SYou mean promoting yourself for six hours on Netflix and getting paid to provide streamer content at the same time? Great job if you can get it. Gordon Ramsay got it. Being Gordon Ramsay, 6 parts – Part 6 – The documentary follows the chef and TV personality as he embarks on his most ambitious venture yet. It’s a “big undertaking,” “high risk, high reward,” “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” and “one of my last bets…if it fails, I’m screwed.” We have 7 billion (five, but it feels like 7 billion) restaurants opening at the same time on the top floor of 22 Bishopsgate. It will feature a 60-seat rooftop garden with a retractable roof, a 250-seat Asian restaurant called Lucky Cat, a brasserie called Bread Street Kitchen and a cooking school.

But we start with a family scene. The youngest of the six children of Ramsay and his wife of 30 years, Tana, is eating pancakes. I think Gordon is too thick. They are American style and not the crepes he thinks they should be. “Darling,” Tana says, not for the first time that morning either. “Could you please take a break?” you wonder.

Ramsey’s defining characteristic, of course, is his inability to do that. Michelin-starred chefs can’t do that. It’s not built that way. When he’s with his kids, he’s fully involved with them (“Megan is 27, twins Holly and Jack are 25, Matilda is 23, Oscar is 6, and Jesse James is 18 months. Did I miss any of them? Thank you so much”). Running and jumping and playing with the little ones, planning weddings and engagement parties, buying the first Chef White with the older kids – he’s clearly inexhaustible, they clearly adore him, as does Tana, and at the same time (at least for the older ones) have a firm control over this guy.

The same is essentially true at work, at least in this extended ad for the Ramsay brand. His chefs respect him. Because he has walked and spoken well. And they all strive to do their best for Ramsey and because they come from the same perfectionist family that Ramsey does. because.

In order to avoid being Gordon Ramsay (as he might say), we are observing people clinging to the abstract ideal that everyone should always perform to the highest standards – an idea so outdated that it is rapidly becoming incomprehensible. And if you have the money, it’s a simple joy to watch them create some of the most delicious dishes you’ve ever eaten. Their knowledge and skills are delicious to watch.

With all the drama that comes with starting and running five businesses at the same time, six hours feels like a lot of time. Each facility must be designed and built from scratch, and a retractable roof must be added to it. But at least you can understand that you have to be very careful in order to have a successful launch. The menu and tasting – you can’t make rum baba too small to properly aerate – are only part of it. The prototype apron has a pocket that must be removed. Because Ramsay knows that waitstaff will naturally stuff the pieces in their pockets, which will quickly make them look dirty. Adding leather seating to a restaurant’s design has sparked complaints that it takes up space costing two covers, or £300, a night. There are a million other things, but Ramsay covers them all. Does he have time to explain every decision in kind words? No. Is he unnecessarily rude? No, no. There’s a reason for everything he does, and he gives it and moves on. Sure, you need to have the right self-awareness and enough self-confidence to deal with him, but if you don’t, I’m of the mindset that it’s your problem, not him. Nevertheless, he is certainly a Marmite proposition, and entire sociology modules could be written around him and people’s reactions to him.

In the meantime, there’s this fluffy nonsense with occasional nuggets of insight. Whether you enjoy it or not. No offense, but Ramsay has more things to worry about.