A former assistant manager at Maze reveals what it’s really like to work for Gordon Ramsay

The INSIDER Summary:

• Tash Pericic was an assistant manager at Maze, Gordon Ramsay's London restaurant.
• The male-dominated restaurant business proved tough to endure as the only female manager.
• She enjoyed the level of professionalism a Michelin-starred restaurant afforded, but quit after a year when it became too demanding.

Tash Pericic moved to London from New Zealand on a two-year visa in order to travel around Europe. That plan changed when she became the assistant manager at Maze, an acclaimed, Michelin-starred Gordon Ramsay restaurant in London.

She spent a year working shifts that went late into the night, managing explosive personalities on the kitchen staff, and serving Gordon Ramsay's celebrity pals in his home before she quit to travel as planned.

Here's what working for the notoriously demanding celebrity chef was like.

Pericic originally applied to be a receptionist at Maze.

She had years of experience in the restaurant business, including a stint as a general manager at just 22 years old, but she wanted to try something different.

"I just thought, 'I want to take an easy job,'" she said.

In her interview, the general manager and restaurant director of Maze looked at her impressive resume and laughed, insisting that she try one night as a receptionist and one night as a waitress and then decide which job she wanted. 

As a people person with a passion for hospitality, Pericic enjoyed working on the floor of the restaurant much more than sitting behind a desk. She took the waitressing job and was promoted to assistant manager a few months later.

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In her role as assistant manager, she was the go-between from the floor to the kitchen.

If issues came up with the food or service, she would speak to the head chef, a man with a heated personality to rival Ramsay's persona.

"He was a very difficult chef," she said. "He was like what you see on 'Kitchen Nightmares.' I saw him throwing pots and pans at staff, and he'd scream at me in the middle of service... There was a night where I had the chef literally standing right in my face, screaming at me, and I had to pretend like that was fine."

Her encounters with Ramsay himself were more pleasant. 

He visited the restaurant about every other week, and she met him several times.

"He'd come in, say hi, come into the kitchen, check that everything's okay," she said. "It was fun, and quite entertaining."

Ramsay did have his moments, though.

When Pericic oversaw a Christmas Eve dinner at Ramsay's house, she walked in to find him swearing on the phone about the chairs his assistant had ordered.

"What the f*** do you call these chairs!?" she said he yelled. "They're so terrible I wouldn't throw them on a f****** bonfire!"

The chef then drove across London to pick up chairs from one of his restaurants to use instead.

"There is the Ramsay most people know," she said. "But actually, he was great. He turned to us and said, 'Relax, you aren't at work, enjoy, have a glass of champagne,' so we had a Christmas Eve toast with Gordon."

Also in attendance at the party: James Corden and David and Victoria Beckham. According to Pericic, David Beckham was the only one to introduce himself to the kitchen staff.

"A small gesture, but it says a lot," she said.

She loved working alongside passionate professionals.

You don't end up working at a Michelin-starred restaurant by accident. It's the top of the industry, and it shows in the dedication that every sommelier, server, and chef brings to their craft. 

"Every single person that works in a Michelin starred restaurant is a professional," she said. "It's a really incredible environment to be a part of."

After a year, the job became too much.

Pericic's days started at 10 a.m., and sometimes she wouldn't get home until two or three in the morning.

"I needed a break, and it was breaking me," she said. "I wasn't the best version of myself with that job because it was so demanding."

At 26 years old, she was also the youngest — and only female — manager.

Working in a male-dominated environment began to take a toll.

"I think I lost my pizzazz, some of my femininity, by trying to be more masculine and tough in a role that I thought I needed to be, and it wasn't me," she said. "It didn't suit me, and I turned into a manager that I wasn't necessarily proud of."

Because of her two-year visa, she didn't want to spend her entire time in Europe working such an intense job. She made a list of things she wanted to do — including sailing in Croatia and living in Florence, Italy — which she eventually did.

Working at Maze remains the toughest environment Pericic has ever worked in.