Gordon Ramsay has been an outspoken TV personality for a long time, and when he wants to speak up on a topic, he is going to speak up on a topic. Speaking of, the chef has a new show Uncharted coming to TV, which will feature the popular chef traveling around the world in the search for new and exciting food. The show has already drawn comparisons to the late Anthony Bourdain's brand of food travel, but Gordon Ramsay says the criticism is wildly off-base. In fact, he says his show is certainly not ripping off Bourdain's famous shows. As Ramsay put it,
God, the feeble warriors that sit in their dungeons and spout negativity without understanding what we're doing. I've been doing assertive, combustial shows since 2006 since I started The F Word --- whether it's diving for giant crab or hanging off a 500-meter cliff chasing puffins. So I've been on that level of exploration and understand those cultures. I'm a chef that needs to get motivated by understanding different cultures. I helicoptered into Nagaland 50 kilometers from the Burmese border in Northern India and cooked at a wedding. And in order to get accepted into the wedding, I had to buy a fucking buffalo. That was 12 years ago.
So, according to Gordon Ramsay, for more than a decade the chef has spent time traveling around the world to influence his culinary tastes and to have new experiences.
Furthermore, Gordon Ramsay says that he was pals with Anthony Bourdain and would never have deigned to do anything to try to shoehorn himself exactly into the space Bourdain occupied in the culinary world. He also told EW in the interview about the controversy:
Tony Bourdain was a great mate of mine. We were on the red carpet together last year at the Emmys. I think he'd be happy and impressed at [Uncharted's] level of jeopardy and jumping into these [places] -- Brazil, Peru, Alaska -- and sourcing incredible ingredients and then highlighting some of the best [culinary] talent that hasn't been noticed yet. It's a dream come true. Judge it when you see it. The research going into [the show] is extraordinary. We're [airing in] half a billion homes, 177 countries, in 43 different languages. And I can't wait to make all those bitter, twisted, little, boring truckers who aren't busy enough in their lives eat their words.
All in all Gordon Ramsay is not mincing words, either when it comes to defending his new show or his pal's memory. In fact, Ramsay was one of the major celebrities who came out to bring suicide awareness after Anthony Bourdain took his own life back in June. In the time since, both CNN and the Travel Channel paid tribute to the chef and travel expert and the final episodes of his series are set to hit the schedule later this year. According to Ramsay, Uncharted is not supposed to be like No Reservations or Parts Unknown.
Food-related travel shows (or travel-related food shows?) on television are fairly common, but no one did them quite like Anthony Bourdain. It seems like Gordon Ramsay has no desire to try to compete with his old "mate," but like most controversies that arise before new programs air, we'll have to wait and see what Uncharted is like when it hits the airwaves. The new Nat Geo series will hit the airwaves sometime in 2019. For now, you can catch Gordon Ramsay back on Fox when Hell's Kitchen returns to the schedule on September 28.
