Angela Hartnett tells Chris Evans what it was like to work with Gordon Ramsay

Virgin Radio

21 Sep 2023, 10:33

Angela Hartnett joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk all about her hit podcast Dish, and chatted about her time working with Gordon Ramsey.

The Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur co-hosts Dish with member of the Virgin Radio family, Nick Grimshaw. In the podcast, Angela makes and serves dishes, shares cooking tips and recommends recipes, while Grimmy serves the drinks as the dup chat to a celeb guest.

So far in series four, Nick and Angela have spoken to Michael and Hilary Whitehall and Gordon Ramsay. Regarding the latter, Angela said: “He's just an alright, proper, great guy, Gordon.”

Back at the start of her career, Angela was hired by Ramsay to work in the kitchens at Aubergine. “He's written about it in his new book,” she told Chris. “And I think Nick was just so excited, and just could not believe what we were talking about; how we used to work, the hours we used to do, what time I'd start in the morning, and all this. He was fascinated by it. 

It was huge, long, long hours. We did start at seven in the morning. We did finish at midnight. You did that five days a week. And then on the sixth day, you started at midday, so that was like your lie-in.”

Speaking about working under Ramsay, the Dish star said: “Gordon would come in on the Monday - you had Sunday off - and if he was in a good mood, he'd come over to the pastry section and talk. And then we thought, ‘Okay, the week's gonna start okay.’ If he didn't come near us and just went ‘Morning’, we thought, ‘We're screwed now, this is gonna be a bad week!’

“But he’d always come over and go, ‘Great weekend, Angela?, and I’d be going, ‘What weekend? We had Sunday off. I've barely seen daylight’. But you learned so much.” 

Speaking about the persona that we witness on our tellies, Angela said: “Everyone sees the Gordon that will shout and scream, and all the rest of it. What no-one ever saw was that, after service when you had a rough one and things went wrong and you did things wrong, he would always pull you in and sit you down and go ‘Right, what happened? This is what you need to do.’ 

“And he'd show you again, and he’d show you again. No-one ever sees that or hears about that. And that's where Gordon was brilliant. You know, he mentored you, he taught you, he’d explain everything. And he was a great teacher.”

She added: “You talk about chefs that have influenced the UK. And Gordon's there with the top three or five.” 

Last year Angela was awarded an OBE for services to the hospitality industry and to the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. She currently has three cookbooks to her name, and Dish has spent the most consecutive weeks at number one on the Apple Food Podcast Charts. “Gordon gave you that ambition and that confidence,” she said. “You know, I never went there thinking I was gonna end up running four or five restaurants, or writing books, or going on TV, or sitting here with Chris Evans on the radio.”

Guests for the rest of the series of Dish include Joe Wicks, Miriam Margolyes, Sara Cox, AJ Odudu, Will Best, Joanne Mcnally, Amol Rajan, Richard Corrigan and more. 

In related new, Gordon Ramsay has opened up about losing his son Rocky.

Dish series four is available now, with new episodes released every Wednesday.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.