Ramsay says his goal has always been to be the best.
"As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner's medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it's three-Michelin's stars, there's no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate."
What's next for Ramsay? First up is cooking at a 90th birthday celebration for Nelson Mandela in July.
"I'm very excited about that, and I'm cooking for him and an amazing turnout of pop stars and royalty and government and heads of state."
He also has a new cookbook in the works called "Healthy Appetite," hoping "to prove that healthy food doesn't have to be junk food," and he says he wants to stay out of the public eye. "That's my ambition. Staying off the telly. "
"Everyone keeps bothering about this 'Iron Chef' to go and compete. They want me to go on and compete with them. But let me tell you something, I have a competition every day. I have to hit perfection."
It's that quest for perfection that drives Ramsay in everything he does. He says "kitchens are high-pressurized environments that function on perfection. Pressure is healthy. It becomes stressful when you can't handle pressure. The majority of chefs I know can't run a bath, let alone 19 restaurants across the world."
He admits that he's prone to cursing but says that's common in kitchens around the world.
"It's an industry language that I'm not incredibly proud of, however, whether you're a baseball player, a soccer player, a football player, or whether you drive cars for a living, trust me when it hits the fan … let it go! It's a curse word, Christ almighty, it could be worse. I could be vegetarian."
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