Gordon Ramsay Vs Marco Pierre White

[Pweaver1984]

Yet again these two are going to battle it out although this time it will be for "Number of Copies Sold"

Both of them are this year bringing out the respective Biographies.

Amazon links here GR's and MPW's

Looking forward to reading both as I'm sure they will full with great stories and anecdotes.

Will we find out if they are actually friends or foe?

[Andy Lynes]

My problem with the biography/autobiography of very driven people is that they tend to be extremely repetitve. In order to be the best in your field you have to work really hard and that makes for very dull reading. John McEnroe is a good case in point. I bought his book because, although I'm not really interested in sport, I thought with his sort of temperament and big personality he would have had an interesting life. Wrong. Its just one tennis tournement after another and how he despereately wanted to win them all.

Marco and Gordon's story would make a fantastic article (especially if you could get them in the same room together) but two seperate volumes of 16 hour days and a sucession of restaurant openings? I'm not so sure.

[Tim Hayward]

Both of them are this year bringing out the respective Biographies.

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<RANTMODE>

I'm really not looking forward to either 'biography'.

In the last few years, Ramsay has gleefully repackaged himself for every new series. First we had the foul mouthed, bullying hardman. By The F Word he managed to morph into a kind of pin-up for the menopausal. We got regular shots of him whipping off his shirt, the utterly depressing sight of him attempting to flirt with C list TV presenters and the word 'Fuck' interspersed with such carefully timed regularity it had to be scripted.

I swear there's somebody on his earpiece telling him to up the swearing whenever things get a bit dull and then reigning him in when it looks like it might cause complaints.

There's even a tactical toning down between first and second series of Kitchen Nightmares.

If this guy is so all-fired bloody emotional, authentic and no-bullshit, how is it he can adapt so brilliantly to the requirements of his producers? I wish Tom Cruise had that sort of range.

He's obviously a talented media manipulator - what's in question is at what point that becomes hypocrisy.

The reason I loved Kitchen Confidential was because it read like an authentic version of a cook's life by a bloke who also happened to be a great writer. Unless I've got things radically wrong, Bourdain was a cook first, a writer second and a Sleb very much last.

I would love to read the biography of an important chef - which Ramsay undoubtedly is.

Unfortunately he's such a lucrative property that every word of his lifestory will be managed to support his persona - an image we have palpable visual evidence is utterly mutable.

God knows how the MPR one will read but if PR is already revolving around a specious 'Who's the hardest' debate I can't imagine it's going to be any more edifying.

</RANTMODE>

[Simonw]

Yet again these two are going to battle it out although this time it will be for "Number of Copies Sold"

Both of them are this year bringing out the respective Biographies.

Amazon links here GR's and MPW's

Looking forward to reading both as I'm sure they will full with great stories and anecdotes.

Will we find out if they are actually friends or foe?

←

I don't think the GR book at that link is the promised GR autobiography. That's called Humble Pie and is due later in the year I believe. It's published by Harper Collins. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...4227167-7317436

[Jonesey]

My problem with the biography/autobiography of very driven people is that they tend to be extremely repetitve.

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Exactly. The only thing that makes these kind of books interesting is if they 'dish the dirt' on what really goes on. That's what made Kitchen Confidential sooo successsful.