R6: Ramsay Roasts

Gordon Ramsay: Relationship with Fans

Alice Marwick and Danah boyd in the article, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter Convergence”, talk about the notion of connection built through interaction with one’s fan base around the world. Universal platforms like Twitter allow celebrities, regular people, friends, and family to connect with each other simply through the click of a button. There is a way one defines celebrity communication on Twitter. Marwick and boyd state, “Those celebrities who use Twitter primarily to ‘broadcast’ publicity information are seen as less authentic than those using the tool for dialogue and engagement with fans. One of our first methodological tasks was to work out who authored accounts of famous people” (142).

         Gordon Ramsay the fifty year old British celebrity chef interacts with his Twitter fans in the most direct way that showcases his passion for cooking, but also his projected media personality. Ramsay is notorious for lacking a verbal filter and using profanity to express his disgust at the food or performance by cooks on competition shows.  He is currently gaining a lot of attention for reviewing dishes made by people on Twitter, but doing so in the exact sarcastic and condescending manner that can be found on his television shows. A lot of home cooks will post picture of the food they are making or the finished product and tweet the product to him, and he will Tweet@ a response back. Most of his “fans” will tweet to see if they will get a response from him. Marwick and boyd highlight the authenticity marker that most of the world uses to judge the authenticity of a celebrity’s tweets. They state, “Tweets that are personal, controversial, or negative – in other words, that contradict the stereotype of the overly managed ‘celebrity’ account – signal greater authenticity than safely vetted publicity messages” (149). It is hard to say whether or not that it is actually Gordon Ramsay himself tweeting back to other people. But by the overt use of sarcasm and the commentary on specific food dishes, fans assume that Gordon is actually responding to them. One would assume that a person tweeting at 1:12 AM is Ramsay and not a worker because, no one wants to think that a person is working that late or that it is not him authentically tweeting late at night.

His other main use of his Twitter account is to promote his other shows, such as Master Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, and Master Chef Junior. He will retweet the promotional media that advertises the next week’s episode, along with any information about the shows that he is on. He is subtly reminding others to watch his shows, which in addition to his renowned cooking career helps others recognize him. He becomes an even bigger celebrity in the sense that people helped him rise to another level of stardom, through their love and support for his over the top, sarcastic, yet entertaining cooking

competition shows that he is a part of. His constant retweeting is reminder to his fans that he still needs the continual support, because without their support the shows would not survive and would not be as successful.

He also attempts to showcase parts of his personal life through very selective post about his own cooking, family photos, and his travel. His Twitter account very rarely showcases any photographs of his family. They are scattered amongst his numerous posts about the shows he is on and his “roasting” tweets! This action could be used to showcase that he is a very busy person, and that in his down time he would like to truly spend it away from the public eye, but that certain moments are too good not to share.

All in all, Gordon Ramsay has a very active Twitter account in which he engages with his fans. He perpetuates the image of himself that the fans love, the sarcastic foul-mouthed chef through his tweets and interactions with the fans themselves. He also self-promotes himself through the numerous retweets about his new show or the newest episode of a show he is currently on. And by letting others see the softer side of him, as a father and husband with the rare tweet about his personal life, are all ways in which he is building connections with his fans but also his celebrity image. Overall, Gordon Ramsay has used his Twitter to build up the level of interaction he has with fans and to because of that increased connectivity he is reaching more people, who will promote him to a higher celebrity status.

Works Cited:

Radio Times (@RadioTimes). “Can Gordon Ramsay manage not to swear while filming his new daytime show. Er . . .” 20 April 2017, 9:00 AM. Tweet.

Ramsay, Gordon (@GordonRamsay). “bland as the table cloth it’s sat on . . .” 12 April 2017, 1:12 AM. Tweet.

Ramsay, Gordon (@GordonRamsay). “Dear Yousef you’re Youse less . . .” 20 April 2017, 4:26 AM. Tweet. 

Ramsay, Gordon (@GordonRamsay). “Happy #InternationalWomensDay to these beautiful ladies love you lots Gx . . .” 8 March 2017,  6:42 AM. Tweet.