Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape
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Dear faithful readers,
by now you might (or might not) know that I will watch anything food related. Yup I love to eat and I just can’t help myself but to watch anything cooking related. So the other day I watched the new series with Gordon Ramsay. It’s called Gordon’s Great Escape. He goes to India to try and learn more about the Indian cuisine.
And when I saw it was produced by Channel 4 I thought great because I cannot stand the American version of Gordon Ramsay. The one you can see on US version of Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen. It’s just phony. He is phony. And fake. And horrible.
On the other hand I quite enjoy the Gordon Ramsay of UK Kitchen Nightmares – the man who is clearly passionate about food, about the ingredients, about helping people. So I thought it would be worth the watch.
And then there is the fact I studied in Birmingham once upon a time where I clearly went through baptism of fire (hm quite literally
when it came to curries and my jars of masala and tumeric are just waiting for a proper recipe to finally be put to good use.
So the expectations were high.
And it is worth the watch because of all the glorious food. The food, the spices, the ingredients, the way it is prepared – it is quite astonishing. I did know about some of these techniques (for example the way nomads in the desert wrap up the meat in leaves and then dig a pit and cover it with hot coals to be cooked) but some things were a revelation – a small tribe that makes chutney with ants and ant’s eggs because meat is in short supply so they use what they have. Or how they prepare fresh food on the trains rather then reheat things (which usually happens where I come from).
But then there is Ramsay. Now he had a shitty year. He just lost a Michelin star. So one would think this would be an opportunity to go back what he does best – cooking. But he is so for the lack of better word irritating. The thing is these people in remote parts of India don’t have a clue who he is. And they don’t care. So his I’m-a-master-chef shtick obviously is not cutting any mustard. None is yelling “Yes chef!” and quivering in their pants at the mere sight of him (actually I think he is lucky that Indian people are so mild mannered – where I come from someone would slap him within minutes.)
Now me being me I will attribute that to the fact he indeed did have a shitty year. He is in a country he has never visited before where some people understand him and some do not. So he is acting like one of the those annoying tourists who think if you shout in your own language long enough the natives will understand you. Me thinks it’s a defense mechanism. Or maybe I’m just naive and he is actually a pillock.
Be as it may if you can get past the bouncing and shouting Ramsay with extra relish do give it a watch because as I said the food is glorious.
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