation/debate?  My late father used to say that if you used obscenities during an argument, then you had lost the argument.  I agree.

    • Lily says:

      02:35pm | 09/06/09

      Obviously you people have never worked with a chef, Gordon Ramsay is pretty much what they are like.  They are all foul mouthed bullies, if you step one foot wrong in their kitchens you will be screamed at whether they are famous or not.  But having said that, if the food that goes out is crap then they are the ones in the firing line, and they are only as good as their last service.  There are no work place relations in kitchens, there are so many people wanting to get into the hospitality industry they can treat people however they want, because as soon as one goes there are 100 people who want to take their place.

    • Helen says:

      03:06pm | 09/06/09

      Im still yet to figure out what Gordon Ramsay really Cooks.  All his shows are so focused on his swearing and not the cooking.  To me he seems so uneducated about Customer Service and the way he treats people. To me its obvious he had an abusive background which he has carried on.. 

      Gordon Ramsay is NO Jamie Oliver that’s for sure.  Give me Jamie Oliver anyday..

    • George says:

      03:11pm | 09/06/09

      It’s entertainment people, not a moral compass.  I don’t enjoy Neighbours either but I don’t bleat about it on-line.  I find many shows on television to be intellectually offensive - mindless drivel is just as bad for kids as swearing is claimed to be.  Swearing excessively may suggest a limited grasp of the wonderful variety within the English language but one man’s cooking show is hardly responsible for society’s alleged demise.

    • George says:

      03:13pm | 09/06/09

      By the way, why isn’t anyone complaining about the grievous waste of taxpayer dollars incurred by a Senate Inquiry into this matter?  Do we really not have more important things to focus our energies on than a 1 hour television show.  Don’t like it, don’t watch it.  Simple.

    • Colin Campbell says:

      03:41pm | 09/06/09

      I like swearing for emphasis rather than background.

    • Andy D flipper says:

      03:42pm | 09/06/09

      Faaaaaaaaaaaarks SAKE ppls get over it!!!!!!!!!

    • mar says:

      07:10pm | 09/06/09

      gordon who?

    • Fred says:

      08:47pm | 09/06/09

      Come on everyone, keep the publicity coming, it’s all good for Mr Ramsay.
      And to the wanna-be psychiatrist (Ken of Boronia) who so succinctly analysed this talented chef, at what college did you obtain your doctorate?. 
      Good on ya Gordon, keep them scones hot mate

      Fred, Castlemaine

    • Megan says:

      10:05pm | 09/06/09

      I’m loving every minute of Masterchef - and there’s hardly been one swear word in it!

    • Nina says:

      10:07pm | 09/06/09

      Oh please stop giving him the attention he is looking for and ignore him just like you do with any naughty little boy.
      Grow up Ramsey!!!

    • Alison says:

      10:19pm | 09/06/09

      Who cares if he’s a good cook, oh sorry chef. Andrew Johns is a good, oh sorry, great footballer and he’s treated women like crap too.

      They are in the public view therefore they should lead by example not teach our young men and children (both boys and girls) that it is acceptable to treat women in a degrading fashion. Oh and also Tracy is right - Ramsay is narsissistic.

    • Evalyn says:

      11:08pm | 09/06/09

      I took the only cookbook I owned of his and tore it to bits and put it in my recycle bin, I dont have time in my life for people like him.

    • Rachel says:

      12:24am | 10/06/09

      Funny how someone who obviously has ADD and needs to be on some serious medication has risen to such popularity, I kind of admire the guy for not letting mental instability get in the way of making heaps of cash!

    • Ian says:

      11:35am | 10/06/09

      Gratuitous profanity - what waste of talent!
      Billy Conolly doesn’t need it. (even though he’s taken it as a sort of trademark).
      Perhaps young Gordon does need it. (Anyway, he’ll be right, I’m sure all of us aussies can be dismissed as racist - as a previous high-flying failure pointed out.)

    • Davo says:

      11:54am | 10/06/09

      To all my fellow female OZZIES give Ramsey the flick don’t let his bussiness succeed here . Thank God the UK is 15,287km away from OZ. Gordon Ramsey is the BOGAN OF BOGANS. I’m an OZZY bloke and i don’t even offend women.  I wear the southern cross. proud of it too.  P#ss this POMMY BA#ST#RD back to the land of the Queen and dont let him offend another OZZY!!!!

    • Ben says:

      02:44pm | 12/06/09

      As Gordon would say “fahkin ‘ell….”

      Firstly, Gordon might swear a lot, but he doesn’t host A Current Affair. In my mind, Tracey Grimshaw is the bigger criminal…

      Secondly, only Lily has picked up on this - he is a chef. Chefs swear - a lot. It’s just part of the pressure cooker job. Rightly or wrongly, it is a profession of hot headed perfectionists trying to do the work most us do in 8 hours in 3, in a cramped, hot space, barking orders at their staff in order to get your medium rare steak on a plate. A good chef simply does not settle for second best, be it at a three Michelin star restaurant, or your local cafe, and won’t tolerate anything less than the best from their staff. I actually wanted to be a chef at one stage in my life, and my mother, who’d worked as a kitchen hand for many years, suggested if I wanted to keep my sanity, consider another career.

      Thirdly - he’s Scottish. Take everything I just said and double it.

      Fourthly - He is actually dealing with some genuinely bad dolts on Kitchen Nightmares. I personally absolutely love the show and am as flabbergasted as he is at the morbid stupidity and arrogance of some of the restaurant owners and their staff. I know it is TV and all, but remember: these people asked for his help. Some of their responses would have you talking coarsely.

      Fifthly - it’s just TV. TV is a democracy, if you don’t like it, don’t watch it, there are other channels you can watch. Or perhaps even turn off the TV and go outside and play.

      Lastly - it’s just words. If they bother you so much, then don’t worry about society - worry about yourself.

    • Zac says:

      05:29pm | 14/06/09

      Get the F*ck over it. wow he said the F word 80 times, which sad mofo has the job of counting?? i suggest a carreer change. if you dont like chiken, DONT EAT CHIKEN, if he swears too much for your precious ears, dont watch his shows. if your really that soft that a four letters in the correct order will offend you, then you have my pity. he is a chef, he is a genius marketer, cos guess what ppl, he is a millionaire and world famous, and all those giving their opinions, including me, dont mean a thing because thousands of ppl watch his show. so get over it. stick your head out the door into the real world, people with high levels of stress WILL SWEAR!!!!

 

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