Gordon Ramsay reveals agonising childhood struggle as he issues emotional plea to help hungry kids across the UK

HE may be a multi-millionaire and multi-Michelin-starred chef now, but Gordon Ramsay knows what it is to be hungry. Growing-up on one of Glasgow’s toughest council estates, he would eat toothpaste and condensed milk to stave off desperate hunger pangs. Gordon Ramsay says he knew what it was like to grow up hungry after his childhood on a council estate Credit: Getty Gordon is teaming up with a charity to help deprived kids, above the chef helping out with mealtimes at Wesley Hall community centre in Leicester Credit: Supplied Fifty years on, the star is using his experience for good by teaming up with a charity to help deprived children after new figures showed 800,000 British children struggle to be fed during the school holidays. Speaking from Wesley Hall community centre in Leicester, Gordon says: “Being here has taken me straight back to where it all started for me. I’ve been there. I was one of those kids. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! “I’m shocked that almost a million kids can’t eat during the holidays, and not just from a chef’s point of view, but from a dad’s point of view. “Today has been painful. Communities like these are a lifeline. “The families I’ve been talking to aren’t just taking Universal Credit. They are working their arses off to feed their kids and they still can’t do it. Many earn less than £100 a day. “Harry Styles, who my kids adore, recently packed out Wembley stadium, 90,000 people, 12 nights. But even those numbers times 12 isn’t much more than the 800,000 kids that are going hungry. “That is the f***ing magnitude of how bad things are. Why is this? “Well, take food pricing — yoghurts that were 99p a year ago are now £1.49. McDonald’s makes it easier to get a bigger footfall by bringing the prices down. It’s counter-intuitive. “We need hungry minds, not hungry bellies.” During a day out at the community centre, Gordon spends time playing football with the youngsters, pottering about with them in the allotment and helping prepare breakfast and lunch. Most read in Showbiz The children adore him. Sitting at a child-size breakfast table, a couple of them ask Gordon how old he is. “Guess,” he smiles, clearly thinking years of training and Ironmans have left him in good stead. “Eighty-nine?”, asks one boy, “76?”, another girl guesses. One kind soul proffers a quiet “64”. “For f sakes”, he rages to me later. “They thought I was more wrinkled than Mick f***ing Jagger!” Whisper it, but in his old-ish age, the 59-year-old really has mellowed. While he may still swear like a trucker — not in front of the kids, to be clear — he really is a big softie. At times, the muscled star wells up and he visibly struggles after being confronted with some of the food of his childhood — a flashback to not being able to sleep at night, with his stomach rumbling so hard. He is joined by his lovely daughter, Tilly, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing five years ago. She recently ran the London marathon for Feeding Britain, which Gordon is now a patron of. Privately, he and wife Tana have also donated a huge six-figure sum to the charity. The day before we meet, Gordon takes Tilly down to the council estate, Strathbourne Avenue, where he grew up. They visit his old house and he shows her the bedroom where he slept in a bunk bed with little brother Ronnie. The emotional scenes will be shown on his forthcoming Netflix doc, a follow-up to his No1-rated global hit Being Gordon Ramsay earlier this year. Reflecting on his own early years, Gordon says: “Earlier today I saw some Carnation milk and powdered milk — two things that would keep me going as a boy. “My siblings and I would sort of literally sit there thinking it was Christmas day, piercing this little can with a can opener, and then just my little brother and I would just take it in turns to sip this thing. “We’d have powdered milk on our cornflakes or porridge because anything was better than water. “There are certain foods for me now that are triggering, and if I am confronted by them, I have to exit pretty sharpish. And when both my little brother and big sister started smoking, I was the one they’d ask to hide the cigarettes. “So I’d stick them down my sock. And then my big sister would say, ‘you’re going to crush my cigarettes’. So then I’d shove them down my pants. “All of a sudden, all those memories started coming back when I was in that house. Gordon aged 12 in 1979, on holiday in Torquay with dad Gordon Sr and younger brother Ronnie Credit: Gordon, above with wife Tana at TV launch in London last October, says he is shocked at how many children are struggling for meals Credit: Getty “The cigarettes move on to drink and then the drink moves on to, you know, other things. “It’s just a slippery slope, full stop. And so my target here is to help these kids stay off that slide.” Gordon, who moved to Daventry, Northants, aged ten, says he was never tempted to shoplift, but does recall scavenging for food from rich tourists. He adds: “We never stole but we used to go down and swim on the Avon. There was this Royal Shakespeare Theatre there, this beautiful theatre. “In June, July, August, all the Americans came over and we would literally swim up to their boats and talk to them, hanging on the end of their boat. “I’d literally beg for a sandwich, which I know sounds f***ing terrible — they probably thought they were going to get f***ing kidnapped but there we were, just asking for a f***ing sandwich. “You know, ‘just give us something’ — very Oliver Twist and his mates. Dripping wet and ‘Please, sir, may I have some more?’” Today, of course, Gordon enjoys the trappings of fame after dedicating his life to hospitality and the 18-hour days it entails. Consequently, he has instilled a tremendous work ethic in his grown-up kids, and currently reigns supreme over a staggering 100 restaurants worldwide. Multi-millionaire Gordon said he would also support a super-wealth tax for the uber-rich, seen here with The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie Credit: Supplied He wants new PM Andy Burnham to focus on long-term solutions and not band-aid fixes Credit: Getty While he is keen not to get too political, I ask him about our new PM, Andy Burnham, who crossed the threshold of No10 the day summer holidays started across the UK. Does he think Andy can help reduce child poverty, and reduce the rich/poor divide? “Well, the future of the country is in the kids,” he replies. “So it’s not where we are now, it’s where we’re going to be in 2035 and 2045. “We have to stop doing these Band-Aid short-term fixes and think long-term strategy. “I think there are some big changes coming, and it would be nice to see a little bit of movement with the hospitality industry. “It’s a bloodbath out there, a catastrophe. It needs change and it needs to happen quickly.” So would he do a Jamie Oliver and petition the new PM for change? “I keep all that stuff private,” he says. “But 100 per cent I’d consult with Andy, without a doubt. “I’m not into turning up at Downing Street with f***ing pots and pans and signing a petition. “I’ll pay him respect and I’d like to see it privately, the way it should be done. “Yeah, it’s time for change again. It’s evident taxes are going to go up and I think that’s a good thing. “I think we’ve got to do a tax increase, we’ve got to do the math, and so I think the mansion tax is a good idea as well. I think that’s going to help the communities better. I’d also support a super-wealth tax for the uber-rich.” For anyone earning over, say, £200,000 a year, I suggest? Nodding, he smiles, “I’m not going to put a number on it, but yes, you can say that.” There aren’t many famous faces I know willing to put their hard-earned money where there mouth is. But then again, Gordon Ramsay isn’t most celebrities. For more information on Feeding Britain, see feedingbritain.org. 1 comment1