Gordon Ramsay has undergone cosmetic surgery to fill in the trademark lines on his chin.
He says he took the advice of Botox fan Simon Cowell, who advised that, if he wanted to increase his star power stateside, he might want to polish his rugged features.
“Simon Cowell suggested that, now I’m a success in America, I should do something. So I had a filler put under the deep crevices,” he told the British weekly Radio Times. “It hurt.”
He spent around $650 on an off-the-shelf filler like Restylane, which can be injected underneath crevices to plump them up.
He will apparently need to get the procedure a couple of times a year to keep up the smooth-chin look, according to reports.
Oddly enough, his decision to get cosmetic surgery came a year after his publicist laughed off reports that the quick-tempered chef had any work done. “Gordon would be the first person to take the piss out of anyone that has had surgery,” the publicist said at the time.
“My mother said they were smile lines,” Ramsay told the magazine this week. “I could deal with that at 21, but not at 42.”
Tough-guy Ramsay remarked on how uncomfortable the procedure was, but — on the pain scale of cosmetic surgery — it doesn’t rate that high, doctors say.
“Sometimes you can have some bruising or swelling. Most times you don’t,” Manhattan plastic surgeon Dr. David Shafer said.
The surgeon says he’s somewhat surprised that Ramsay elected to undergo the procedure.
“If you made it big without the lines filled in, what’s the reason for getting them filled? If it’s not broken, why fix it?” asked Dr. Shafer.
“But it looks like they did a nice job, it looks natural and his face is nice and smooth.
“I don’t know why there’s always this negative image of plastic surgery. If they got it and look good and they’re happy, what’s the big deal?”