Gordon Ramsay’s Playing with Fire
£8.70£9.50 (-8%)
The bestselling follow-up to Humble Pie, now in paperback. When he was struggling to get his first restaurant in the black, Gordon Ramsay never imagined he’d be famous for a TV show about how to run profitable eateries, or that he’d be head of a business empire. But he is and he did. Here’s how.
“In the beginning there was nothing.
Not a sausage – penniless, broke, fucking nothing – and although, at a certain age, that didn’t matter hugely, there came a time when hand-me-downs, cast-offs and football boots of odd sizes all pointed to a problem that seemed to have afflicted me, my mum, my sisters, Ronnie and the whole lot of us. It was as though we had been dealt the ‘all-time dysfunctional’ poker hand.
I wish I could say that, from this point on, the penny dropped and I decided to do something about it, but it wasn’t like that. It would take years before the lessons of life, business and money began to click into place – before, as they say, I had a pot to piss in.
This is the story of how those lessons were learned.”
This is Gordon Ramsay at his raw, rugged best. PLAYING WITH FIRE is the amazing story of Gordon’s journey from sous-chef to superstar. In his no-holds-barred style, Gordon shares his passion for risk and adventure and his hard-won success secrets.
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Additional information
| Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers (1 May 2008) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0007259883 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0007259885 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 2.03 x 19.71 cm |
by Amazon Customer
Not as good as humble pie.
by M. Gaskell
I must say not being a big fan of Gordon Ramsay, I picked up this book in a holiday cottage to read, and found I could not put it down. I didn’t finish the book before my brief stay away, hence buying this copy.
I found it a very good read into his career highlights and failures, I like the way he acknowledges his great team of staff, his sense of humour at we see every time we dine out, the bad things he sees and comments on. All in all a good easyread
by Amazon Customer
Gives a good insight of things that can go wrong that you would never think about
by M. Mcgee
Another fantastic read from Gordon Ramsey that shows anything is possible with the right attitude and mindset. One thing is clear though and that he surrounds himself with a great team which is the nucleus of his success.
by Juliet Platt
I enjoyed this book, and found it offered greater insights into the character and values of the author than his previous title. As the focus is more on GR’s business, he is able to describe his actual experience with a passion that makes it more authentic than the autobiography of last year.
GR is definitely at his most convincing and compelling when he’s on his own territory – and this is something that he freely admits in the book. When he starts to stray into commentary on corporate customer service, government incompetence and tax and insurance procedures, he begins to sound little more than a grumpy old man with a thousand axes to grind.
The main weakness of this book is its structure – and the way the conclusion repeats more than it concludes – not such a good recipe for a chef!
It is also slightly irritating that some rather cliched examples are wheeled out to illustrate such things as the importance of lateral thinking. If you read a lot of business books you won’t thank Mr.Ramsay for using the old NASA biro story again.
The most compelling bits of the book are about what they found when they dismantled kitchens like The Connaught and Claridges, and how they built them back up again to be so completely focussed on guest experience and satisfaction – including the loos!
GR comes across as an individual with extremely high standards, and a faultless commitment always to live up to his own expectations. It will be interesting to track his next steps, as this business book finishes with quite a cliff-hanger!
by JC
Good condition for a second hand book and very reasonably priced
by Michael Graham
I admit it, I’m a HUGE Gordon Ramsay fan. I’ve watched a lot of his Channel 4 series and am a fan of Masterchef, Hell’s Kitchen etc. I had to get this book as I had bought (and loved) his first book.
Overall, I did really enjoy the book, it gave me a good idea as to how his restaurants and company is run, but that was about it. There wasn’t much of a personal story, but rather the successes (and sometimes, demise) of his many restaurants and staff members.
That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it, I did. It was nicely laid out into chapters, usually reflecting a story of a new restaurant/business venture and, as an aspiring restaurateur, I need to learn a few tips. From telling us about GRH’s offices to how Chris (which I now believe is no longer the CEO) helped Gordon throughout his career, many of the tips were pretty useful, without divulging too much information.
I was expecting a little more of a story though just like Humble Pie, after all, it is an autobiography. We got a feel of his story in Humble Pie but I felt that it was slightly vague.
Overall, Playing with Fire is an excellent book and is laid out nicely, I just wanted a little more storyline/history.
by A. Cole
I really like Gordon Ramsay and enjoyed this book.
However, given it’s 2017 and this book is about 10 yrs out of date, it would be nice to have a revised updated version.
That being said, if you want a bit of background to how Gordon got started this is kind of successful chef but not successful business man stage.
One thing I did notice Marco Pierre White get’s just one mention in the whole book and it wasn’t a nice one, which seems odd given he must have had quite an influence on the early Ramsay. Although, I understand they had fallen out at some stage.
It’s great to see him giving so much kudos to his father in law, it seems they make a great team.
Anyway, Gordons the man of that there is no doubt.