Most Americans know British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay by now. He took the country by storm in the 2000s with his Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmare shows, and has since become a legend in the culinary space – but Americans may not have heard of Jamie Oliver, a “competing” British celebrity chef who focuses largely on the UK market.
The two chefs are equally well-known in the United Kingdom, and they’ve even been engaged in a friendly feud for several decades. During a recent interview, Ramsay revealed that his wife, Tara Ramsay, actually owns several Oliver cookbooks…and uses them to cook food for the family!
The 57-year-old British chef revealed the secret during an interview on the Dish podcast, which is hosted by a personal friend of his wife, Angela Harnett, a professional chef. Harnett described how whenever she has visited Ramsay’s home to see his wife, she will casually cook a delicious lasagna or a “brilliant shepherd’s pie.”
“She’s amazing,” she said, before Ramsay cut in and said that she always uses Oliver’s recipes.
“Yeah, and they’re all Jamie Oliver recipes,” he said. “Do you have any idea how hard that is for me?”
So, is he serious? Sort of…
It all goes back to 2009 when Oliver publicly criticized Ramsay forcomments he made about an Australian journalist. Ramsay, known for being blunt and outspoken, compared the journalist to a pig – and even though he publicly apologized to the woman, Oliver didn’t forgive him. What followed was a decades-long feud between the two chefs, with Oliver having taken personal jabs at Ramsay, including accusing him of having botox.
Despite the serious nature of some of their disagreements, however, there have been several moments of civility between the two chefs. In 2019, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant chain collapsed – and instead of gloating or bragging, Ramsay responded gracefully and acknowledged the many serious challenges they both face in the same industry.
