>>7801001The real answer is back in the mid-late 90s he had developed an image of being the bad-boy maverick chef of the haute cuisine world, throwing food critics out of his restaurants and insulting them to the press. When Channel 4 ran a documentary on him in 1999, it shot him into the mainstream because in 1999 people liked that sort of character. It was his true self, but also he was 33 and one of the most decorated chefs in England working in an extremely high pressure environment. Once he changed to become a celebrity he naturally mellowed out a lot but he turned the vitriol up for the Americans and they couldn't get enough.
Basically he's The Rock
