I really enjoyed this book, which was quite surprising as I didn't know what to expect! Gordon Ramsay has this expected persona of being very arrogant, pushy and rude!
This is not the way he came across at all! He does seem to have the desire and will to succeed, as he certainly seems to have done. He also comes across as wanting the very best for his family, (which is no bad thing) whilst not making it too easy for them.
I have had my eyes opened reading this book, and have a new found respect for the man. ( )

Gordon's second autobiography in the space of justa few years, and it shows that he's just in it for the money. On the otherhand throughout the book it's very clear that for the most part of his entraprenurial career he's just been in it for the money.

This is nothing to do with Gordon the Chef. There are no recipes, no dishes, no confrontations in the kitchen ... and no details. This is how Gordon went from a restaurant owning chef to being a millionaire business man who happens to specialise in restaurants. It's split up into fairly short chapters detailing the series of steps that took place from owning one restaurant to owning two, and then many, and then having Gordon Ramsay the Brand. I say 'detailing' but he doesn't, at best he lists them, sometimes he skips right over all the bits that would make it interesting or informative for the reader. In part this is because most of it went over Gordon's head and was handled by his father-in-law Chris, who gets plenty of praise throughout the book.

It gets a bit better towards the end where there are a few anecdotes of problems, their solutions and actual people involved. Gordon's writing is pretty terse, which works in a kind of high pressure kitchen environment but as he would put it 'quickly gets fucking annoying'. I can quite undestand swearing in a kitchen when you're sweating a million details at once. It becomes extremely gratuitious in a book like this and is, I think, effected and only as an image of his chef personna.

It is at times interesting, and it's abundently clear that Gordon has worked very hard to get to where he is today, and he should neither be envied or scorned for this. It's just a shame that much of the effort is now devolved into Image Manipulation and Brand management. Rather than cooking he's spending his time doing thing like writing this somewhat lame book. ( )

This reads like Gordon dictated it to someone who then wrote it up. As a result, the book has a blinding pace, even if it jumps about a bit in places.

Interesting update on the Ramsay story although I wonder whether the wide diversification of the brand will hold up in these challenging economic times. Gordon does demonstrate the energy required to be successful and that in many cases attention to detail is key. ( )

A 40th birthday present........a 'let's make as much money as we can' after the first book! ( )

The first half of this book was very interesting as Ramsay talks about the restaurants he set up and what made them work/not work. Here, his expertise really shows.

The second half was mostly padding, staggeringly dull and involves him talking about things he doesn't know about and passing uninformed opinions on them. ( )