“I wouldn’t be anywhere without Gordon”

In a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper, Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett, chef patron of Murano, gave her thoughts on her former mentor Gordon Ramsay.

Speaking to the paper, Angela described Gordon as “totally unique” whilst admitting that working with the infamous celebrity chef was a difficult and stressful chapter in her life.

“It was hard work, working for him, and sometimes I did worry about getting a bollocking. I don’t think it’s healthy, being that anxious about work. Years ago I told him that sometimes when I was cycling to work I would hope that the restaurant would have burned down. But I loved working for him. I wouldn’t be anywhere without Gordon,” she told the Guardian newspaper.

Angela’s most recent interview with the paper comes after her Murano restaurant retained its Michelin star for 2023, with the chef teaming up with former Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw to host Dish, a podcast from Waitrose and Partners.

Drawing upon her own experiences working with Gordon, Angela told the Guardian that there needs to be a directness between chefs when working in a kitchen.

“When Gordon would scream and shout – and he wasn’t the only one – it sort of became like water off a duck’s back. It’s a pressured environment. There’s loads to do and if you don’t do it people don’t get their lunch. I like that we’ve moved away from what it was, but there absolutely has to be someone driving the kitchen,” she told the paper.

Acknowledging positive changes in the industry, Angela revealed to the Guardian how she didn’t approve of how experienced chefs used to mock and treat their junior colleagues.

“Young chefs are treated better than they used to be. You hear horror stories. I remember working in a kitchen once – it wasn’t Gordon’s – and this sous chef made some kid who’d just started chop flour. He thought it was a kind of rite of passage, to make him do that. I told him it was stupid. And we had too much else to do, frankly,” she said to the paper.

Biography

Angela was born in Kent in 1968. After the passing of her father at the young age of eight, Angela’s mother moved the family to Upminster to be closer to their family.

Before she was born, Angela’s mother and grandparents immigrated to Wales from Bardi in Italy, and her heritage has influenced her cooking style throughout her career.

Becoming a chef was not Angela’s first port of call. She first achieved a degree in Modern History at Cambridge Polytechnic, but the calling of the kitchen saw her land her first job at Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados.

After returning to the UK in 1999, Angela was hired by Gordon Ramsay to work at Aubergine.

In her time at Aubergine, she saw the restaurant win its first Michelin Star. Angela moved on to Zafferano in Belgravia, London, for six months and then to Marcus Wareing’s L’Oranger, where she was named his sous-chef.

Then, Angela and Marcus both moved to Gordon Ramsay's Pétrus in Knightsbridge, London, and within seven months Angela became the head chef. She was at the helm when the restaurant earned a Michelin star.

Angela launched Amaryllis in Scotland with David Dempsey in 2001 and later turned her attention to the launch of Gordon Ramsay’s Verre in Dubai.

The chef returned to the UK in 2002 to open MENU and The Grill Room at London’s prestigious hotel, The Connaught, in Mayfair. With her as the named chef patron, the restaurant went on to win a ‘Best New Restaurant’ Award in 2003 and a Michelin Star in 2004.

Read Angela's full interview with the Guardian here.