Ever since our Media Centre PC (the one that records all our TV for us) broke recently, we’ve been reduced to scrolling through the NTL guide to find something to watch in the evenings.
We’ve ended up watching quite a bit a bit of Gordon Ramsey and last night we finally caught an episode of the f-word. It’s an hour long and action packed – and swear-word packed seeing that Gordon’s about!
The premise is that they bring in a team of 4 amateur chefs (last night was the firemen) and Gordon gets them to cook a 3-course set meal for 50 people in the restaurant (including celebrities). The people eat the food and then decide if they would pay for it or not. Reasons for not paying can run from ‘took too long’ to ‘badly cooked’, etc.
I felt really sorry for the firemen last night, and I think Gordon did as well – the punters were awful and complaining about foie gras ‘being too fatty’. As Gordon pointed out – it’s the fattened liver of a goose, so how on earth could it be less fatty? But you can never please some people…
They also flick out to other stories, they has Janet Street-Porter going to France to pick out a horse to be slaughtered and then serving the cooked horse meet to punters at a racecourse. What we didn’t hear on the screen was that in the wake of her stunt, representatives of animal rights group PETA protested by dumping a tonne of horse manure outside Ramsay’s restaurant at Claridge’s in central London. In another segment, Gordon taught a busy family how to prepare 5 tasty, healthy meals in under 15 mins each.
They flashed up the program’s website at the end and I took the time to have a look and discovered that they have all the recipes listed from each program, going back for 3 series!! Gordon’s food usually looks to be crammed with flavour and natural ingredients, even if like all celebrity chefs I think he uses a LOT of butter – but maybe that’s why their food has so much flavour!
Check out the recipe collection, there’s something to suit everyone’s tastes – and many of them have video instructions as well.
My favourite recipes from last night were:
- Butter-roasted rib eye of beef
- Bacon, pea and goats cheese omelette with a tomato salad
- Pan fried salmon pea and mint puree and crème fraiche
- Fillet steak sandwich with a green salad
- Chicken and mixed vegetable stir-fry with noodles
Please don’t serve them when I come to visit!
Is that not an old prog Elly? I have a De-ja-vous feeling as I read the above. I know I have had no TV for years but I am sure I have either read or heard about all that some time ago.
Posted on July 18, 2007 at 10:36 am.
Not all that old, three series to date and started in 2005 according to the web… You’ve probably read about it online at some point.
The site of recipes may not be perfect for you though, noted that there’s butter/dairy in most things…
Posted on July 18, 2007 at 10:40 am.
Hi Elly, I was lucky enough recently to eat in Claridges and it was without a doubt the best meal I’ve ever had! We went for the prestige menu, with a selection of all the chef’s best from the a la carte menu…it was diiiiiviiiinne! The great thing was that a lot of the dishes I recognised from the F word (the foie gras which is organic, hand dived scallops etc) – it was really interesting to know some of the ‘back story’ as it were of some of the dishes. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Posted on July 19, 2007 at 11:38 am.
Hey Gio! You lucky thing… At some point, I will get over to London and I want to eat in both Gordon Ramsay’s and Jamie Oliver’s places!
Posted on July 19, 2007 at 12:10 pm.