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.
They buy frozen dinners or get take-out.
Oh, and you're right. Nobody from Britain can cook (or make love, for that matter).
I think this is true for British women of any age. Anyone old enough to recall the Police Inspector's wife in "Frenzy"?
If you ever want to loose weight FAST go to England. There is NOTHING there worth eating at all.Some very foul , tasteless food is the norm.
It sounds perverse..
NJ here too, and I totally agree with you . 75 years of massivly corrupt Democrats has rotted this state away .
Mostly true. And it is mostly true of most first world countries. So why the uproar?
Most cooks are either hobbyist or professionals. Cooking is no longer a required skill any more then farming is. Most men are unable to help a cow give birth too. Most vets are now women.
Personally I think basic self care, including cooking, cleaning, auto maintenance and so forth should be required school classes but others disagree.
bump
BUMP
"Remember 20 years ago in the US mushrooms were sold only in cans. "
20 years ago? 1985? Not a chance. The chain supermarket in the small town in CA I lived in had five different kinds of fresh mushrooms all year in 1985, and dried mushrooms of six or seven others.
Maybe in some places you are right, but not anywhere that food is important.
These days, things are even better, in regard to mushrooms. I wanted to make rigatoni con funghi this past April, so I headed for the supermarket near me. To my utter amazement, there were fresh morels in nice little wooden baskets available. Normally, I have to use dried morels in this dish. What a treat! I added them to the pasta dish, but bought several large ones and stuffed them to make an appetizer. Our guests were amazed, and very happy.
The new age of fresh food began in the 70's, at least in California. Now, even in Minnesota, the chain supermarkets offer an amazing variety of fresh goods, including exotic fruits and veggies you used to have to go to an exotic grocer to find.
You got it backwards. Italians are good mechanics. In hell it is the French who are the mechanics and the Italians who run the whole place
LOL
How delicate of them.
"Serious? I want to try Spotted Dick. I notice Kroger sells it in a can. I am going to try it one day. "
Buy it. Canned spotted dick isn't really terrific, but if you like bread pudding or other steamed puddings, you'll like it OK. Then...get a recipe and make some fresh. There's a world of difference.
Most British women are pretty losuy in bed too.
"Also, It appears that almost nobody ever makes gravy anymore. "
Huh? I make gravy all the time. And, as for your roasting pan, go to a good kitchen store to buy your next one.
Cooking is alive and well.
My wife doesn't cook. She can, but I do it better, so it's my job. She cleans up.
Yeah, I know... but I think it's a swipe at Fiat! (Stands for "Fix It Again Tony!)
I only repeated it as I heard it.
Eat out...
Fish and chips is the classic English take-away food and is the traditional national food of England.
It became popular in the 1860's when railways began to bring fresh fish straight from the east coast to the our cities over night.
The fish (cod, haddock, huss, plaice) is deep fried in flour batter and is eaten with chips. Traditionally, the fish and chips are covered with salt and malt vinegar and, using your fingers, eaten straight out of the newspaper which they were wrapped in. Now-a-days small wooden forks are provided and the fish and chips are wrapped in more hygienic paper.
In the north of England, fish and chips is often served with "mushy peas" (mashed processed peas).
Fish and Chips is traditionally England's national food.
"If you ever want to loose weight FAST go to England. There is NOTHING there worth eating at all.Some very foul , tasteless food is the norm."
What a crock! I've been to England several times, and have always managed to eat very well. Perhaps you went to the wrong places.
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