... That said, when I saw the book Humble Pie for sale, I did think that it was something that I would be interested to read.
The front cover
The words Humble Pie look wrong to me. They are printed over the top of a picture of Gordon Ramsay in a fairly smug pose. Maybe the juxtaposition ... Read review
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Humble Pie - Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay became the world's most famous and infamous chef. This autobiography talks ... more
about his difficult childhood - his father's alcoholism and violence; his brother's heroin addiction; his failed first career as a footballer; his working relationship (and subsequent feud) with Marco Pierre White; and his kitchen life.
talks about his difficult childhood; his brother's failed first career as a footballer; his father's alcoholism and violence; his first career as a footballer...
A review by ciaomeister1 on Humble Pie - Gordon Ramsay November 29th, 2006
Author's product rating:
Degree of Information
High
How easy was it to read / get information from
Very easy
How interesting was the book?
Interesting because I'm interested in that subject
How useful was it?
Pretty useful
Would you read it again?
Yes
Value for money
Good
Advantages:
An insight into a Gordon Ramsay
Disadvantages:
Swearing ! Swearing and more swearing
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I started another review about Gordon Ramsay with the words "love him or loathe him…" To be honest I was fairly indifferent to him. I like much of the food that he produces, I think he can be fairly honest, but also think he comes across as arrogant and one of the foulest mouthed chefs I have ever seen on TV. However my main indifference to the man comes from the fact that I am not a celebrity obsessed person. I think that some celebrities hide behind their TV persona, some put on a complete act, but behind it they are all human beings. That said, when I saw the book Humble Pie for sale, I did think that it was something that I would be interested to read.
The front cover The words Humble Pie look wrong to me. They are printed over the top of a picture of Gordon Ramsay in a fairly smug pose. Maybe the juxtaposition between the words and pictures are specifically to entice the doubting buyer to read the book in an attempt to make sense of the title.
The Back Cover The back cover reads "When I think about myself, I still see a little boy who is desperate to escape and desperate to please..." It is a quote by Gordon Ramsay, about his childhood and how his life has changed and moved on. There is a picture of a young, roughly four year old, Gordon wearing a tie and a cardigan. He is wrinkle free and dare I say it he looks vaguely angelic.
The Book This autobiography is divided into chapters, and is dedicated to Gordon's Mum. The foreword starts by Gordon explaining that he has lived in many places, always escaping from the trail of devastation that his Father seemed to leave behind him, and that he was from a poor background. I found that Gordon was pensive in this chapter, that it was well written, engaging and made me want to read on.
Chapter one is titled Dad. Without giving too much away it is safe to say that Gordon's relationship with his Father was not a great one. His Father was a drinker, full of self importance and a deserter when things went wrong. It is almost as though this chapter is a brain dump on Gordon's behalf, and as his feelings about his Dad get more intense so the bad language begins. Funnily enough, when I see him on television I start to block out the swearing, but when I see it there in black and white it becomes very stark and raw. You hear about the poverty in Gordon's life and you see the effect that the parenting had on the boy. You can feel the bitterness and resentment that Gordon had towards his Father.
The second chapter is Football. This was, and I believe still is, Gordon's other love apart from cooking. He had the makings of a good football player, and his thoughts and feelings about being a football player are detailed in this chapter. Again the influence of his Father in his life comes shining through in his absolute determination to succeed and be praised. I found myself starting to feel some empathy for the child that was so desperate to prove himself and vie for his Fathers affection. The end of his football career due to injury is well documented and it was at about this time that Gordon started to get into cooking.
The book then goes on to explain how Ramsay got started as a chef and is littered with memories and insights into conversations that he had. I felt that a lot of this chapter was an outpouring of Gordon's thoughts and was more like a stream of consciousness. Again his swearing increases with his emotions and the injustices, as he sees them, of his life.
Gordon goes on to explain how he worked in France, and I found this really quite interesting. He has obviously put a lot of determined thought and effort into his career and has chosen to work in a variety of restaurants in order to learn his profession. Gordon also worked on a yacht.
The chapters where Gordon started to gain fame, notoriety and success as a chef also signal a change in his writing style. The arrogance and stubbornness of the man start to really show through in his writing. I suppose that it must be hard to talk about your own successes without sounding slightly pompous, but I found myself almost cringing while I read some of the things he had written. The best example of this is when Ramsay is writing about a BBC Good Food Show, and some of the well known celebrity chefs. He writes "I went out on stage and gave the most amazing demonstration. I just thought: f**k off, will you. Let me do the real cooking."
I was, however, interested to read about the turnover of his restaurants and he seemed to be fairly honest in the figures he gives for profit. He is also able to point out some of his faults although I got the feeling that he didn't truly believe they were all of his making.
Perhaps the hardest chapter to read was that about his brother, Ronnie. Anyone who reads about Gordon Ramsay in the papers will probably be aware that Ronnie is a drug addict. The chapter titled Ronnie was more like the deluge of feelings after a counselling session. Indeed you learn that Ramsay did have to go to counselling sessions when his brother was in rehab. I got the impression that Ramsay had a lot of love for his brother, but that in order to retain some self preservation he has distanced himself from Ronnie.
There is a small chapter about the women in Gordon's life, his Mum, sisters, daughters and his wife. He makes it very clear that he wants his children to lead as normal a life as is possible. Indeed his Mum takes his children to Butlins to experience a "normal holiday" each year.
The book has a detailed and cross referenced Index that covers some 12 pages.
There are three sections of the book, towards the front, the middle, and the back where there are glossy colour photographs depicting some of the events that have happened in Gordon's life. The first set of photos range from pictures of his Mother and Father, copies of early press reports about his football playing, through to the start of his cookery career. The middle photo section shows Gordon with Albert Roux, Marco Pierre White, some family shots, through to pictures of Hell's Kitchen. The final set of photos shows Ramsay after doing the London Marathon, some shots from the F Word television programme, some from Soccer Aid, and finally his family. The pictures are all in colour and all have captions, and I think they add to the book. There is a vague chronology to the pictures, so it is interesting to chart Ramsay's life through the pictures as much as through the words.
My Thoughts To be honest, my thoughts about Gordon Ramsay and the quality of this book changed from page to page. I swung from thinking that he was completely arrogant and aloof, to thinking that he had made the most of a tough childhood and background. Sometimes I thought he showed a real awareness of his faults. At other times he seemed so involved in self pity and how tough his life had been that he was almost justifying his arrogant actions. Some of the book is well written, reflective and easy to read. At other times it is almost as though you can just hear his thoughts and it becomes a jumble of emotions and ideas.
As I said, I find that I can almost ignore his swearing when I watch him on the television; I think that is because I tend to be more interested in the visual side of the programme, watching what is happening, not listening so well. When I see, in black and white, the absolute torrent of swear words that he is able to fit into a sentence I find it quite hard to read.
I am glad that I read the book; I have a little more empathy for the man, a little more understanding of the amount of effort that goes into making a quality restaurant or a quality chef. I have a little more idea of what life must be like with a drug addict for a sibling. It was an interesting read, and although the writing style changes, I felt that much of that was linked to his feelings and emotions and in a way that made the accounts he gives more believable.
If you want a book about Gordon Ramsay's personal life, about his wife and children and life as a famous chef, then this is probably not for you. This autobiography is more heavily weighted towards Ramsay's career and the road that he has had to travel in order to make it as a chef. If you can not tolerate swearing then this is definitely not the book for you. With the exception of the first few pages there is no escape from it. I have to say that I am a little surprised there is no warning about the amount of bad language, and have hidden the book from my ever knowing eldest son, as his phonic knowledge is quite sufficient for him to have picked up a lot from this book.
Other Details 299 Pages Hardback ISBN 0 00 722967 4 Harper Collins Publishers The RRP is £18.99, although you can easily shop around for a bargain and Waterstones price is £11.38, Tesco online are selling the book for £8.47
Advantages: open and honest autobiography Disadvantages: none
...- 'from cottage pie to Humble Pie - you deserve a medal.' He also talks warmly of his sisters and his wife Tana. Most interesting is his approach to bringing up his children -three girls and a boy. He definitely does not want them to be spoiled - in fact they only have a pound a week pocket money and any extra has to be earned by doing jobs around the house or garden. I applaud this attitude as it would have been all too easy to lavish everything ... ...does come over as quite humble and never seems to forget where he came from and those who helped him on the way. There is, which probably won't surprise many, a fair proportion of the F word scattered through the book (and I don't mean 'food') I suppose it is quite unnecessary, but anyone who has seen him on TV will know that is how he speaks, so I didn't really expect anything else. He is quite open about the TV work and you can tell that 'Kitchen ...
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12.03.2007
A Tasty Read Review ofHumble Pie - Gordon Ramsayby
wendybull
Advantages: Good honest insight to Gordon Ramsey Disadvantages: Would have liked to read more about his adult life
Gordon Ramsey is one of my favourite celebrity chefs because he really does have a passion for his cooking and reading his autobiography has confirmed my feelings for him. The book comes across as being very frank and honest, something I do admire, and he does actually state that he can't abide liars in his kitchen. I don't really have any reasons to doubt what he says in this book and therefore read it with sympathy, empathy and admiration for what ... ...telling us of his childhood and the continuous moving around they did as a family. This was down to his father's terrible lifestyle of drink, music and women. He got himself into a lot of debt and consequently the family had to move around to dodge the collectors. His father was not a nice man at all and I think Gordon has taken a step back when writing about him. It must be hard to relive those years in the written word and explain about what should ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Learn the truth about Mr Ramsay Disadvantages: Not long enough so I want a follow up.
As I am finally getting around to putting my feet up with a nice brew and a good book I decided to read my collection of books that I already had and this had been a christmas present from my other half which I was longing to read but wanted to be able to read as much of it in one go as possible.
Published by Harper Collins the book was only released back on the 2nd October 2006,
my hardback version contains 304 pages and I managed to get through ... ...bad and I found I was grabbing every opportunity to read this book I hated putting it down. It is easy to read allowing you to pick up where you last left, always a good sign in my opinion.
I like reading "official" autobiographies as it gives me an insight as to what that person really likes and feels under what is portrayed in the media and helps me understand that person a little better, after reading that the book was an insight into the real ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Very easy to read, interesting content Disadvantages: Language may put some people off, he writes as he speaks!
I was very excited to receive this in my pile of Birthday gifts, as I am fairly interested by the persona that is Gordon Ramsay. My husband is convinced that I fancy him, but I keep having to explain that it is actually the food that I am dribbling over (the pictures in Gordon Ramsay's Secrets are beautiful!).
This biography charts his progress from his unsettled childhood, to his brief spell in professional football, and then his career as a chef. ... ...a particular subject, so even though in the main the whole book is chronological, in some parts he may refer to connected events that occurred years apart. This is easy enough to follow, but sometimes made it a bit unclear to what happened exactly when. There are 3 photographic sections in the book, most of which I think have been well chosen. It is amazing to see how facially different Gordon became at around the age of 12. I started the book by ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Not only an insight into an amazing talented man,but a good London resteraunt guide! Disadvantages: I really can not think of any!
...nearly half price. Humble Pie is a detailed and honest account of Gordon Ramsay's life, past and present, both in and out of the kitchen.
Gordon talks about his unsettled childhood "Our family life was built on a series of pipe dreams. The dreams of my father, a wannabe rock 'n' roll star, a man whose dreams turned to dust." Gordon's father was an alcoholic and a violent man, he would fall out with his employers and make the family move up and down ... ...It was not only his employers that he would take his temper out on, Gordon recalls a conversation with his father on the telephone - "Mum's been in hospital for three days," I said. "She asked for it," he grunted.`
Gordon's first career choice was not to be a chef but to be a footballer, he came close to playing in the first team at Rangers Football Club, but due to a knee injury could no longer play. Whilst in the youth team for Rangers Gordon ...
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08.11.2006
(14.11.2006)
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