Chef Gordon Ramsay speaks to a jam-packed audience at the Newport Performing Arts Theater. Jeeves de Veyra 

MANILA -- Continuous learning is a key ingredient to the success of global culinary and multimedia superstar Chef Gordon Ramsay.

Visiting the Philippines for the first time, Ramsay is in Manila to support his first Philippine concept, Gordon Ramsay’s Bar and Grill, that opened in the Grand Wing of Newport World Resorts back in August 2024.

Speaking to a jam-packed audience at the Newport Performing Arts Theater on Monday, he shared stories and key insights on food, business, and life.

From traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico to learn how to make a proper mole, to spending three weeks in an ashram in Southern India to dive deep into vegetarian cuisine to understand the essence of a great chickpea curry, to meticulously raving about a sisig taco he had at the Melbourne Filipino restaurant Serai, to gushing about his recent Lumpia Wellington collab with "Lumpia Queen" Abi Marquez, there was a sense of wonder as Ramsay talked about his storied culinary career. 

Chef Gordon Ramsay with 'Lumpia Queen' Abi Marquez. Jeeves de Veyra 

“You just have to keep on going up and down. When you start down again in the next kitchen, you just learn so much more rather than going in a higher position, taking more responsibility. It's not about the responsibility in your 20s, it's about the education. Next time, when I started my new job, I went back down to becoming a commie chef again. So do that three or four times in your career, and you'll build out this plethora of knowledge that only you will have, and you can dip in those little nuances that you learn, and then you start formulating your own style, because you have three or four good mentors. So yeah, get comfortable being uncomfortable,” he said.

Ramsay stressed that for his restaurants around the world to operate at high standards, training is crucial.

“We focus on training and that level of consistency is crucial for us. We have several academies now popping up around the globe. And as opposed to the two- or three-year culinary classes. We’re doing 60-, 90- and 20-day intense training, purely on dishes,” he said,

His team takes feedback very seriously, now more than ever in the age of social media.

“We could be in New York, and there could be a guest eating lunch here at Bar and Grill. And we’ll get the feedback instantly. So, the whole team arrives, and we take negativity very seriously. We listen to the comments, we listen to the critics, and we hold the bar high so the intensity across the training is exceptional -- the leader, the soft runs, the testing, the palette testing, the scrutiny over the inside, the dish,” he said. 

It seems that this won’t be the last Filipinos see of Chef Ramsay as he expressed a profound admiration of Filipino cuisine, calling it the “Sleeping Beauty of Asia” that’s now awakening, citing the Filipino restaurants gaining prominence around the world. He also talked about using local ingredients for his signature dishes like lapu-lapu for his fish and chips.

Chef Gordon Ramsay with Judy Ann Santos. Jeeves de Veyra 

In a Masterchef segment towards the end of his speaking engagement where celebrity contestants competed to make the best halo-halo, Ramsay asked astute questions about local ingredients used by the chefs like macapuno, coco jam, kamias, polvoron, tultul salt among others.

The celebrity chef shared a “secret” that he was looking into the possibility of opening three more of his concepts in the country, hinting at a Philippine branch of his most well known restaurant, Hell’s Kitchen.

Newport World Resorts, where Gordon Ramsay's Bar and Grill is located, has pledged P10 milllion in the name of Ramsay to support various charitable organizations and initiatives focused on food security and programs for our communities, and the nation as a whole.

Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. chairman Kevin Tan and president and CEO Nilo Thaddeus Rodriguez presented a symbolic check to formalize this pledge.

Chef Gordon Ramsay with Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. chairman Kevin Tan and president and CEO Nilo Thaddeus Rodriguez. Jeeves de Veyra