The Polarizing $100 Soup Gordon Ramsay Says 'Tastes Of Nothing'

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In 2011, an hour-long television program called "Shark Bait" was aired. The host was the very recognizable Gordon Ramsay, who, at the time, was otherwise known as the chef who is always angry on TV. In the show, he explored the history and controversy of shark fin soup, a pricey delicacy that was once reserved for Chinese emperors but is now served around the globe. On his extensive research trip, Ramsay visits Taiwan, a country he explains is one of the biggest markets for shark fin soup in the world. At a high-end restaurant, he orders the most expensive bowl on the menu, which is approximately $100. In a nutshell, the world-renowned chef isn't impressed with the dish.

After learning how the soup base and shark fins are prepared, he is served a bowl of the soup which is garnished with bamboo shoots, red wine vinegar, and cilantro leaves. He says, "It's really bizarre, cause it actually tastes of nothing. Almost like, sort of plain glass noodles ... the broth's delicious, really good, but it could have anything in there," (via YouTube). He is noticeably perplexed as to why someone would pay so much money for such an underwhelming dish. He tries to ask other diners at the restaurant, and receives much resistance from the restaurant maître d'. As the documentary goes on to explain, the subject of shark fin soup and, thus, shark fins as culinary ingredients, is steeped in taboo and isn't something the industry likes to talk about in the open. In fact, Ramsay was held at gunpoint while filming a segment of a show about unethical fishing practices in Costa Rica.

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At the core of shark fin soup is a harrowing and cruel practice known as finning, in which sharks are caught, their fins are removed while they're alive, and then the helpless animals are thrown back into the ocean, where they cannot swim or survive. Animal slaughter is, of course, a part of the culinary industry; however, multiple parts of the animal are typically utilized in various capacities. In the case of sharks, their fins are so much more valuable than the rest of the meat that finning has unfortunately become normalized. According to Science magazine, at least 100 million sharks are killed every year, with a large percentage being casualties of shark finning. 

In "Shark Bait," Gordon Ramsay not only points out the barbarity of shark finning from a moral standpoint, but also explains that killing an animal for a small piece of flesh goes against a certain standard of the culinary industry. He says, "We [chefs] utilize everything. That's the skill of a chef." With Ramsay's lackluster review of the soup in mind, one can't help but ask, "Is all the shark finning for nothing?" According to Ramsay, yes. Yet with recipes and tradition dating back 2,000 years, particularly in China, it isn't easy convincing everyone that shark fin soup may not be worth the damage it causes. 

Ramsay, for one, is trying. Towards the end of the program, he gathered several London-based restaurateurs to discuss decreasing the demand for shark fin soup, with many agreeing to stop serving it altogether. While once eaten in the United States, the shark fin trade is outlawed by a federal ban.