Gordon Ramsay MasterClass Review:
It’s No Hell’s kitchen For Aspiring Chefs?

Gordon Ramsay MasterClass Content and Structure Review

Part one gets you closer to Chef Ramsay himself. It starts with an introduction to Gordon’s Journey, followed by kitchen layout, mastering ingredients, and choosing fresh vegetables. This installment follows Gordon’s Method, Mastering Ingredients, and Make lesson formats. He talks about himself and teaches knife skills, using different types of ingredients, and cooking flavorful dishes.

You’ll miss personal remarks and motivational tips in Part 2. Chef Ramsay quickly introduces the course and dives right into cooking red wine poached egg. It’s more straightforward and skips the content that can benefit beginners. It is what separates the two parts. The first part’s cooking lessons appeal to beginners and intermediates, while the second is better for advanced cooks.

Both courses have structured lessons that run for about 15 minutes each. Although the second part has fewer lessons, the total duration is similar. The MasterClass course runs for 3 hours and 54 minutes, while the second one is slightly longer at 4 hours and 14 minutes.

Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking Part I

The first Gordon Ramsay MasterClass has lessons that follow four formats.

• Gordon’s Journey talks about his journey to becoming the world-renowned chef he is today.
• Method is where Gordon Ramsay shows techniques on various aspects of cooking, from using a knife properly to creating the optimal kitchen layout.
• Mastering Ingredients format takes a type of ingredient and explains everything a cook needs to know about it.
• Make are the cooking classes that employ the techniques taught in the previous lessons.

Gordon’s Journey

2-11 Lessons Summary

Gordon Ramsay’s MasterClass begins with how he became the chef he is today. Chef Ramsay stresses the importance of learning the best techniques from masters, giving his mother as the prime example. The Gordon’s Journey lesson that follows later in the course goes over his path and essential tips on becoming a master chef yourself. It’s enjoyable for any Gordon Ramsay fan.

Method

Summary of Lessons 3, 6, 8, 12, 14, and 15

These lessons are beneficial for prepping ingredients and creating the best kitchen. In Method lessons, you’ll learn about designing a kitchen, different knife cuts, breaking down a whole chicken and fish, making fresh pasta dough, and rolling pasta dough for making ravioli, fettuccine, and other noodles. These lessons will elevate your cooking skills even if you pass some of the recipe videos from the course.

Mastering Ingredients

Summary of Lessons 4, 10, and 17

In the lessons about ingredients, Gordon Ramsay shows how to select fresh produce, what to look for in seafood on your next fishmonger visit, and different meat cuts. Like the Method lessons, they are very constructive and explain things you should know before food prep. You can take notes for each variety of ingredient to understand how to tell they are fresh and what cut of meat to use for different purposes.

Make

Summary of Lessons 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, and 18

The Make lessons are essentially recipe video lessons that use various cook techniques. In these lessons, you’ll learn how to cook classic dish recipies:

• Poached egg and mushrooms on brioche
• Scrambled eggs with sea urchin
• Chicken supreme with root vegetables
• Salmon with shellfish minestrone
• Lobster ravioli
• Beef Wellington

The content structure caught my eye for these lessons. For example, you pick up knife skills and learn to break down a whole chicken before cooking chicken supreme with Gordon Ramsay. The order of the lessons made following the course easy. I’m sure even novice cooks won’t leave the MasterClass confused.

Fast-Track Lesson Plan

All lessons in Gordon Ramsay’s first MasterClass are valuable. But if you’re in a rush and want to get the best out of the course in the shortest time possible, consider skipping the following lessons to finish Gordon Ramsay MasterClass part 1 in 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 17 seconds.

Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking II: Restaurant Recipes at Home

The second part of Gordon Ramsay’s cooking class is more streamlined as it’s recipe-based. He teaches you how to make some of the dishes you’d find in a restaurant. Gordon Ramsay shows such dishes as pomme puree and raspberry souffle.

In this part of Gordon Ramsay’s MasterClass, he makes a quick introduction and begins teaching the Gordon Ramsay’s cooking collection:

• Red Wine Poached Egg, Asparagus, and Mushrooms
• Crispy Duck, Red Endive and Spinach
• Pomme Purée
• Cauliflower Steak, Olives, and Mushrooms
• Rack of Lamb With Thumbelina Carrots
• Roasted Eggplant With Basil and Feta
• Grilled Baby Leeks, Miso Broth and Caviar Vinaigrette
• Szechuan Roasted Whole Chicken
• Hoisin Chicken and Pickled Daikon
• Szechuan Chicken Breast and Udon Noodles
• Sesame Crusted Tuna With Cucumber Salad
• Fried Branzino With Thai Chili Lettuce Cups
• Raspberry Soufflé

Gordon Ramsays MasterClass covers everything from presentation to serving. Chef Ramsay also talks about the ingredients he uses in detail. You’ll often hear him explain why he uses one over another, like shallots instead of white onions, to control acidity.

Throughout these recipe videos, Gordon Ramsay uses essential home cooking equipment. You won’t see any fancy restaurant-grade gear. He uses pretty much the same equipment he showed in the first part.

The accessibility of the ingredients is also one thing that surprised me about this part. I expected Chef Ramsay to introduce ingredients home cooks like myself would struggle to obtain. Luckily, he only uses what you would find in your local stores. The only challenge could be getting the freshest ingredients, but Gordon Ramsay already teaches that in the first part.

Overall, these lessons are straightforward yet very detailed. You will not only learn to cook a particular dish but understand critical points about the ingredients used for it. It can help cooks get creative and pair appropriate ingredients to create their own recipes.

Fast-Track Lesson Plan

Since the each recipe is unique, I recommend not skipping any of the lessons. However, if you want to learn the techniques covered, you can pass a few lessons. Skip the following lessons to finish Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking II in 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Gordon Ramsay MasterClass Student Engagement and Retention

In both MasterClass courses, Gordon Ramsay is very engaging and keeps a positive tone. However, you see more of Chef Ramsay’s excitement in the first part. It is more apparent in the lessons about fundamentals, like knife skills, basic cooking techniques, and setting up your kitchen.

The second part is also engaging, but he is more constructive due to the nature of the recipes and the culinary skills required. I found the engagement of the course was the same, but the entertainment aspect was slightly reduced.