Buffalo Wild Wings Worker Claims He Invented Gordon Ramsay’s Catchphrases
A line cook at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Topeka, Kansas, has claimed responsibility for some of the most iconic insults ever hurled across a British kitchen. “Yeah, I came up with ‘It’s raw!’ during a Friday night rush in 2004,” says 38-year-old Travis “T-Bone” Pennington, currently employed as the Assistant Fry Technician on Boneless Wing Duty.
According to T-Bone, he and a younger, pre-fame Gordon Ramsay crossed paths in the early 2000s while Ramsay was allegedly “backpacking across America in search of the perfect ranch dip.” It was during one such journey, Pennington insists, that Ramsay wandered into the Topeka BWW, ordered 30 wings extra crispy, and sat at the chef’s table — which at the time was a broken booth next to the deep fryer.
“We started talking shop,” T-Bone recalls. “I told him, ‘Man, I tell my team when something’s raw, I say IT’S RAW!’ with, like, five exclamation points. He laughed, wrote it down in a notebook labeled ‘Angry Phrases,’ and never paid his bill.”
The claim has gained traction online thanks to a grainy VHS tape uploaded to YouTube, showing a young, bleach-tipped Pennington yelling at a coworker, “You call this a risotto? It’s wetter than a toddler’s diaper!” That phrase would later appear verbatim in a 2008 episode of Hell’s Kitchen.
Ramsay’s legal team responded swiftly, issuing a statement: “Mr. Ramsay has never set foot in Kansas, on purpose.”
Nevertheless, Pennington is pressing forward, filing a retroactive intellectual property claim with the United States Culinary Rhetoric Bureau. “If Gordon wants to meet me wing-to-wing in court, I’ll be ready,” he declared, slamming down a skillet full of hot garlic parmesan for emphasis.
Meanwhile, Buffalo Wild Wings has announced a “Raw Rage Sauce” tribute in Pennington’s honor, promising a flavor so intense it’ll have you screaming about undercooked scallops in no time.