Gordon Ramsay Calls For Ban on Unseasonal Food
When Gordon met Gordon, apparently….
Legendary celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay, Britain’s cultural ambassador to the world has called for licensing laws to be introduced banning restaurants from serving out of season produce.
Taking a leaf out of Ireland’s answer to Nelson Mandela, Bono, he has, apparently spoken to the Prime Minister (by default) Gordon Brown on the very matter. The two Gordon’s want to tackle climate change (is that a bandwagon or a pig flying past?) which he intends to do whilst flying between London, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo and the US to visit his numerous restaurants.
“Chefs should be fined for serving out of season food on their menus” said Ramsay, “I don’t want to see asparagus in the middle of December” he added, pasionately. He went on to vent his spleen at Kenyan strawberry farmers who, he said supply British restaurants with their fruits in March. Not exactly cocaine shipments from Colombia but outrageous nethertheless. This didn’t strike a chord with Oxfam’s head of research who said: “the million farmers in East Africa who rely on exporting their goods to scrape a living together would see GR’s assertions as a recipe for disaster. He, like all of us wants to tackle climate change, but it is vital that we ensure that poor people who are already hit hardest by climate change are not made to suffer more”
All of this smacks of ‘kettle calling the pot black’, Gord needs to update his website. If he is so concerned about our carbon footprint why is he serving pigeons from Bresse, France? Fantastic poultry, no question but what’s wrong with English ones? Take a look at the menu for ‘Foxtrot Oscar’ wich he opened in January this year, I did-in January when they launched the menu on the web. Two soups; pea and sweetcorn!
This is nothing more than another publicity stunt to keep him in the media spotlight. It is trendy to talk about ‘growing your own’ and getting back to basics but how many of them really do it? Where’s the passion when there’s a twenty foot vegetable bed full of weeds and the ground is so hard you can’t dig into it, or vandals have destroyed all your hard work-ask any allotment owner.
Reckon Gordon and Jamie will be there digging in the wind and rain? I don’t.
Miles
he’s looking for the ‘next thing’ he’s going to do.
I can’t believe he’s not run out of media steam already - clearly he sees the risk and is trying a new tact.
If it wasn’t for imported and out of season food stuff he would never have got even one of his restaurants started.
If he thinks local and seasonal produce is soooo important then why doesn’t he source his pigeons from Trafalgar Square?
I’ve more than had enough of this blowhard
May 10, 2008 @ 7:05 am
Rod,
I just wonder how many people take him seriously, I can’t stand the hypocrisy. I know chefs who have worked in his restaurants who would find this latest call to arms quite amusing, they know all about working with out of season produce.
Miles
May 10, 2008 @ 7:24 am
Miles,
I am fed up seeing this guy everywhere.
I am sure that he did not get his stars by cooking with local produce only.
In this strange world he is making a lot of money out of being very rude and hypocritical. I don’t think that he has done the recruitment to the profession any good with his offensive behaviour on TV.
Christine
May 10, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
Christine,
Welcome back! It is getting a bit much isn’t it. I wonder how many people actually care about his views on climate change?
It staggers me that he calls other tv ‘chefs’, he’s as bad as all of them.
Miles
May 10, 2008 @ 9:40 pm