It's almost six months now since Gordon Ramsay's new restaurant opened in Los Angeles and it's probably fair to say that, so far, the irascible British chef hasn't fully warmed to the natives. "Hardly anyone drinks here," he announces, with palpable disgust, after striding through the mirrored dining room of the awkwardly named Gordon Ramsay at the London, West Hollywood.

"You're on your second glass of wine and they're like, 'How long have you been an alcoholic?' The most irritating thing is when you don't finish your food and the waiter asks, 'Do you want that to go?' I say to them, 'Sorry? I just had the Caesar salad. What the f*** do I want to take that home for?' The salad lasts for 11, 12 minutes — you're gonna take that slimy s*** out of your fridge 24 hours later and eat it? Bollocks!"

These aren’t the only aspects of LA life that qualify as "bollocks" in Gordon's book. Other examples include locals who crack jokes about British food ("You think, 'F*** off, you've got just as bad food over here as we used to have back in the UK' ") and diners who insist on customising every order ("Can I have a BLT with no bread?" he mimics).

Thanks to his expletive-fuelled tirades against hapless kitchen wannabes on the reality TV show Hell's Kitchen, "Chef Ramsay" is now a bona fide celebrity in America. He may not be as much of a regular in the gossip pages as his friend David Beckham, but his currency is unquestionably on the rise. His various TV and restaurant commitments keep him in the US for three months a year and much of the past northern summer was spent house-hunting. "Somewhere around Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu...The kids love life out here, the beaches, skiing at Lake Tahoe at Christmas..."

Of course, in theory, Gordon and America were always going to get along. There's nothing the US respects more than a self-made man and few have taken control of their destiny as emphatically as Gordon Ramsay, who is now the world's third highest paid chef, with earnings of some $9million a year.

Source: http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=671307