If you assumed Gordon Ramsay\u2019s idea of \u2018collecting\u2019 was limited to Michelin<\/a> stars, restaurant empires, and the occasional contestant\u2019s dignity left gently seared on national television, you\u2019d only be partially right. There is, it turns out, a far more sentimental side to the chef lurking beneath the surface \u2013 one who amasses menus.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since I started dating [my wife Tana], we used to go out to restaurants early on [in our relationship], and we\u2019d collect menus. It\u2019s a very shabby thing to do, but I have some of the most extraordinary ones. We always<\/em> ask for a menu,\u201d he exclusively tells Elite Traveler<\/em>.<\/p>\n See also:\u00a0A Guide to All Three-Michelin-Star Restaurants in the UK<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Tana, then a schoolteacher, apparently took a more proactive role in this emerging archive. \u201cTana used to say, \u2018should I get the chef to sign [the menu]?\u2019 And I would say, \u2018no!\u2019 because back in those days, no one knew who we were,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut she would always ask the waiter, \u2018would you mind asking the chef to sign it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Now, more than two decades later, that \u201cshabby thing\u201d has evolved into a surprisingly vast archive. Apparently, there are \u201cover about 750\u201d menus in his collection. There are also wine lists \u2013 some so ceremonially presented that Ramsay has, on occasion, been \u201ccharged for taking them home\u201d.<\/p>\n See also: Are Gordon Ramsay\u2019s Sky-High London Restaurants Worth the Hype?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n And yet, despite global expansion, television fame, and the small matter of building one of the most recognizable restaurant portfolios in the world (including opening his 100th restaurant \u2013 Bread Street Kitchen at 22 Bishopsgate<\/a> \u2013 a \u201cbig, big, big, big\u201d milestone in his career), the ritual has never stopped.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still collect them now when we go out,\u201d Ramsay says. \u201cWe were in a little place called Mijan\u00e8s recently, which we always visit at the end of the ski season in March, and we go to this little [restaurant]. We\u2019ve gone two or three times now, and we still look back at those old menus.\u201d<\/p>\n And he\u2019s not alone in his collecting endeavors. His restaurants, in particular Lucky Cat, have their own peculiar form of souvenir economy with customers that visit. \u201cTwo and a half thousand [Lucky Cat chopsticks holders] get stolen every week,\u201d he shrugs as he tells me.<\/p>\n It tracks, really. A man who chooses to do Ironman races for fun (his first in Las Vegas<\/a>, no less, which he describes as \u201cone of the most competitive culinary playgrounds anywhere in the world\u201d) is not going to be emotionally undone by missing tableware. Still, even by hospitality standards, 2,500 disappearing chopstick holders a week is quite the phenomenon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"gordon](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/lucky-cat-chopsticks-gordon-ramsay-2048x2560.jpeg\")
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