Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay
Posted on 10/23/2005 1:44:45 AM PDT by dennisw
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay
 15 May 2005: Ramsay's pizza joke outrages vegetarians |
He is infamous for his raging four-letter-word tirades but now Gordon Ramsay has managed to insult 50 per cent of the population without uttering a single expletive.
The television chef has provoked uproar by claiming that young British women "can't cook to save their lives". In a move likely to alienate his army of female fans, the 38-year-old Michelin-starred chef, who is currently filming a new series for Channel 4, says that Britain has produced a generation of women who can "mix a cocktail" but are incapable of doing anything else in the kitchen.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay The former professional footballer said that while more and more men were making their mark in the kitchen, far too many women were surviving on a daily diet of expensive and unhealthy ready-made meals.
"I have been visiting ladies' houses up and down the country with our film crew and you'd be amazed how little cooking the girls are doing," he said. "When they eat, they cheat - it's ready meals and pre-prepared meals all the way.
"Seriously, there are huge numbers of young women out there who know how to mix cocktails but can't cook to save their lives, whereas men are finding their way into the kitchen in ever-growing numbers. Trust me: I am only telling you what I've discovered."
The comments might come as a shock to Ramsay's wife, Tana, who cooks for their four young children in a separate kitchen at home.
Ramsay, who has become an unlikely sex symbol through his regular television appearances, makes his scathing comments in an interview to promote his new series, The F Word, in which he cooks a three-course meal for each episode.
He tells the current edition of Radio Times that he has no time for "stick-thin models who never eat" and he says that he would refuse to serve anyone in his restaurants who asked to go off menu because they were "on a stupid diet like the Atkins or GI".
"They would be out of the door before they knew what was happening," he said.
His damning verdict on the culinary skills of young women is causing controversy. Female cooks and writers accuse him of ignoring the inroads made by a new generation of women chefs into what was previously a male-dominated world.
The number of female chefs at work in Britain has been rising steadily for years. They include Ramsay's former protégée, Angela Hartnett, the 36-year-old chef-patron at the Connaught in Mayfair, central London, in addition to Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray at the River Café in Hammersmith, west London, who trained Jamie Oliver.
Clarissa Dickson Wright, who shot to fame as one half of television's Two Fat Ladies, said that Ramsay's remarks were "rubbish and about 10 years out of date".
Ms Dickson Wright, who was until recently the rector of Aberdeen University, said: "I think when I first joined the university there were young women students who didn't know how to cook. But I think the situation has completely changed over the past five or six years.
"Young women have read books by food experts and chefs and are now much better informed on what they should eat and how they should prepare it.
"I have noticed the sea change because unlike a lot of so called celebrity chefs I spend my time with real people rather than the glitterati."
Tamasin Day-Lewis, a food writer who contributes to The Daily Telegraph and Vanity Fair, described the Ramsay thesis as "complete b*****ks".
"I have a 20-year-old daughter at Bristol University who has already written a student cookbook and prides herself on cooking from scratch, buying good food and making sure her store cupboard of essentials never runs out," she said.
"My three children are all like that and so are their friends."
Skye Gyngell, a chef and the food editor of Vogue, agreed that cooking was a dying art but said it was "bull***t" to suggest that women were worse than men.
"We live in a world of convenience and life is so quick that a lot of us can no longer be bothered to learn cooking as a craft or skill," she said.
Ruth Watson, the proprietor of the Crown and Castle Inn at Orford in Suffolk, who presents Channel Five's The Hotel Inspector, said: "I don't disagree that a lot of people aren't bothering to cook real food during the week but as Gordon Ramsay seems to rate everyone on the size and efficacy of their balls, it's hardly surprising he gives women the thumbs down."
Nigella Lawson, the television chef and chat show host, has herself previously attacked British women for "vaunting their undomesticity".
"Of my friends, it is mostly the men, not the women, who cook," she said.
My son started cooking when he was about 8. He loves it and is very good at creating and improvising. At 15 he still likes to watch cooking shows. My oldest daughter OTOH..... sigh...It's Easymuck, er Easy Mac for her.
Thank you Mineralman. I believe that wherever you go you will get good cooks and bad cooks. It does seem a trend these days to buy ready prepared junk though which is sad. There are a lot of great places to eat in England, but fast food is not anywhere near as big as here in USA. You have to SEARCH for good restuarants and be prepare to wait for the food to be cooked.
There are also good fish and chip places as well as greasy spoon places. Again, search or go buy word of mouth to find the good ones. : )
"If it is true, then who the hell cares who's offended? It's not up to us to lie to accommodate the inability of others to grasp reality."
That's great! Can I use that at work?
They have a certain number of school hours to fill. I prefer they actually teach something of value then the pap that they are shoveling now.
Not cooking is a badge of honor with young women today.
Go to the frozen food section at the store.
You can easily prepare a meal in the microwave with quite a variety of items. Can't comment on the quality though.
Personally, I think cooking is one of the most creative things you can do.
I love to 'swag' it in the kitchen.
I had some meat pie once and was astounded at how good it was. If I had simply looked at the recipe I would have thought, "YUCK, that's gross" and never tried it. I'm not a ground beef person, either; I can't stand the texture.
How is that? A friend of my sons gave him some he picked up over there. It is made by Heinz. I called Kerry's office teasing about the product.
LOL, they obviously hung up on me.
" Will it beat Sausage gravy and biscuits with eggs and grits?"
Ham, eggs, home made biscuits and red-eye gravy.
LOL!
Now it would be so hysterical to watch that again!
I think it would be nice to see these subjects taught, but I also believe it is the reponsibility of the parent to teach their children to cook and sew etc.
I like to not only cook and bake but can and pressure can. Talk about lost skills. I asked a clerk at a store once if they sold canners and all I got was a blank look and "What's that?" I'm trying to pass these skill on to my kids.
LOL, I used to bake bread every weekend. I tended to gain too much weight. The yeast works fine in this neck of the woods.
I cook. But then again, I came from a family of 9 kids I was on the older end, and my mother was a sh*tty cook. I learned because of interest in the subject.
Me too.
I always cheat on the yeast and add 1/2 again as much. I use the quick-rising stuff, too and never (well rarely, anyway) have a bad batch of bread.
"They have a certain number of school hours to fill. I prefer they actually teach something of value then the pap that they are shoveling now."
They apparently don't teach anything like the old Home Economincs classes I took in High School. They really taught you how to sew clothes and in cooking class, how to bake and can. They actually made you do it.
It tastes like it, too.
If public schools teach cooking as well as they teach geography, the kids won't be able to find the kitchen, much less cook anything I would want to eat.
I teach a basic four week course in cooking every year and you would be shocked at the number of 50-60 year olds that don't have the slightest idea how to cook something if it didn't come from a box or a can.
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