Humble pie is something chef Gordon Ramsay says "I'll be eating for breakfast for the rest of my life" after the "Hell's Kitchen" host apologized for a sexist rant at the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show that led to a very public spat with a journalist.
Ramsay apologized Wednesday for comparing Australian TV newscaster Tracy Grimshaw to a pig. He said he knew he'd gone too far when his mother phoned him in a huff.
"When your mum rings you, and it's a bollocking down the telephone, then of course you start to get the picture," he told Grimshaw's program "A Current Affair."
Chef Gordon Ramsay is in hot water again thanks to his foul mouth.
On Saturday, the "Hell's Kitchen" host compared an Australian TV newscaster to a pig and allegedly insinuated she was a lesbian, according to reports. Ramsay made the comments during a cooking demonstration at the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show, one day after an interview with the journalist, Tracy Grimshaw.
The Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun reported that Ramsay showed the crowd of 3,000 a photograph of a naked woman with "the features of a pig" and compared her to Grimshaw.
YouTube video of the incident shows Ramsay telling the crowd: "Look who I sat next to on the plane at Qantas," as the image of the naked pig woman and a photo of Miss Piggy are shown. "There she is, oh Jesus, I'm not going to tell you her name but it begins with T." He then says, "It's a joke."
But the ensuing firestorm prompted Grimshaw to defend herself Monday. "He says it was a joke. Well not to me or to anyone who cares about me," she said in a televised response. "Truly I wonder how many people would laugh if they were effectively described as 'an old ugly pig.' How is that funny exactly? And worse, it's not even witty."
Another day, another list. Yesterday the good folks at San Pellegrino released their annual World's 50 BestRestaurants, a sort of Rough Guide for gastronomes with fat wallets and abundant frequent flyer miles. Sponsored by the sparkling water company, the list was decided by a panel of 800-plus judges comprised of food writers, critics and chefs from around the world. The judges were big fans of Spain, whose six restaurants on the list included Ferran Adria's El Bulli (coming in at No. 1 for the fourth year in a row). France also got some love with eight restaurants, and the U.S. did pretty well for itself with seven eateries including new-to-the-list Momofuku Ssam Bar at 31 and Alinea, whose Grant Achatz rose 26 places from 2007 to a No. 10 ranking this year.
The big loser was undoubtedly Gordon Ramsay, whose London flagship completely disappeared after ranking at No. 13 last year, and whose ex-friend Marcus Wareing won the Breakthrough Restaurant Award for Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley -- not without taking a swipe at Ramsay himself.
Legendary chef Marco Pierre White was kind enough to share some time with Slashfood earlier this week. Grab a little taste here, and read the complete interview at AOL Food. His new show, The Chopping Block, airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.
The Gordon Ramsay food empire is finally making its way north into Canada! However, while he cites Araxia in Whisler, BC as his favorite restaurant, his first forays into the land of the maple leaf will be on the other side of the country in Toronto.
Toronto Life reports that in a talk with George Stroumboulopoulos on The Hour, Ramsay admitted that he will definitely open a restaurant in the city, and has already scouted a couple sites. Unsurprisingly, Ramsay wants to focus on "humble" local and seasonal ingredients, which is certainly in line with Toronto epicurian mentality. This will, however, be months in the making (a year or so) as Ramsay wants "to do it properly" and invest directly.
What it also means is that the T-Dot will see a lot of Ramsay in the future -- he even pointed out how convenient it will be to pop up from New York.
I miss good plane food. I remember once taking an American Airlines flight from NY to California and not only having the smoothest ride to ever be experienced, but also the best food. I can't recall what it was now, but I remember the feeling -- being completely surprised and happy at the state of the food served to me, and how very delicious it was.
These days, it's even harder to get good plane food with all the cutbacks, but as Serious Eats points out, lucky Heathrow visitors have the option of eating "Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food." Beyond eating a selection of gourmet dishes at the restaurant in Terminal 5, you can get "picnics" to take with you on the plane. We're talking delicious meals in small-serving amounts that aren't only well-packaged in an insulated picnic bag, but also big on flavor.
The picnic courses cost £11.95 each, but that's not bad for something that saves you from those wretchedly awful meals, and does so with style. Now if only every airport offered this ... holiday travel would be so much easier!
Foul Language Watch: These guys go all-out Gordon Ramsay, so that includes the F-bomb.
When you're used to cooking, even more complex recipes can seem simple. Cooking common sense isn't really an innate human feature -- it's something we learn through experience and exposure. I knew that to be true, but I never realized the extent until I watched Kamikaze Cookery: Normal Person vs ... Gordon Ramsay.
Two British self-proclaimed geeks try to make Gordon Ramsay's Brussels Sprout Souffle. While the accents might be slick, the techniques ... aren't. We're talking super-hard "paste," backlash against the word "ramekin," and more newbie cooking hi-jinx.
If you're an old pro, this should be amusing, and if you're new to the world of cookery, you just might learn something!
The above video, which I originally posted back in October, is a perfect top to your tasty brine. See Gordon Ramsay's whole recipe printed out at FoodTVBlog. Adding one truffle to the mix won't break the bank, and it will give you lots of foodie cred.
But for roasting, I still love Alton Brown's technique, with a few adjustments*:
A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees.
Take the brined, rinsed, dried, and truffled turkey and place it in the roasting pan, on a solid layer of whole small onions and quartered carrots. (This will give you insanely delicious roasted vegetables as a side.)
Loosely pack stuffing into the cavity, and create a mound in front (you must have stuffing crispies!).
Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.
Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.
What do you think would happen if Regis and Kelly put Gordon Ramsay, Paula Deen, Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali, and Emeril Lagasse in the same room? If you guessed a flurry of BAM!s, f-bombs, butter, and Crocs, you guessed right.
For Halloween this year, Live with Regis and Kelly got cooking with a little help from Guy Fieri (the real one), and you can check it out over at eatmedaily.com. Good ol' Regis is basically Philbin in chef's outfits, not bothering to try an accent to play Ramsay, and saying nothing but "BAM!" for Lagasse. But Kelly -- she steals the show getting accented to play Deen and Lawson, and revelling in butter kebabs on one end, and sultry, chocolate-covered spoons on the other.
Seeing that mess of craziness, methinks I want to throw a chef-themed costume party pot luck. Make a dish from one of their books, and come in costume and character. Anyone in?
For fans of Gordon Ramsay's reality TV shows on Fox, there's some good news. According to Grub Street, Fox has just renewed both Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares for two more seasons. But wait- there's more!
The media empire that is Gordon Ramsay is also going to adapt another of his BBC shows for American audiences. The show is called Man Camp, which will be sort of a boot camp where Gordon will make men more manly at least in part by teaching them to cook. I can not wait to see this.
Fox has also signed Mr. Ramsay to do a live cooking event which will be "cooking for the young, the vibrant and the tenacious." Sign me up!
Yes, proceeds from the sales of Nutrish will indeed go toward funding no-kill shelters and awareness campaigns, and it's not as if she's the first media-centric chef to go to the dogs -- or cats (remember Rocco DiSpirito's Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys?). Still, I'm continually shocked by the branding stretches some of these folks are making.
(Aaaannnd I've just run across Paula Deen's Butt Massage. I know it's likely a handy and delicious mix of herbs, spices and faerie dust, but still. Ew.)
Ah, to be Chef Gordon Ramsay and to have free time to sit around and spout ridiculous nonsense.
His newest attention-getting quote? His Highness thinks that restaurants should be fined for using out-of-season vegetables. Yep, fined.
The money quote: "There should be stringent laws, licensing laws, to make sure produce is only used in season and season only." Now, I'm all for using in-season fruits and veggies - we all know they're more flavorful, more fresh, and usually more decently priced - but stringent laws?
If I want to order summer squash in the dead of winter, or a strawberry tart in October, or pumpkin soup in July, that's my prerogative, dude. Don't take that away from me.
I read a good number of food blogs. Not all of them, of course, as that would make it impossible to do anything else, but most of the important ones. In all of my reading, a lot of people talk about Top chef, but I never really got into it. No, my heart belongs in Hell's Kitchen.
I have only come across one post on Hell's Kitchen this season, and I really don't understand. In my humble opinion, there is simply nothing to dislike. Where else are you going to get this mix of tension, ego, and profanity? Is Top Cheflike this and I've missed it? I don't know. All I know is that there is very little else I find quite as entertaining on television.
I know several people who absolutely hate Gordon Ramsay. I like to think I see through his mean exterior to the cuddly teddy bear underneath (I have met a few European chefs just like that). His outbursts of exasperation are priceless. I mean, who has not wanted to bang their head on the counter at a co worker's incompetence? Yes, I know that his management style wouldn't go over very well in the US, but it makes great TV.
If you're a fan of Hell's Kitchen, let me know what you think. If you're not a fan, let me have it. Can anyone convince me that Top Chef is better? I don't think so, but you can try.
The embeddable video from last night's Top Chef isn't quite available yet, but I thought I'd find some food video content to keep you guys busy while you wait. So here we have episode two of Hell's Kitchen (if you missed the first one, you can find it here), the American version of Gordon Ramsay's show (which bears several similarities to Top Chef) that gives him an opportunity yell and scream at aspiring chefs.
Check back tomorrow for the complete Top Chef episode.
We can change the way we make eggs -- scrambled, poached, fried -- but what about changing the eggs themselves? Mix up your scrambling routine with quail eggs.
Another day, another 
The Gordon Ramsay food empire is finally making its way north into Canada! However, while he cites Araxia in Whisler, BC as his favorite restaurant, his first forays into the land of the maple leaf will be on the other side of the country in Toronto. 
What do you think would happen if Regis and Kelly put Gordon Ramsay, Paula Deen, Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali, and Emeril Lagasse in the same room? If you guessed a flurry of BAM!s, f-bombs, butter, and Crocs, you guessed right.
In response to the unleashing of 
I read a good number of food blogs. Not all of them, of course, as that would make it impossible to do anything else, but most of the important ones. In all of my reading, a lot of people talk about Top chef, but I never really got into it. No, my heart belongs in 
Second Helping of Slashfood - June 19
Competitive-Eating Contest to Pit Humans Against Elephants
The Backyard Boom - The Hungry Bride
