Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson accuses chef Gordon Ramsay of screaming racial slur at him

In his new memoir “Yes, Chef” celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson said fellow celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay screamed a racial slur at him in 2000 after he neglected to acknowledge the “Hell’s Kitchen” star during an interview.

In his book, Ethiopian-born Marcus said shortly after he arrived as a guest chef at London’s five-star Lanesborough Hotel in 2000 he did an interview in which he mentioned several chefs who were his mentors and he neglected to name Gordon as one of them.

Forty-two year old Samuelsson, who grew up in Sweden, said two days after the interview “I was cooking when a phone call came into the kitchen.  The executive chef answered and with a puzzled look handed me the receiver.”

Samuelsson said on the other end of the phone was Gordon who screamed at him “How the fuck can you come to my fucking city and think you are going to be able to cook without even fucking referring to me?”

“I’m going to make sure you have a fucking miserable time here.  This is my city, you hear? Good luck, you fucking black bastard,” then he hung up the phone.

Marcus said in his book the only thing about Gordon’s tirade that left him unsettled was when “he called me a black bastard.  Actually, I didn’t give a fuck about the bastard part.  But the black part pissed me off.”

Marcus, who appears as a celebrity judge on the Food Network show “Chopped”, explained in his book why he failed to acknowledge Gordon on the television show.

He writes: “I had cook with Gordon Ramsay once, a couple of years earlier, when we did a promotion in Chicago.  There were a handful of chefs there…and Gordon was rude and obnoxious to all of them.”

“So when I was giving interviews in the lead-up to the Lanesborough event and was asked who inspired me, I though the best way to handle it was to say nothing about him at all.  I guess he was offended at being left out.”

When asked about the quotes in Marcus’ book 45-year-old Gordon said he doesn’t recall the conversation.

Marcus’ book publisher Random House and Marcus are sticking by what’s in the book.

I do not personally know either of the chefs, but based on what Gordon’s says on his television shows, I can see him saying something like this.  Do I think he is a racist?  No, I think he is just a big mouth rude bastard!