Being Gordon Ramsay review — did we really need six hours of gordon ramsay setting up restaurants?
Gordon Ramsay invites viewers into an intimate, often chaotic year as he attempts his most ambitious hospitality project yet: launching five separate businesses across the top floors of a City skyscraper. The resulting six-part series mixes family life, managerial nitty-gritty and design headaches — and raises a question critics keep asking: is six hours of access informative TV or one long commercial?
Up close with a carefully curated persona
The series trades in two familiar images of Ramsay. On the home front he is warm and hands-on, a father who bounces between parenting duties and the rigours of a global business. Fly-on-the-wall moments show him in family kitchens and at celebrations, revealing a softer, more domestic side that plays well against his on-screen reputation for volcanic outbursts.
At work, he is the perfectionist most diners expect: exacting, relentless and obsessed with detail. The cameras linger on menu tastings, apron prototypes and seating choices with the same intensity they give to menu critiques. Small technical conversations — such as the size of a rum baba for correct aeration or removing pockets from waitstaff aprons to maintain a polished look — underline the obsessive attention Ramsay applies to every element of a launch.
Big stakes, bigger spectacle
The project documented here spans a 27, 000 sq ft operation at a landmark City address, folding in a rooftop garden with a retractable roof, an Asian-inflected dining concept, a branch of a familiar brasserie, private dining and a culinary academy. It is presented as a high-risk, high-reward gamble, and the financial pressure is spelled out in blunt terms: this is a multi-million-pound launch that Ramsay says he is funding personally with bank support.
That scale produces Grand Designs-style mishaps. Build delays, design rows and operational headaches punctuate the narrative, and the sheer number of moving parts becomes a running dramatic device. Some sequences feel instructive for anyone curious about how top-end restaurants come together; others read as theatre, dialled up to maximise tightrope tension. There are unmistakable PR beats — the director asks pointed, revealing questions and Ramsay answers in ways that both humanise and promote the enterprise — but there are also plenty of genuinely satisfying, craft-driven moments.
Too much access, or the right amount?
Six hours is a long time to watch someone open multiple venues, and that running time is the series’ most divisive feature. Extended coverage allows for a granular appreciation of menu development, service standards and the interpersonal dynamics of a big kitchen brigade. The camera rewards patience: some of the most compelling scenes are unglamorous, slow-building sequences about standards, staff training and design compromises.
On the flip side, the series frequently borders on self-promotion. The rhythm often slides from documentary observation into polished branding: launch parties with influencers, nervous team meetings and staged reveal moments remind the viewer this is as much an exercise in reputation management as it is a chronicle of hospitality. For viewers who crave hard investigative beats or a critical outsider’s perspective, the series can feel like friendly territory rather than scrutiny.
Still, there is pleasure to be had. Watching highly skilled cooks and designers solve practical problems is satisfying in a way that quick fixes and gossip cannot match. And when Ramsay’s impatience meets genuine culinary excellence, the results are compelling television.
The verdict: the series will appeal most to those fascinated by the mechanics of restaurant launches and to fans who want a deeper look at Ramsay’s domestic and professional worlds. Others may find six hours of brand-building a little generous for the returns on offer.
