Anthea Gerrie's Blog
Posted by Anthea Gerrie
It's not often Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef with a conscience who has transformed down and outs into cooks and called for Britain's schoolchildren to be given nutritious meals, is viewed as anything but squeaky-clean.
But an article in last week's Sun newspaper, under the headline "Thug Freed to be Oliver Chef" makes him look just the tiniest bit unsavoury. Especially since the thug in question, one Jason Bennetts, was convicted of a horribly violent crime. The 20-year-old was part of a gang who
kicked a grandfather to death in Truro two years ago - in spite of which a murder charge against him was reduced to "violent disorder".
What really takes the cake is that his sentence was reduced from just 14 months to 13 to enable
him to take up a job at the Newquay branch of Fifteen, where Oliver trains the disaffected to man
a top kitchen. He is due to fetch up there any day now, and Katie Brown, the daughter of victim
John Smyth is not impressed> "It's disgusting," she told the Sun. "I am horrified that one of(the gang) has had his sentenced reduced so he can go and work for Jamie Oliver."
Posted by Anthea Gerrie
Not usually thought of as a softie, Gordon Ramsay has chosen
the magazine put out by Britain’s poshest supermarket for his latest True Confessions.
The tough guy has told the editors of Waitrose Food Illustrated of his anguish over brother Ronnie, a former heroin addict.
“I feel the pain. I feel it big time,” says the star of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, adding: “I don’t think my mum at 60 should still be putting up with it.. Ronnie should be half-way there in life, but he has nothing.”
Like a good elder brother, Gordon has done more than his duty by 37-year-old Ronnie, three years the celeb chef’s junior. He’s paid for rehab and more poignantly, even gave drug money to Ronnie to get him to - and through - their father’s funeral.
The good word, though, is that Ronnie is said to have turned the corner and been drug-free for the past three months. But he may be vulnerable to exploitation, such as is apparently being attempted in Indonesia, were Ronnie texted his big brother that he was being interviewed for a job as a chef.
“It’s just his name they are using,” Gordon is reported to have told a friend,” they will probably have him answering the telephone.” And it’s true Ronnie has no culinary training; he’s a mechanic by trade.
Posted by Anthea Gerrie
He may never have actually wielded a spatula, but Chalky the dog had one of the greatest
fan followings of any star of a celebrity chef show.
Rick Stein's faithful mutt accompanied his master on the high seas - and across Britain - in
series after BBC series featuring the popular seafood cook from Cornwall , first teaching the nation how to cook fish, then going in search of local food heroes - small smokers, growers and other producers - across the nation.
The writing on the wall came when Stein declined to bring Chalky on his recent French Odyssey, a slow barge trip through France celebrating local food - and not just because he didn't have a Pet Passport. Chalky was deemed too old and tired for a long trip, not to mention the chance of him nipping the ankles of the crew.
Chalky, who finally passed away in January 2007, will be particularly mourned in Stein's home town of Padstow, where he was sometimes to be spotted being walked along the Camel estuary.
The town is now affectionately(mostly) known as Padstein, since Rick put it on the map with his
famous Seafood Restaurant and a whole slew of other eateries plus hostelries, and a signature cooking school, deli and cafe.
Posted by Anthea Gerrie
It's a good thing he has a tough hide and a philosophical nature, because British chef Gordon Ramsay is staring his own kitchen nightmare in the face. New York City's food critics have
roundly criticised his latest effort, Gordon Ramsay at the London, the products of whose kitchen Gael Greene writes in New York Magazine "suggest someone hasn't a clue. We are shocked by a leathery lobster raviloi and an unseemly marriage of langoustine and maple-infused chicken," she pouts, while Alan Richman of Bloomberg News really dug his knife in with the comment: "I was instantly reminded of the French international cuisine that British chefs turn out whenever theyply their trade aboard cruise ships."
Ramsay is probably throwing knives himself at the moment, said in the London evening papers
to be "furious" after reading the reviews. But he should take heart that even la Green melted
during a visit that couldn't have been all that disastrous: "The chef's signature feint, a luscious smoky front with white beans, had us sighing," she breathes. What the hell's a feint, anyway?
Those with the money to fund their curiosity can book a table at Gordon Ramsay at the London
on 212.468.8888.