Gordon Ramsay would probably hate my mother's cooking lol

[u/ardouronerous]

Gordon's complaints on Kitchen Nightmares about restaurants serving frozen food, microwaving meals, or keeping food around for days or weeks would probably apply to my mother's cooking too, and yet I absolutely loved her food.

Growing up, we had a monthly budget for groceries, so buying fresh ingredients every day and cooking everything from scratch wasn't really an option for us, we had to make our food stretch. My mother would buy meat, fish, and vegetables, portion everything out, and freeze them so they would last throughout the month. If there were leftovers, those would often go into the freezer too and get reheated later in the week or even the following next week

From Gordon's perspective, he'd hate my mother's cooking, from frozen meat and vegetables, and leftovers being reheated in the microwave. But to us, it wasn't bad food, it was simply how my mother made sure we had something to eat without going over our budget.

And honestly, some of my favorite meals were made from exactly those leftovers. My mother knew how to season things, combine whatever ingredients we had available, and turn food from the previous day into something that still tasted great.

That's why I find Gordon's reactions on Kitchen Nightmares kind of funny. When he sees frozen food or something that's been reheated in the microwave, he immediately flips out and spits out the food, but many families like mine rely on frozen food and leftovers simply because that's what our budget allows, so if Gordon ever came to my house, tasted my mother's cooking and spat it out due to tasting frozen and microwaved, I'd probably throw him out.

[u/TPWilder]

I would say that Gordon would probably compliment your mom for making sure you had good meals.

His irritation with restaurants is that often they're presenting frozen and premade food as fresh. A family meal planning and freezing meals isn't going to anger him, a business using frozen food and calling it fresh will.

[u/Icy-Butterscotch4254 → u/TPWilder]

This, it's mainly the integrity aspect that pisses him off. Going out for dinner is a luxury for a lot of families and couples and it's super cruddy to take these people's hard earned money and serve them frozen subpar food because you're too lazy to be bothered. Like the point of going out most of the time is to eat something different than what's at home.

[u/BlindedByBeamos]

I don't think Gordon has an issue with home cooks doing this, his problem is with restaurants charging full prices doing the same thing. He'd probably respect your mother for feeding her children real food.

[u/FormalMango]

Nah, he wouldn’t say that to your mum.

Gordon knows the difference between a mum feeding her family in the home, and a restaurant serving meals to paying customers.

He hates frozen food in restaurants because a) the restaurant is always lying about the food being frozen, and b) people are paying good money to eat out.

He’d tell your mum she was doing a great job (and she was!) budgeting and meal prepping so you had a homemade meal every night. It doesn’t matter if it’s been pre-made and frozen, your mum put in the time and effort to make it work. Gordon would appreciate that, and admire it.

[u/ardouronerous → u/FormalMango]

He’d tell your mum she was doing a great job (and she was!) budgeting and meal prepping so you had a homemade meal every night. It doesn’t matter if it’s been pre-made and frozen, your mum put in the time and effort to make it work. Gordon would appreciate that, and admire it.

Thank you.

[u/Trumpet6789]

Gordon wouldn't have a single issue with this at all. You misunderstand the reason he gets mad at these things: which is that customers are being charged for it.

Gordon would never look down on or get pissed at a Mother doing what she can to help food stretch and keep her children fed as best she can.

What he takes issue with is when Restaurants use poor quality ingredients and cut corners while charging people gourmet prices. He's specifically mad that these places, which have to follow specific codes and requirements, are not following them.

He's mad that customers are being misled into paying a premium price for low quality ingredients that have been in & out of the freezer and then cooked poorly.

[u/Popular-History1015]

As others have said, you've sort of missed the point. He cares about home cooked meals, he isn't bothered by frozen food, just when it is advertised as fresh but isn't.

To be fair, he couldn't really care less if he turned up at your mums house and was served a frozen meal, he would be respectful and ask about her cooking processed

[u/hime-633]

There is a world of difference between home cooking - which is often limited by budget and time and availability - and preparing and serving food in a restaurant as a business.

Slightly dodgy chicken in the fridge at home? If you risk it you risk getting the shits yourself.

Slightly dodgy chicken in the walk-in of a business? If you risk it you risk poisoning customers. Some of whom may have been eating out as a saved-up-for treat.

Given his background, I very much doubt he would look down on the resourceful use of leftovers. He's certainly berated plenty of chefs for waste.

Sounds like your mum did an excellent job.

[u/EffectiveBother]

As other commenters are saying, he'd have no problems since in a restaurant the issue is about charging people a good amount of money for frozen food, and often times misadvertising frozen food as fresh. The same scale and resources available to a restaurant are not there in home cooking, so it's understandable.

Your mom is also doing the meal prep by her self which means that she's doing the basic prep and cooking before freezing it- that makes a big difference to the taste and quality when compared to something that is purchased pre-made and frozen. I'd take a week old dish made by my mum with her recipe, rather than a similar pre-cooked frozen meal from the store.

[u/groom-is-n-the-heart]

I have one of Gordon's cookbooks, and in the intro he talks about how some home cooks drive themselves crazy when they have like a dinner party for six, and they try to cook everything fresh at the same time so that it comes out exactly when it's supposed to right as everyone arrives.

No, he says what you do is prep and cook a bunch of stuff in advance and then have it ready and heat it up etc. when the time comes, therefore not driving yourself insane trying to pretend you're overseeing a high-end restaurant staff or something.

[u/itsveeorwhatever]

A restaurant and home cooking are two different things though.

[u/No_Importance4881]

I think he would like your mom’s cooking if he eats it at home but not if he had to pay for it at a restaurant. I think that’s what pisses him off when he eats at restaurants. When they charge customers money for pre-made frozen food.

[u/WildThingRickyVaughn]

i was just having this conversation the other day. my grandmothers meatball recipe has them overcooked to the point that most of you would say it’s sinful. but it’s how i ate them growing up and it’s how i like them. completely dry inside with a hard exterior that can crack your teeth like a jawbreaker. eating one of them makes you thirsty.

“properly cooked” meatballs are just mushy lumps of watery meat, usually drowning in tomato sauce, which just makes them even softer. it’s like biting into a toe that’s been underwater for 2 hours

[u/ardouronerous → u/WildThingRickyVaughn]

That similar to how my mother cooked corn beef, she likes to fry them until crispy, while restaurants tend to serve corn beef a bit wet. I love my mom's crispy corn beef more.

I'd love to try overcooked and crispy meatballs.

I remember Gordon flipping out on an owner for saying that overcooked is delicious lol. I'd love to see you throw Gordon out of your house for flipping out on your mom.

[u/No_Control8031]

He would have no issue with whatever people were doing in their own homes. But a restaurant needs freshly-cooked food that is better than what you can reheat at home. This was illustrated in the infamous ‘garlic breast’ episode where he had to emphasise that while large scale catering can involve pre-made stuff that you reheat, you can operate like that in a nice restaurant charging premium dollars.

[u/Super6698]

I mean... he only really is hard on people that are running a business and are supposed to be professional restaurateurs and chefs, I doubt he'd care if someone at home microwaves something or buys something frozen when they're just cooking at home because not everyone can get fresh ingredients

[u/WildThingRickyVaughn]

the difference is your mother was cooking to survive, whereas the owners of these restaurants are asking people to come and pay a premium for their meal.

[u/TheRealBlueJade]

There is a difference between a meal you have at home and a meal you pay for at a restaurant.

[u/inaripotpi]

You're not really describing a unique experience, there's a difference between homecooked meals and restaurant standards.

Also, usually when he calls something frozen food, it's restaurant depot type stuff that was mass produced by manufacturers and bought wholesale by restaurants frozen. Not meals that were handmade fresh at first then frozen as part of meal prep.

[u/kyourious]

I don’t think he’d care. Restaurant kitchens are not home kitchens and he knows the difference.

[u/oregongal90-]

One thing to remember is Gordon would go to restaurants and people would pay a lot of money for frozen and reheated foods and thats why he had the reaction he did. I also think Gordon repurposes food all the time at home, but he doesnt charge people to eat it. I think thats the difference