What the Hell’s Kitchen? Gordon Ramsay loves In-N-Out and Southern California wine

The celebrity chef talked about his love for Southern California as he was recently filming an episode of 'MasterChef' inside his new Hell's Kitchen restaurant at Harrah's Resort Southern California in Valley Center.

British celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay made his first official visit to the newly opened Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Harrah’s Resort Southern California in Valley Center in mid February. Ramsay was at the center of it all as a production crew sprawled out through the largest Hell’s Kitchen in the country to set up mics and cameras to record an upcoming episode of the reality TV series “MasterChef.”

When the restaurant opened its doors back in August, Ramsay was absent. Instead, chef Christina Wilson, winner of the 10th season of Ramsay’s reality TV cooking competition “Hell’s Kitchen,” was tasked with bringing the first Hell’s Kitchen to California. The Las Vegas version of the popular restaurant, located in Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary and its two millionth customer. There are also locations in Washington, D.C., Atlantic City and Lake Tahoe.

We caught up with the Emmy-nominated, multi-Michelin star chef in between takes to talk about the new restaurant, his many roles on television, his favorite fast-food spot and more. The following conversation was edited for space and clarity.

Q: What factors led you to want to build a Hell’s Kitchen at Harrah’s Resort Southern California?

Ramsay: I take these locations very seriously. San Diego and this whole area is near and dear to my heart. Camp Pendleton was the first big attraction (which he toured a dozen years ago) and then there was an Ironman Oceanside 70.3 (which he competed in) that was still running here.

When Harrah’s asked us, it was a perfect fit.

It was locally sourced and the backdrop sat between these beautiful mountains. It was also the partners, what the reservation stands for, and what they could deliver. It was a decision we didn’t take lightly. Once we started interviewing the team and selecting and handpicking individuals (for) front and back of house, we asked them to spend substantial time in Vegas to understand the sort of DNA of what we’re trying to build here.

Q: The Hell’s Kitchen locations all have a set menu. Are there plans to evolve the menu or swap out items at this location in the future?

Ramsay: There are obviously staples here that are in high demand. When we opened in Vegas, the menus were even smaller. As we build out the restaurant and we build more confidence and iron out those kinks, I’d love to individualize some of those specials, especially from the young team and the locals. That’s the big difference from how we separate this restaurant from Vegas. This one is frequented by locals, so they want to know every servers first name, the sommelier, the maître d, the sous chef, the head chef, and so through time, we’ll develop that program where we’ll have a lot more exciting specials that will be from the team that you won’t see in any other Hell’s Kitchen.

It’s important for the team to get the best out of them and grow them. It’s really important to give them that face on the menu and that position of strength and show them off to the clients. That can’t happen in the first six months and 12 months. The advantage of having such an exciting restaurant is that the expectations are high, so you’re full and busy from day one.

Q: This restaurant is located so close to Temecula, which is big on wine. Tell us about how that was incorporated within this concept.

Ramsay: The essence of locality and regional stuff for me is important. I first fell in love with a restaurant called Araxi in Whistler, B.C., where everything was sourced within 25 miles. I’m talking about dairy, protein and wine. So the idea of bringing Temecula into that wine programming was crucial for pairing the food. I think you’ll see a lot more locally sourced ingredients across Thanksgiving and the sort of Fourth of July and those specialty dates on the calendar.

It’s a dream scenario. Everyone’s more excited about Santa Barbara and the sort of Big Sur of California and Northern California. No one quite understands the magic that this part of Temecula offers. The wine region is incredible. You forget just how fruitful this area is. I think it’s one of the best-kept secrets down here.

Q: You’ve done a few reality competition TV shows now, how is all of that going for you? 

Ramsay: We’ve just finished season 21 of “Hell’s Kitchen” and season 22 is imminent. If you told me 10 years ago, five seasons or 10 seasons, fine. But when we started this culinary boot camp in 2004, I had no idea we were going to be here 22 seasons later. I grew up with the excitement of going into a Hard Rock Café. My first ever one was in New York City, and I sat behind Sylvester Stallone’s leather jacket, and I couldn’t believe it. I had dinner with him recently, two years ago, and we were talking about an idea together, and we’re eating and drinking in Beverly Hills. I sat there with that moment thinking, “I used to sit behind your leather jacket. Now I’m sitting in front of you.”

I think “Hell’s Kitchen” has become the 21st century (version of) the Hard Rock Café and what it was in the ’80s because from eight-year-olds to 80-year-olds, someone down the line has watched that program. It’s even scarier now when contestants come on board and say they grew up watching it.

Q: People have this perception of your TV personality as kind of a hardliner. Is it something you channel just for television?

Ramsay: I’ll be clear with you. This is not a friendly cook-along with Gordon. Culinary boot camp is boot camp. For any 25-30-year-old young chef to be given the prestigious platform of running Hell’s Kitchen in Las Vegas or coming to Harrah’s and becoming the head chef here, that’s a quarter million dollars. Do you have any idea what that was like for me at 25-years-old? Every time I took a job, I went down in salary because I went up in experience. I wasn’t interested in the salary, but there’s a big platform there.

So I’ll be frank with you, I run a restaurant and Fox runs a show. The series, reservations, lines, standards, prep, service, theater, the maître d’ is all real. That’s how real we kept it, and I think that’s one of the reasons why it worked. I’m also unedited. If you think you’re going to see me high-five an individual that’s just absolutely cremated a Wellington with $200 worth of beef and eight hours worth of prep and they’ve lost it because they got lazy in the kitchen, there’s no way I’m going to say “Hey, well done” for the cameras. No, sorry.

Q: Do you have a favorite fast-food restaurant in Southern California?

Ramsay: In-N-Out. I love those things animal-style. We always go through the drive-thru. Sometimes I’m so desperate I climb out the window, I get into the kiosk and I go behind the line and I literally grab as many fries as I can. There’s something quite unique about an In-N-Out burger. I love it. I mean, I absolutely love it.