Sunday Mercury showbiz editor clashed with Gordon Ramsay

Jun 14 2009 Sunday Mercury

WHEN I read about Ramsay’s attack on an Australian television presenter it immediately brought back memories of my own unsavoury encounter with ghastly Gordon.

The caustic chef’s latest outburst, in which he repaid precious air-time on Tracy Grimshaw’s TV show by comparing her to a picture of a nude woman with a pig’s face, is exactly what I’d expect from him.

I was a young reporter working for the Sunday Mercury, when I became an unwitting casualty of Ramsay’s acid tongue.

He was in town promoting his new book Just Desserts when I had the misfortune of being sent to interview him in 2001.

At the time I was still quite shy and had little experience of interviewing celebrities, so I was both excited and nervous to be meeting a celebrity like Gordon.

My editor wanted an interesting new spin for the feature and we came up with the idea of asking local restaurants to tackle Gordon with culinary questions.

One chef at a posh Brum eatery said he didn’t give a stuff what Ramsay had to say about anything, but others were more enthusiastic.

The final ten questions I gathered varied from, ‘What do you make of the new trend for organic food?’ to requests for advice on assorted aspects of cooking.

Seeing as Birmingham is famed for its curry houses it seemed fitting to feature a question from one of the city’s finest – so we called Kababish, in Moseley, acclaimed for its Tandoori and balti cuisine.

Their chef’s question was simple and valid: “When we deliver our takeaway food our naan bread can lose its fresh consistency, is there anything we can do to ensure it continues to taste as good as when it’s served in the restaurant?”

I assumed Gordon would feel honoured that other chefs would seek his expertise (interestingly he went on to earn a fortune doing much same on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares) and certainly when I explained the questions to him he was uncomplaining.

The interview took place at Birmingham’s Burlington Hotel and throughout he responded enthusiastically, answering each question with gusto until we came to the naan bread dilemma when he looked a little flummoxed.

“Hmm, that’s a tricky one,” he ventured. “Maybe they could half cook it in the restaurant and tell the customer to finish heating it when they get it home.”