-My first guest is a world-renowned chef
and one of my all-time favorites.
He's also an Emmy-nominated TV host.
His show "Hell's Kitchen" returns this Thursday
[British accent] at 8:00 p.m. on Fox,
and you can see him!
[ Normal voice ] Sorry. You can see him
in the special "Gordon Ramsay's American Road Trip"
airing tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m., also on Fox.
[ British accent ] Here is Gordon Ramsay!
-Mate, it's good to see you, but happy -- happy New Year.
-[ Normal voice ] That is so -- thank you.
Happy New Year to you, as well,
and thank you for doing this show.
I can't believe that's become kind of an impression of you.
You don't really even yell as much anymore.
That's the old impression. -No, do you know what?
My kids yell at me more now than I yell at them,
so it's the other way around. -[ Laughs ]
-How are the kids? -Honestly.
Mate, the kids are doing well.
As you know, for everybody, over the last 12 months,
it's been a -- it's been a tough sort of, you know, time.
And especially for those youngsters
in that age that's sort of, you know, 16 to 22.
But -- -I couldn't imagine, yeah.
-They're gonna get through.
-But you have five kids now, right?
-We went back for -- for number five.
-Congratulations, but wow. -No, but hold on.
Tana's asking for a sixth across the lockdown
because literally... -No, no, no, no, no.
...two hours ago, our prime minister
has just announced we're in lockdown now...
-That's right.
-...until the frickin' 15th of February.
So she said, "We have good news tomorrow night."
I said, "What's that, darling?"
She said, "Well, you're up late talking to Jimmy.
Tomorrow night, we can go for number six."
-[ Laughs ] Oh, my God. -I said, "Number six?"
-No! I'm gonna talk to her. -And then, suddenly --
-I have to talk to her. No, no, no. It's just not fair.
-Would you, please? We do have one little addition.
Let me just show you. -Yeah.
-He arrived literally last fall.
This is -- This is Truffle.
Oh, man. -Oh!
-Hey, Truf-- -Stop it.
[ Laughing ] No, no, no.
Hey, bud! Hi, Truffle! -Truffle.
-Hi, Truffle. -Say hello to -- to Uncle Jimmy.
-It's Uncle Jimmy. Truffle, making your TV debut --
oh, and looking good.
Yeah, you know where the camera is.
He finds the lens. He finds the lens.
-Oh, my goodness. -How has he been?
-Mate, he's been a mess, and he's sort of --
he's still going through that process
of getting house-trained.
You can always tell when the dog [bleep]
'cause the smell rises,
and even before you open your bedroom door in the morning,
you think, "Oh, my God."
It used to be gravy -- now it's just dog [bleep] you smell.
-[ Laughs ] -You should see
some of the ridiculous coats that they've got over here now.
I saw a coat the other day with his initials,
his date of birth on it,
and this thing was dressed with Christmas tree lights.
-Geez. -What the [bleep] is happening
putting Christmas tree lights on a dog?
And it went all the way to the end of the tail.
-I think it's -- -And then I saw this sort of dog
in the distance, pissing up a tree...
-[ Laughing ] Oh, my God.
-And it looked a really weird shape,
like it was almost like a drone that had fallen from the sky,
but it's a dog having a [bleep] and a piss up a tree,
with bloody Christmas tree lights all over it.
Sorry. -You're the first guest in 2021,
and already we're -- NBC is in the hole $20,000.
-[ Laughs ] Sorry. Sorry.
I'm s-- I'll take care of that. I'm sorry.
It's you. You bring the worst out of me.
Last time I saw you, you put me on the naughty step.
-I made you sit -- I -- [ Laughs ]
Dude, I brought -- I made you sit on the naughty step.
That's right. I forgot that. [ Laughs ]
How is the -- How is the --
What are you feeding the baby, the 2-year-old?
I forget those years.
-So Oscar, you know, in my mind, is my last hope
of getting anyone into the industry
because, you know, our eldest daughter is working in PR.
Holly, our middle daughter, is doing fashion.
Tilly's taking a gap year.
Jack has become a Royal Marine. And so --
[ Chuckling ] -What?!
-Everyone's left -- Everyone's left --
Everyone's left the nest, and nobody wants to cook.
So I'm hoping, if we refine Oscar's palate now...
-No. -...he starts off with
beautiful oatmeal in the morning with caramelized banana.
I'll do him a little light scrambled egg on toast
for lunch.
And then, for dinner tonight,
he had a roasted butternut squash soup.
[ Both laugh ] -The kid's spoiled rotten.
Are you kidding me? I love that. -Man.
-But you know that
no one's gonna take over the family business.
It's just the way life works.
-I think they've been watching too many reruns
of "Kitchen Nightmares," thinking,
"[Bleep] that. That's not my career."
-Exactly. [ Both laugh ]
Hey, Gordon, I want to talk to you
about the restaurant business
because I can just imagine how tough it's been.
You have over 35 restaurants, I think, all over the world.
-Yeah. -What it's been like?
I try to support -- whenever I can --
I have been ordering every week,
at least three nights a week of take-out.
And even if I'm not hungry, I freeze it, just --
and give them a nice, big tip. -Sure.
-But what's it been like, bud? -Sure.
Yeah, I mean, unprecedented. -Terrible.
-I've never seen a situation like this, ever.
London, like New York, has been hit really hard.
I think the biggest, you know, and most important thing for me
is staying close to the staff, giving them the security,
giving them, you know, light at the end of the tunnel,
holding regular calls.
If we don't meet, you know, on a Zoom or jump on the phone
three or four times a day,
and for that younger bracket, the ones that are under 30,
it's really important to keep their mind focused
that we are going to come out of this.
Customers have been amazing,
supporting the restaurants with to-go,
and, you know, special festive menus, which has been amazing.
Some of the landlords have been really supportive
and some haven't. -Yeah.
-So we're in that awkward situation,
no different to theaters.
You know, breaking bread and having that social connect
is absolutely pivotal.
So we are going to come out of this.
You've got to stand strong, hold your nerve,
and, more importantly, keep these youngsters on-site
and give them hope, and that's what we're doing.
-You're been on TV -- I was reading this,
and I find this hard to believe --
for 20 years now, over 20 years.
That's crazy.
I remembered when you were, like, a brand-new thing
I thought I discovered.
And I go, "[Gasps] I just found the coolest guy.
He's crazy, man. He's blah, blah, blah."
-Yeah. -But what went through your mind
when you were first asked to do a show?
I think I know the answer.
I think you were like, "No, I'm not a TV chef.
I'm a chef, chef." -That's -- That's exactly that.
And it's weird because
I felt that someone was trying to sort of ruin my career
by taking me out of that level of perfection.
And so, the first thing I said --
"Look, will I be back before 6:30
so I can get behind the line and start,
you know, cooking for the first table at 6:45?"
-Wow. -And this -- this year,
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea --
we celebrate 22 years,
and TV came literally two years after opening.
So I said to the producer -- I said, "Look, I'm a real chef."
"No, no, but you can cook on TV."
I said, "No, I don't want to cook on TV
because you're never gonna --
you're not gonna show the passion."
Said, "No, no, trust me. We'll show the passion."
So, you know, the first-ever sort of time
is when I launched this tiny, little documentary
called "Kitchen Nightmares."
One cameraman, one producer, one sound, and myself --
there was four of us.
And I used to go and spend two weeks
in these restaurants per restaurant with the owners
and then go back a month later
and spend a further three or four days,
and everything I was learning in the industry
after opening my first business
I was putting into these restaurants.
And of course, you know, I was desperate for them to succeed.
And that was the first thing that sort of hit me --
the devastation -- if it didn't work,
I felt that I was the one that they were going to blame.
So I give it my all, man. I tell you.
Oh, my God. -Yeah.
I want to talk to you more about the shows
you have premiering this week when we come back.
Is that cool? -Absolutely.
-More with Gordon Ramsay when we come back, everybody.
Stick around. Come on back.