Gordon Ramsay fires up 2016 and talks big Vegas plans

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Gordon Ramsay has really given new meaning to the phrase “British invasion.” The famously fiery celebrity chef is celebrating the three-year anniversaries of his landmark Las Vegas restaurants Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars Palace and Gordon Ramsay Burger at Planet Hollywood. They both opened in December 2012, a few months after his inaugural smash hit, Gordon Ramsay Steak, opened at Paris Las Vegas.

After chatting with this writer over some crispy calamari at Pub & Grill, Ramsay set out to surprise restaurant patrons with a dessert plate and heartfelt speech thanking them for the success of his Vegas ventures. The specialty plate consisted of mini portions of his three famous desserts: Sticky Toffee Pudding with brown butter ice cream, Spotted Dic bread pudding with vanilla sauce and vanilla shake with brulee pudding. After the sweet celebration, he headed over to Burger for round two.

If you happened to miss the occasion, the dessert trio is available through Dec. 23 for $10 at all three of his local restaurants.

Here are a few meaty highlights from our anniversary chat:

On a very golden coincidence “Caesars Palace celebrates 50 years next year, and there’s some other cranky chef celebrating 50 years next year as well. And you happen to be looking at him. I couldn’t have asked for a better collaboration than the whole birthday party here and joining the festive spirit. We’ve got some really exciting things in the pipeline. In the works already we’ve got our first ever live demo.”

On expanding his Vegas empire: “First of all, I’d like to buy a house here. We’ve got a fish and chips restaurant opening next year at The LINQ. The last four years we have been putting together an amazing restaurant, Bread Street Kitchen, that we’ve opened up in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and London over the last four years. It’s almost like a Shake Shack model meets high-end, unique, fun, family oriented restaurant. So that might happen here.”

On Vegas’ evolution as a culinary destination: “I would love to do a Gordon Ramsay cooking academy here. We are in talks for that as well. Everyone can come and play golf, play blackjack and listen to music but there’s so much food here, it’s big enough to stand alone. Las Vegas can compete with New York, it can compete with London and it’s vibrant.”

On the staggering number of burgers sold at Gordon Ramsay Burger: “The numbers—1.5 million burgers in three years. I know they have all been hand-cooked, I know they have been hand-blended and hand-seasoned and finished with that amazing caramelized Devonshire butter or seasoned by hand. It’s not a process, it’s a labor of love. That, for me, is quite unique. But I don’t want to get blamed for the calories!”

On the legendary, Vegas-based food festival Uncork’d and fellow celeb chef pal Bobby Flay: “There’s nothing like Uncork’d anywhere else in the world—and I do a lot of festivals and I travel the world endlessly. There’s never a weekend anywhere in the world that houses so many chefs and so many foodies in one place, whether they are bloggers, loyal clientele, people celebrating birthdays. It’s a very rare opportunity to meet such incredible chefs. I love standing in and amongst that talent. Knowing that I used to work for Guy Savoy and I grew up watching Nobu and Bobby Flay is the “Iron Chef.” That’s what we should be doing live here—him and I should be going to head to head for the “Caesars Palace Iron Chef.” And the loser has to do an Ironman triathlon.”

On personal favorites to order: “Yesterday I got in here at Pub and I had that amazing roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese. I think the dishes you select have to depend on the mood you’re in. It’s like [when people ask], what’s your favorite dish? Well I have 3,000 favorite dishes. It depends on where I am, who I am with and what the setting is and what it’s all about. I had a fish and chips for lunch. We are 160,000 portions of fish and chips [sold at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill]. The sliders are great for sharing. I’d recommend one of the beer soups, and a Shepherd’s Pie or fish and chips.”

On what he’s learned: “The multi-cultural environment has been incredible. The work ethic is unique, they work hard, they’re not clock-watching and they’re more passionate in this city about their trade than a few cities in this country. It’s a breath of fresh air. The produce and accessibility to great produce has been brilliant, whether it’s the bakery, the central kitchen, the fish or the meat. I’ve been blown away by it. There is such an influx of ingredients arriving in Vegas on a daily basis. I don’t think there are many cities anywhere in the world that have such access to luxury ingredients. I thought I was going to struggle. Working on the blend of the pates for the burgers, and having that kind of openness with the grill and the high flames and having that kind of structure inside Planet Hollywood—I didn’t think I would ever get away with it.”

On his holiday plans: “This year for the first time ever, Tana and I and the children are having lunch [at?] my Savoy Grill in London. We are going to be sitting down to the most amazing filet of Beef Wellington. And having cooked with them all year and still not that sick to death of them that I can’t face them on Christmas Day. There’s something quite unique about the ends, because that’s where all the best bits are. I always ask the waiter to save me the ends. So that’s what we are going to be doing. We have four kids who cook brilliantly as well. We will start off with a brunch Christmas Day morning, we will do a tour around all the restaurants, wish the staff Merry Christmas and have breakfast with them. We won’t eat until 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. That way we don’t eat twice, we eat once, and enjoy a late lunch/early supper. Then we are off for vacation for seven days.”