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.
You are correct. Gordon Ramsay is making generalizations about the cooking abilities of British women. generalizations that are true
Gordon Ramsay is sort of the Emeril Lagasse of England.
"They have women in Britain..... I thought they banned women there in exchange for bullish neolithic types"
...
Gordon Ramsay is thee most singular misanthropic mysogynys self loathing turd on the planet. The man has major, MAJOR issues. And Britian exchanged there females for acoholic literary queers.
***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).***
Also, It appears that almost nobody ever makes gravy anymore. When I needed a new roasting pan, I discovered that all the pans had coating on them and the directions said not to place them directly on the burner, which makes it impossible to make real homemade gravy.
And, no, the gravy "substitutes" just don't hack it.
Aluminum pans.
It is very hard to use the pans for meats since they bend with the weight. But they do work.
One more thing, Gordon Ramsay gives one the impression that he's a narcissis militant queer. The man is seething with hatred for everyone.
She's gotten very good (and my waistline testifies to that fact), and I've let her handle it since then. My teenage daughter is getting very good at cooking, and the others are learning.
I make gravy at least once a week and raw materials are as plentiful as ever.
Can it be that Wisconsin has become the last bastion of home cooking? I cook family meals 5-7 nights a week, from scratch and enjoy it. My family seems to enjoy it as well since my son is always inviting some friend or another to share our meals.
Chef Savage, HA. Wish we could get it here. "I love to cook!'
I'm married to a British lass, and I've adopted her daughter (who is now 11). My wife is a very good cook (she cooks from scratch the way her Grandmother taught her), and my daughter is learning to do the same. BTW, she does agree with this article, but we've noticed that the same could be said for most of our friends here in America. They buy frozen dinners or get take-out.
For the record, my wife makes the best Brunswick Stew my family and friends have ever tasted. She makes a mean deer chilli too. You can take one look at me and tell that she has perfected the art of making old fashioned southern style biscuits (my Mama taught her).
What a jack ass. I don't care what he said about women cooks but the 'joke' on the vegetarian was very cruel.
Sounds like qualification for placement on the staff of the NYTimes.
Better to have a can of it than a case of it.
hehe
my gf cant cook either.
she can burn water
I live in NJ.
At one time, NJ was the 'Garden State' for it's rich farm lands. Now that motto is a mere transparent farce. We should be renamed the Pharmaceutical State.
Our farm lands that are left are just products for eminent domain for our corrupt officials to take as needed to whore out to developers.
Very sad times.
Many women not only don't cook, they disdain it! Cooking good wholesome meals can be such a point of pride and confidence. Not to mention the food is health- and family-promoting. It's a tragedy that Hamburger Helper rules the day.
"Gordon Ramsay is the most singular misanthropic misogynist self-loathing turd on the planet. The man has major, MAJOR issues."
Haven't worked with chefs much? I have and met my share of Gordon's along the way. It does seem irrational that they are such jerks, but raging egomaniacs can really toughen you up and impart much knowledge as they do it.
School of hard knocks, I guess.
"but raging egomaniacs can really toughen you up and impart much knowledge as they do it.
School of hard knocks, I guess."
...
Then the Gordon types should refrain from including restaurant customers from their "toughening up" rage. Gordons foul mouthed hatred spares no one as seen on his show. And for a chef who is so strict on "presentation" he should look in the mirror and do something about that carved up potatoe excuse for a face of his.
Ciao baby.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.