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Can't cook, won't cook - Young British women "can't cook to save their lives"
telegraph - uk ^ | 23/10/2005) | Chris Hastings and Elizabeth Day

Posted on 10/23/2005 1:44:45 AM PDT by dennisw

 

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay

alt15 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.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: women
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To: dennisw
Young British women "can't cook to save their lives"

WOW! Until she hit 30, my daughter must have been British! She would actually set off the smoke alarm trying to boil a hot dog. I finally had to disconnect it until she moved out.
21 posted on 10/23/2005 4:46:16 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: dennisw
After the volunteer - identified only as "Bob" - has eaten the pizza, Ramsay tells him: "Unfortunately, that pizza has got a lot of mozzarella and tomatoes, but underneath all that there is parma ham."
Back in the early 70’s I had a vegan friend. It had been several years since he had eaten any animal products. While snacking on what we assumed were purely veggie snacks he became ill and swore it felt like he had eaten meat. We checked the ingredients and discovered a small amount of “meat byproducts”.
22 posted on 10/23/2005 4:51:57 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: R. Scott
She would actually set off the smoke alarm trying to boil a hot dog. I finally had to disconnect it until she moved out.

LMAO!

23 posted on 10/23/2005 4:53:26 AM PDT by tiredoflaundry (Tampa Bay Area, East Pasco County)
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To: jimtorr
A Traditional English Breakfast is very good also …
Will it beat Sausage gravy and biscuits with eggs and grits?
24 posted on 10/23/2005 4:55:55 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: tiredoflaundry
She would actually set off the smoke alarm trying to boil a hot dog. I finally had to disconnect it until she moved out.

Our smoke detector goes off whenever we run the clothes dryer. It's right next to that room. The excess humidity in the air sets it off.

25 posted on 10/23/2005 5:02:12 AM PDT by reg45
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To: R. Scott

nope


26 posted on 10/23/2005 5:02:12 AM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: dennisw
It's basically true in America where the majority of household prepare supermarket "ready-to-eat" meals that are loaded down with sodium, preservatives and other gunk.

The typical family pulls out a frozen box like the one below, microwaves on high for about 20 minutes, slaps it on a plate and calls it a meal.


27 posted on 10/23/2005 5:04:44 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (What Would Howard Roarke Do?)
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To: dennisw
Ramsey is a kitchen misogynist.
28 posted on 10/23/2005 5:05:06 AM PDT by Rebelbase (""As far as I can tell, she (Miers) is every bit as conservative as George Bush." --NCsteve (FR))
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To: Santiago de la Vega

"Remember 20 years ago in the US mushrooms were sold only in cans"

Wrong.


29 posted on 10/23/2005 5:06:56 AM PDT by Rebelbase (""As far as I can tell, she (Miers) is every bit as conservative as George Bush." --NCsteve (FR))
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To: jimtorr

I was being silly... but the English are not known for their 'cuisine'.


30 posted on 10/23/2005 5:07:03 AM PDT by johnny7 (“What now? Let me tell you what now.”)
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To: expatguy

Din't think so.


31 posted on 10/23/2005 5:14:05 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: Bon mots
Do you think I CARE about what she does in the kitchen?
32 posted on 10/23/2005 5:15:53 AM PDT by TheRobb7 (The American Spirit does not require a federal subsidy.)
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To: Bon mots
I've heard a Heaven/Hell joke that runs more like this...

In Heaven...

The houses are English,

The salaries are American,

The food is Chinese

And the wives are Japanese.

In Hell...

The houses are Japanese,

The salaries are Chinese,

The food is British

And the wives are American.

(badump-tsh!)

33 posted on 10/23/2005 5:25:09 AM PDT by RedBeaconNY (Vous parlez trop, mais vous ne dites rien.)
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To: dennisw
Young British women "can't cook to save their lives"

I got news for you. Their mothers couldn't cook either.

Or their grandmothers.

34 posted on 10/23/2005 5:26:34 AM PDT by Jhensy
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To: dennisw

Spotted Dick, still one of my favorites.


35 posted on 10/23/2005 5:29:34 AM PDT by Casloy
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To: dennisw

A lot of city girls in the states don't know how to cook either.


36 posted on 10/23/2005 5:30:49 AM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We have the government we allow and deserve.)
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To: dennisw
>>>The television chef has provoked uproar by claiming that young British women "can't cook to save their lives".

This phenomena is frightingly spreading in the US also.

More often then not, when my children have friends over, they want to cook.

WAY too many of their friends have never seen this done at home. That is sad.

Over the past 10 years it has also been becoming increasingly difficult to find raw materials in my area. And the raw materials that are still around are only available in SMALLER quantities and MORE expensive. Some don't even work (yeast).
37 posted on 10/23/2005 5:37:29 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: Gabz

ping


38 posted on 10/23/2005 5:37:48 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: Casloy

Serious? I want to try Spotted Dick. I notice Kroger sells it in a can. I am going to try it one day.


39 posted on 10/23/2005 5:54:02 AM PDT by A knight without armor
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To: R. Scott

Thanks for reading my post #2. That's so damn funny how he fooled vegetarians into eating pizza w/ Parma ham and chicken stock and they didn't taste the difference


40 posted on 10/23/2005 5:57:44 AM PDT by dennisw (You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you - Bob Dylan)
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