Korea's love-hate relationship with Gordon Ramsay and his restaurants

Food & Travel

Published: 16 Nov. 2022, 17:08 Updated: 16 Nov. 2022, 18:09

Korea's love-hate relationship with Gordon Ramsay and his restaurants

Gordon Ramsay poses for the cameras during a press conference at Lotte World Mall in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on Nov. 10. [NEWS1]

During Gordon Ramsay’s three-day trip to Seoul last week, the British chef made crystal clear his total commitment to bringing his food empire to Korea.

“I’ve been intrigued with Korean cuisine for the last 15 to 20 years,” Ramsay said during a press conference at Gordon Ramsay Burger in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on Nov. 10. “My goal is to establish a solid presence in Korea then expand business into other countries.”

Ramsay has 58 namesake eateries around the world. In Asia, he has a premium burger shop and the new bottomless pizza parlor that opened earlier this month in Seoul, in addition to two restaurants in Hong Kong and one in Singapore.

He is expected to open two more stores — Gordon Ramsay Street Burger and Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips — in the first half of 2023, in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

Needless to say, Ramsay loves Korea. But does Korea love him back?

Just like the rest of the world, Korea was taken with Ramsay’s on-screen persona as a kitchen tyrant with an unexpected soft side.

For his creative use of expletives, locals have nicknamed him the foul-tongued ajeossi (middle-aged man).

Memes and parodies of Ramsay’s biting remarks on shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” (2005-) and “The F Word” (2005-10) trended online.

In 2017, he became a brand ambassador for local beer brand Cass. Inside a modest bar with a plate of Korean fried chicken in front of him, Ramsay in the commercial yells “Imo! Can we have another bottle of Cass?” Imo literally means "aunt," but is also commonly used to refer to servers at Korean restaurants.

Gordan Ramsay in a commercial for local beer brand Cass [ORIENTAL BREWERY]

On a publicity trip to Korea the same year, Ramsay visited the Gwangjang Market, a traditional marketplace in central Seoul, where he was seen eating Korean street foods like tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), jeon (Korean fritters) and live octopus.

Pictures of street food vendors hand-feeding him mini gimbap (seaweed rolls) went viral at the time, playing to the country’s tendency to be overly eager for validation from Westerners.

Gordon Ramsay eats gimbap, or seaweed rice roll, at Gwangjang Market in Jongno District, central Seoul, during his 2017 trip to Korea. [ORIENTAL BREWERY]

During the same visit, Ramsay also appeared as a special contestant on a local culinary competition show “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator” (2016-19).

However, since actually launching his business in Korea in December 2021, his widespread popularity has been dwindling.

Most importantly, locals were feeling like they were being “ripped off” by Ramsay.

Many felt that his burgers, the prices of which range from 31,000 won ($23) to 140,000 won, were overpriced, no matter how “premium” they claim to be.

The new Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza store was promoted as a more casual and price-friendly restaurant, but wasn’t perceived so by the public when it opened earlier this month.

"Paying 29,800 won per person doesn’t feel like I'm getting a good deal because there was only so much pizza served during the 90 minutes that people are allowed to dine there, and I had to pay extra for basic drinks and pickled side dishes," reads a review of the restaurant on Twitter.

A premium burger is being crafted at Gordon Ramsay Burger in Songpa District, southern Seoul. [GORDON RAMSAY KOREA]

The high price tags on Ramsay’s menus made some Koreans think that he was looking down on them.

“Does he think he can get away with undermining Korean customers to make easy money here?” reads an irate comment on Twitter.

Ramsay addressed the allegation during the Seoul press conference last week, saying that the high price points are the result of “the finest selection of ingredients.”

For his premium burgers, he said: “I wanted to introduce special menus in Korea as our brand is more competitive than others. We could have used frozen ingredients to reduce the price of our burgers, but I think the premium marketing strategy worked."

Regardless, the negative reviews continued to roll in, picking on not only the price, but also the service and taste at his new pizza parlor.

“It took between 10 to 20 minutes for a new slice of pizza to be delivered to my plate, even though the actual slice is so thin and small that it took only a couple of bites to eat,” reads one comment on Tistory. “Maybe my expectations were too high, but the pizzas here weren’t very different from regular ones.”

These frustrations blew up in proportion in the wake of Ramsay’s leave on Sunday, when it became known that Ramsay’s team contacted the local police for extra security during the chef's 20-minute subway commute from his burger shop to his pizza shop on Nov. 10. Following the request, Seoul Metro and Korail stationed nine officials inside the subway.

Gordon Ramsay Korea told the local press Tuesday that it was just following its headquarters' VIP travel manual and notified respective authorities to prevent any traffic or accidents. It added that it did not ask for subway personnel to be stationed during Ramsay's commute.

But by then negative comments online about the chef had already escalated, with netizens calling Ramsay's behavior “snobbish,” “inappropriate” and even “an abuse of his power.”

“He isn’t a king or prince of the United Kingdom, for god's sake,” reads one comment on Twitter.

Pizzas at Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul [GORDON RAMSAY KOREA]

Still, Ramsay is bulldozing his way through the local restaurant scene.

In October 2021, the Gordon Ramsay Group signed a 10-year contract with local fashion and food company Jin Kyoung Corporation, in a joint mission to launch more Ramsay restaurants in Korea.

And, withstanding the controversies, his premium burger shop is indeed doing well. Its monthly profits surpassed 1 billion won in March. Within about 10 months, it sold over 10,000 1996 Burgers, its most expensive item.

"People say it is more of a dish than a burger," said an employee from Gordon Ramsay Korea.

"We also launched two special burgers in October and November that are both over 50,000 won. The patties are made of hanwoo [Korean beef]. We were initially worried about the high price, but both fared well. I think that customers are really satisfied about the quality of ingredients that go inside our burgers."

Ramsay is also slated to make a special appearance on a future episode of the local culinary show “Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant” (2019-), as well as a few local YouTube channels.

The star chef certainly hasn’t burned down all his bridges with the local public, but only time will tell whether or not his future endeavors in the city will succeed.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]