Gordon Ramsay might be best known for shouting across kitchens and grilling fellow chefs, but when it comes to music, his tastes are more mellow than you might expect.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2002, the Michelin-starred chef revealed a softer side as he shared the eight tracks that have shaped his life – from teenage crushes to wedding memories and fatherhood.
But he started by highlighting his favourite one of all time, that he would pick over any other song – calming anthem from the turn of the millennium that he still played at the end of long, punishing shifts.
“Yellow by Coldplay. We always drive home between two or three o’clock in the morning and I’m always over Battersea Bridge or Chelsea Bridge and it’s just… we go to hell and back every day and it’s just a really nice way of finishing the day and it relaxes you.”
‘Yellow’ is one of Coldplay’s most recognisable songs, having topped the UK charts for weeks after its release, and been nominated to the Best Rock Song award at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Today, it stands as the band’s second most streamed song ever – behind ‘Something Just Like This’ – with almost 3 billion streams on Spotify.
But Yellow was only part of the story. Across his other seven selections, Ramsay charted a path from childhood influences to romantic milestones, from family memories to moments of pure chaos in the kitchen.
Growing up, Ramsay’s father was deeply involved in the music scene and occasionally played alongside rock’n’roll legend Marty Wilde. Ramsay admitted he was never all that interested in the performances — until he found out Wilde had a daughter named Kim. Then, he chose Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids in America’ to add to his list.
His next choice was Blondie’s ‘Sunday Girl’: “Blondie, great pin-up. I had a picture of her on my wall. There’s another picture of her inside my folder. And it was a great song, great girl.”
George Michael’s Careless Whisper was his fourth pick – bringing him memories of his first serious girlfriend who “was with me throughout the sort of Rangers saga. And she bought this record for me.”
Then, finally, an emotional track became the theme song of Ramsay’s wedding to his wife Tana: Bryan Adams’ ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’. “Tana and I’s song was by Bryan Adams. It was just a great day… half the guests all went down and rejoined off the street – Christmas shopping – and came back after a fantastic lunch.”
He summarised his fatherhood experience of the time with Tom Jones & Mousse T.’s ‘Sex Bomb’. “It’s the first ever song I heard Megan sing. She’s four in May – curly hair, blue eyes, and doesn’t take flack from anybody.”
‘Sing’ by Travis wasn’t a chart-topping mega hit, but for Ramsay, it became the perfect antidote to high-stress kitchen disasters: “We have good days and bad days in cooking. And when you’ve had a bad day – you’ve had 25 vegetarians walk in unannounced – this is a song that just puts it all into taste.”