Gordon Ramsay Reveals He Refused to Cook for Donald Trump During Elegant Dinner in UK

Hell’s Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay is said to have turned down the opportunity to cook for President Donald Trump according to the Daily Record. The chef revealed he was asked to prepare a meal for a dinner held in the UK at Blenheim Palace, which would have included Trump. However, Ramsay politely turned the offer down saying, “Thank you but no thank you.”

The banquet also included Prime Minister Theresa May, Cabinet ministers and the country’s top business leaders. He revealed that he turned down this opportunity during an interview about his new ITV show, The Ultimate Road Trip. This may not come as a surprise to some since just three years prior the 53-year-old said he would like to cook for the President’s election rival, Hillary Clinton.

While he may have turned down that opportunity, he did cook for Russian president Vladimir Putin a decade ago in 2010. All of the proceeds he earned for that he turned around and donated to charity.

While Ramsay has become known for his screaming on television that has drawn a very dedicated audience, recently he visited the town of Ellicott City, Maryland, to film a two-hour special of 24 Hours to Hell and Back, however, this time it wasn’t about “screaming” at chefs.

“It wasn’t about screaming at a chef who’s got crap in their fridge,” he told The Baltimore Sun. “It was about what do they need and how do they get back to where [they were].”

The community was hit just two years prior by a catastrophic flood and since then, businesses have been struggling to get back on their feet. The episode, set to air May 12, will detail renovations of three downtown establishments: Little Market Cafe, barbershop/coffee bar/game room Jaxon Edwin, and Phoenix Brewing Co. While fans may only see a two-hour episode, Ramsay revealed that the makeovers have been three months in the making.

“It’s a big team, but all my due diligence started here three months ago and all the research and everything we could have wanted and needed was planned really strategically,” he explained. “It had to be because it’s an enormous task.”

He didn’t randomly pick Ellicott City though, the chef has a restaurant nearby that he opened in 2017 that’s just 25 minutes outside of the city and because of that, it made it hard to ignore.

“[Doing] something way more substantial was the key, so we got the green light from FOX. I pushed the button and it’s a multimillion-dollar investment, and we go for it,” he said. Before choosing which restaurants to help, he went undercover to play tourist for a day and then decided which places needed the most help.

“I’ve never taken anything for granted, but shutting restaurants down through no fault of their own, due to climate [and] weather, it’s really hard to stomach especially when they’re that good. That’s their livelihood. Moving up the hill, merging those two business, amalgamating those two teams is always a very tough gig. I helped them do that,” Ramsay said.

The two-hour special of 24 Hours to Hell and Back will air May 12.

Photo credit: David M. Benett/Getty.