Gordon Ramsay is not nice to his neighbors.
The famous chef has come under fire from England’s Cornwall townsfolk after he said in a radio interview he “can’t stand” them.
“Trust me I absolutely love Cornwall, it’s just the Cornish I can’t stand,” he said on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show this week. After a radio host pressured him about the comment, Gordon said, “I promise I meant it.”
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Shortly after the comments, Gordon’s rep said he was joking.
“Gordon has made those tongue-in-cheek comments many, many times,” the rep said. The comments, the spokesman added, were “always said very clearly and cheerfully and were seen as such by the majority.”
Locals didn’t see it that way, however, and many took to social media to blast the Next Level Chef host.
“I never liked that man, he’s so terrible. We never want him in Cornwall,” said one person.
Another local added: “Well that’s mutual. There’s no question he’s a good cook, but his attitude sucks and it makes me grind my teeth to watch his cooking shows. I’m pretty sure Cornwall and the Cornish wouldn’t miss him for a nanosecond if he didn’t live here or come here.”
Some were even more sensitive, essentially equating Gordon’s comments to a hate crime given the government’s recognition of the Cornish people as a national minority.
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Gordon has previously been at odds with the community as he and his family are spending much of 2020 there, moving from their London home during the pandemic. Some locals felt he flouted COVID guidelines as Britons were encouraged not to travel.
In a recent interview with Radio Times, Gordon spoke about the severe criticism he has endured for having retired to his vacation home for 10 years.
“God knows why we took so much S- from the Cornish. We lived down there; we just hadn’t been down there in a long time. We didn’t sneak there at all. We got there at a convenient time, and had an absolutely amazing time,” he said, adding that he has no regrets spending time with family during lockdown. “A time like this – we’re never coming back. When the kids went away I wanted to not that it ends – as a father, not as a chef.”