Gordon Ramsay Masterclass Review – A Kitchen Full of Insults or Inspiration?
Gordon Ramsay says, "If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs."
While I think this is brilliant advice I also realize that studying with a great chef is not a realistic goal for most of us. That is where Masterclass comes in, they have opened up the opportunity for everyone to learn from the absolute best of the best. Find out if these courses are right for you in this Gordon Ramsay Masterclass Review.
In the spirit of transparency, you should know that some of the links in this article are affiliate links. That means when you click on a link and then purchase a service or product, I may receive a commission. Rest assured that commission doesn't cost you anything to but it does help me keep the Pantry full of great, honest, information just for you.
What is Masterclass?
MasterClass is arguably the highest-quality online learning platform in existence. Unlike course platforms such as Udemy, where almost anyone can create and upload a course, MasterClass truly features the best of the best.
Imagine a guest lecture at a university delivered by one of the elite rock stars of their respective field. MasterClass is packed full of courses like that. I would say it’s the A-List, but that would be unjust. Rather than the top 1% of elite performers in their fields, it’s more like the top 0.1%.
For example - Gordon Ramsay. Could you accurately claim he is the culinary world equivalent of James Patterson? You could. But you might even be selling him short. Ramsay has elite pedigree within the world of haute cuisine training, whereas Patterson studying advertising before switching careers to be an author.
How Much Does it Cost?
Becoming an elite chef has never been more affordable or available. MasterClass is an incredible value considering the quality of the product and the instructors being offered.
MasterClass offers an a la carte option for $90/course or you can get an annual pass for only $180.
For food fans (or really anyone), I’d highly suggest buying the annual pass. You’ll get access to both of Gordon Ramsay's courses as well as other culinary classes taught by major names such as Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, and Thomas Keller. Not to mention the other 35+ courses which you can see in this review of all the Masterclass courses.
If you purchase the annual pass and watch one course every month it ends up only costing you $15 per course!
How Does It Work?
Each course offered by MasterClass includes hours of high-definition video content broken down into distinct and logical modules (an average of 24 lessons per course), supplementary materials including workbooks, and the ability to interact with your fellow MasterClass students to support each other’s learning and growth.
MasterClass knows that you are busy so they make it easy to learn at home or on the go. You can access the course on a computer or on your tablet or phone. I preferred to watch the course on the computer because the quality of the video is absolutely amazing.
What Will you Learn?
If you want to learn to acquire the cooking skills possessed by the world’s truly elite chefs, MasterClass has got you covered with not one but two full-length cooking courses from Gordon Ramsay.
Until recently, MasterClass featured a single course taught by Chef Ramsay but just this month a second was added. This is pretty remarkable as he appears to be the only MasterClass instructor teaching two classes.
So let’s check out exactly what Chef Ramsay is cooking up over at MasterClass.
The first course, ‘Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking 1’, is an excellent starting point. It covers the fundamentals of cooking as Ramsay sees them. Imagine decades of elite experience simmered down into a delicious distillation of his most fundamental skills and principles. That’s what’s on offer here.
The second course, ‘Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking 2: Restaurant Recipes At Home’, applies the fundamental principles taught in the first course to show you exactly how to produce Michelin star quality food within the confines of your own kitchen.
I feel that the best and most logical way to enjoy Ramsay’s MasterClasses is to take them sequentially. Learn the fundamentals in part 1, then learn how to apply them in part 2.
Even if you’re a skilled cook, there is still a lot to learn in part 1. After all, how many times have we been entertained by Kitchen Nightmares? Hell’s Kitchen? MasterClass gives you the opportunity to be thoroughly entertained and educated by Chef Ramsay at the same time. Why not take both?
What if I'm Unhappy with my Purchase?
I’d be astonished if you decide you regret MasterClass. However, if you do, it’s no worries. Anytime within the first 30 days of your purchase you can request a full refund.
MasterClass are so confident that you will value their courses that you can really delve deep into any or all of them for yourself, and still get your money back. That speaks for itself.
Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking I
As I mentioned, ‘Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking 1’ is an excellent introduction to the ideas, methods, and principles behind cooking like a legendary chef.
So here's exactly what you can expect to learn from Ramsay’s initial MasterClass course.
Introduction
I’ve always felt that as much as the quality of information in any particular course is important, the relationship between student and teacher is also crucial. If you’re familiar with Gordon Ramsay, you probably fear and love him in equal measure, I know I do. After all, he is one of the most hilariously aggressive people out there!
Rest assured, after watching this introduction, you’ll be eager to learn from Chef Ramsay, You won’t be on the receiving end of one of his trademark put downs!
Gordon’s Journey: Learning from Masters
If you’re familiar with the world of professional cooking, you’ll be well aware of the intensity and commitment required to succeed.
Even the Sous Chef at your local eatery probably works longer and tougher hours than most people out there. Elite Chefs, on the other hand, take things to another level.
In this lesson, you can learn about Gordon Ramsay’s personal journey from being a humble home cook to a celebrity superstar Chef. Prepare to be inspired and amazed.
Method: Kitchen Layout
Like any creative ability, the practical aspects of cooking matter more than people typically appreciate.
It may not be glamorous, but is absolutely essential. If you want to become a boss in the kitchen, you need to first understand the fundamentals, including your kitchen’s layout.
Who better to teach you than Chef Ramsay? If you’ve ever seen him absolutely annihilate some random restaurant owner for the state of their kitchen, you’ll be well aware he knows precisely how things should be.
Be as particular with your pantry as Chef Ramsay. Study and apply this lesson!
Mastering Ingredients: Vegetables & Herbs
If you’ve ever eaten a special diet, you’ll know that spices and herbs can make all the difference.
Why do you think the best chefs out there will go literally to the ends of the Earth to find the additions to their food that will make it as perfect as possible?
It’s often the simple things that make all the difference. If you want to add a level of flavor to the fundamentals you never before dreamed of, this is the lesson for you.
Make: Poached Egg & Mushrooms on Brioche
Oh boy, brioche. As someone who relocated her entire family to France, believe me when I say this very special pastry holds a place in my heart.
Are you a fan of gourmet burgers? Chances are, many of the best you’ve ever eaten have made their bun out of brioche to provide a better flavor than standard bread.
If you want to learn a simple yet delicious breakfast to feed your family and wow your guests, Chef Ramsay has got you covered with this delectable recipe.
Method: Knife Skills
As any athlete will tell you, fundamentals come first.
In this day and age, people’s attention is often drawn to the more glamorous and flashy things lin life. It’s tempting to try and sprint before you can crawl. However, overlooking the fundamentals in anything is a shortcut to failure, and cooking is no exception.
Images courtesy of MasterClass
If you’ve ever witnessed an average and an experienced Chef in action, you will have certainly noticed their knife skills. Picture someone reducing a carrot to perfectly measured pieces in the blink of an eye, as opposed to someone awkwardly struggling to cut a cauliflower into an uneven chunks. The former probably impresses. In the case of the latter, you’d probably be astonished if their fingers didn’t require medical attention afterwards.
In a nutshell, you can’t overlook knife skills. Learn how to artfully wield a blade like Chef Ramsay in this MasterClass module.
Make: Elevated Scrambled Eggs
How do you like your eggs in the morning? Preferably served in a way suggested by Chef Ramsay.
Like all the finest foods, eggs may seem simple, but they are from it.
Learn how to add excellence to the everyday by taking tips from Gordon Ramsay’s own approach to eggs. Understand how sea urchin and white truffle can elevate even the simplest of breakfast foods.
Method: Breaking Down A Whole Chicken
Just for fun, try asking someone who hasn’t cooked before to break down a whole chicken. Chances are, the results will look something the special effects in an old and cheap horror movie.
Contrast that with the skill of an authentic, traditional butcher. By studying this lesson, you will learn how to avoid wasting a single section of the chicken. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, and do so in the most delicious way possible, this lesson has got you covered.
Make: Chicken Supreme with Root Vegetables
Root vegetables. Full disclosure - my mouth is watering at their very mention.
There are few things more delicious than roasted veg coupled with an appealing protein.
If that sounds like something you and your family would enjoy, Chef Ramsay has got you covered.
Like everything else in Ramsay’s course, you’ll be able to apply the ideas and techniques here to far more than just the featured dish.
Mastering Ingredients: Fish & Shellfish
Imagine you have to cook for an important dinner party. You want to make a good impression. What’s the one type of food you avoid?
If you’re anything like most people I know, it would be seafood.
Seafood is a polarizing ingredient. People seem to either love it or hate it. Even those who love it the most will be quick to shun it if it is prepared less than perfectly.
On the other side of the coin, when done correctly, seafood has a ‘wow’ factor like few other ingredients.
Learn how to understand, appreciate, and select the finest seafood in this invaluable lesson.
Gordon’s Journey: Becoming a Master
One of the things you’ll be seriously impressed by when taking a MasterClass as opposed to other online learning opportunities is the thought and care that has gone into it.
Just as a ten course tasting menu carefully considers the sequence of the dishes on offer, MasterClass presents its lessons in a deliberate and potent order.
As a switch up to the detail-oriented lessons that precede it, here Gordon offers an insight into his personal journey to success. He shares the principles that got him to where he is today.
When watching this, I felt an equal mix of admiration and inspiration. This will be incredibly useful for aspiring culinary masterminds. It will also help anyone in any sphere of life on their journey to success and mastery.
Method: Breaking Down a Whole Fish
Returning from the forest to the trees, we delve deep into detail in this module.
Just as breaking down a chicken can seem like a laborious and uninteresting task to many, here Chef Ramsay explains the practices and principles behind fish in the same level of reassuring detail.
And what better example than salmon? If you’ve ever enjoyed it as part of a mouthwatering main course, or a beautiful breakfast, you’ll definitely appreciate learning how to work with it like a true master.
Make: Salmon with Shellfish Minestrone
Time to take your salmon skills to the next level. Building upon the info and ideas of the preceding module, lesson 13 explains how to create a mouthwatering seafood dish.
Like any other specific dish lesson in this MasterClass, you can apply the principles and skills to other areas of cooking. While you’ll certainly have an impressive showstopper up your sleeve after learning this lesson, you’ll also be able to cook a whole host of skin-on fish recipes.
Method: Making Pasta Dough
If there’s a true food lover out there that dislikes pasta, I’m yet to meet them. Would could be better than a lesson in preparing pasta taught by one of the best chefs out there? Chef Ramsay learned from Italian masters of the craft, and he is here to pass the wisdom down to you.
Your family and loved ones are sure to thank you when they taste the first mouthful of Gordon Ramsay inspired pasta, prepared at home with love.
Method: Rolling Pasta Dough
Have you made pasta before?
If so, you’ll surely know that it is as much in the execution as the ingredients. Even the best prepared dough can go drastically wrong when rolled the wrong way.
No matter what your preference when it comes to type of pasta, Chef Ramsay has got you covered. From tasty tortellini to fantastic fettuccine, this is what you need to know.
Make: Lobster Ravioli
When it comes to the elite of the elite, nothing screams quality more than 3 Michelin stars.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating at a single Michelin starred restaurant, you’ll know just how special it is. Now triple that, and you’re coming close to the quality and class of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
And what’s the most special dish at one of the all-time best restaurants? Lobster Ravioli. Of all the countless tasty trends to come and go over the years, Lobster Ravioli has stood the test of time. It’s still on the menu to this very day.
If you want to learn how to make the signature dish from one of the all-time culinary greats, look no further. From filling to shape, this is everything you need to know.
Make: Mastering Ingredients: Beef, Lamb & Pork
Mouthwatering meat is one of the true pleasures in life.
No disrespect to the vegetarians and vegans out there. Plenty of meat free options exist which would impress even the most committed carnivore.
However, for many food lovers, meat really is the truest of treats.
If you’re imagining you need a bank-busting food budget to buy meat worth cooking, think again. In this lesson, Chef Ramsay will teach you how to make the most of meat. You don’t need to spend a lot. You only need to apply what you’ve learned here to wow appreciators of meat each and every time you cook.
Make: Beef Wellington
Beef Wellington is hearty, unpretentious food that serves the soul as much as it fills the stomach.
If you want to learn the secrets behind over a million of these dishes being devoured worldwide, look no further than this MasterClass lesson.
Advice for Life
I’ve always valued this type of teaching and I’m sure you will too.
Aside from the practical principles and fundamental concepts underpinning culinary mastery, Chef Ramsay here takes the time to go deeper. He looks at the secrets of success and the life advice he has picked up along the way.
This is someone who has succeeded in one of the toughest, most competitive industries out there. He’s gone beyond the boundaries of any normal Chef and has instead become a force of nature in the food world.
Simply put, this is the type of person you want to hear from. No matter which area of life you want to master, you are sure to be a lot closer to your aim thanks to the ideas presented by Gordon Ramsay.
Closing
A motivational send off from Chef Ramsay himself. The icing on the cake!
A suitable send off to a MasterClass by a Master Chef, both truly worthy of their moniker.
Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking II - Restaurant Recipes at Home
Any good teacher will leave you eager for more knowledge and ways to practice your newly acquired skill.
That’s certainly the case with Gordon Ramsay’s MasterClass. After gaining a solid mix of knowledge, technique, and inspiration through his first class, the Chef is back with ‘Restaurant Recipes At Home’.
I’d definitely suggest this as a follow up after taking his first class. It’s basically a video cookbook which will give you a solid grasp of the recipes on offer, as well as the techniques needed to get them spot on.
So what can you hope to learn from Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking : Restaurant Recipes At Home?
Introduction
Setting the tone for the whole course, Ramsay introduces his reasons for returning to the kitchen for part 2 of his MasterClass.
A large part of the appeal of Gordon Ramsay is his charisma. Definitely take the time to check this out and enjoy the engaging experience that a lesson from Chef Ramsay truly is.
Red Wine Poached Egg, Asparagus, and Mushrooms
While the dish itself is delicious, this lesson is more about acquiring the right skills to produce it.
To be able to pull off this main course masterpiece, Chef Ramsay will teach you skills including sauteing, pureeing, and prepping ingredients ahead of time.
Crispy Duck with Red Endive and Spinach
Crispy duck is one of the true pleasures for food lovers. When done well, the skin has a mouth watering crispness while the inner meat remains tender and succulent.
In order to prepare this dish, Chef Ramsay will teach you how to wilt spinach, how to caramelize, and how to produce some of his famous and tasty glazes.
Pomme Puree
One of the true joys of learning from Chef Ramsay is discovering ways of making even the simplest seeming dishes burst with flavor and originality.
His approach to pomme puree includes choosing the perfect potato, making your cream flavor infused, and ensuring the finish is consistently wonderful each and every time.
Cauliflower Steak, Olives and Mushrooms
Do you ever struggle to get your family eating veg?
It’s kind of understandable. After all, few people would put cauliflower down as part of their ideal last meal.
Thanks to this interesting idea from Chef Ramsay, you’ll be able to make veg more appealing than ever before. It’s also a way to eat healthily without sacrificing quality, taste, or imagination.
Rack of Lamb with Thumbelina Carrots
Like many of Chef Ramsay’s best dishes, this take on roast lamb is a hearty classic with a twist. It makes use of interesting ingredients such as Star Anise to add bursts of flavor.
As well as learning Ramsay’s subtle remixes of classic recipes, this module will teach you skills such as searing meat and then oven finishing it.
Roasted Eggplant With Basil and Feta
Eggplant is an underused ingredient. When prepared properly, it’s delicious, healthy, and filling. By following Chef Ramsay’s techniques, you’ll learn advanced methods of ensuring your eggplant is as flavorful as possible.
You’ll also learn to deploy some aromatic Turkish spices in the most effective way possible.
Grilled Baby Leeks, Miso Broth, and Caviar Vinaigrette
If you have caviar vinaigrette in your repertoire, you’ll probably win major chef points from even the pickiest of foodies.
You’ll also discover the secrets behind achieving maximum levels of the umami flavor, which is hugely underappreciated in the world of Western cuisine.
Szechuan Roasted Whole Chicken
If your only exposure to Szechuan has been through the recent Rick and Morty sauce craze, it’s time to think again!
In this module, Chef Ramsay will show you how to prepare a delicious, tangy alternative to traditional roast chicken. This is an important part of the course, as the methods used in this module are needed to supply the chicken dishes found in lessons 10 and 11.
Hoisin Chicken and Pickled Daikon
This lesson makes use of the Szechuan chicken thighs from the previous lesson. They form the main attraction in a seriously tasty, but healthy, sharing salad.
You can apply the plating techniques found in this lesson to make any salads you serve a true favorite in your home.
Szechuan Chicken Breast and Udon Noodles
Chicken noodle soup is a true comfort food favorite. Here, you’ll make use of the breast meat you prepared in lesson 9 to add a delicious twist to this firm favorite.
One of the most impressive parts of this lesson is the technique for preparing broth. You’re sure to think up a lot of unique takes to add your own healthy and tasty twists to the basic idea shared by Chef Ramsay.
Sesame Crusted Tuna With Cucumber Salad
A creative way to get your family enjoying vegetables is to disguise them as something else entirely.
If you want to get your kids eating cucumbers, this is the module for you. You’ll learn how to make cucumber noodles which are sure to be a fun favorite in every family.
You’ll also discover the right way to prepare tuna in order to preserve the maximum amount of delicious flavor.
Fried Branzino With Thai Chili Lettuce Cups
Many chefs find the thought of cooking with whole fish intimidating. This can be frustrating as the health benefits of fish are many.
Thankfully, Gordon Ramsay is here to provide the exact method you need to conquer your fear of fish. As well as this invaluable skill, you’ll learn to make delicious and tangy chili lettuce cups.
Raspberry Souffle
What better way to round of this Ramsay cooking class than with a mouthwatering dessert?
If you’ve ever attempted to make one, you’ll know a souffle is a tricky thing to get right.
Thankfully, you don’t have to worry. Chef Ramsay is at hand to ensure you have the skills and understanding needed to make this superb sweet dish whenever you deserve some indulgence.
Closing
You’ll be sad to see Chef Ramsay go, but also excited to put your newfound skills to work. Here, the course closes with some inspirational words about persistence, patience, and ways to get creative and add your own unique spin on the dishes you make.
Gordon Ramsay Masterclass Review - The Verdict
If you haven’t got the subtle hint by this point, I’m head over heels about MasterClass. Some of the things I love most include...
Seriously, I love having the opportunity to learn from the masters right from the comfort of my own home. Call me greedy, but I could use even more videos from Chef Ramsay. Here’s hoping to a third course from Chef!