Never mind the bogeyman, Gordon's gonna getcha
Gordon Ramsay finds it fascinating to spend time in primary school classrooms and hear the kids talk about food. "They don't like spinach, they don't like carrots, or tomatoes. And it's nothing to do with the flavour. It's about them becoming cocky, smart, and too confident too early," he said last week.
"Can you imagine the embarrassment of bringing them to Claridge's and they say 'I don't like spinach, I don't like tomatoes, it's under-seasoned, it's undercooked'?" Ramsay thinks kids are far too fussy these days and doesn't tolerate his own kids turning up their noses at what's on offer.
"I threaten to wrap them up in clingfilm and put them in the blast chiller," he said.
Sea and (costs the) Earth Salad
Chef Raymond Blanc created the world's most expensive salad last week. The Florette Sea and Earth Salad - containing a caviar worth £12,000 per kg and once reserved only for Russian tsars - was created by the chef in the kitchens of the Hempel hotel in west London. It contained Almas golden caviar, beluga caviar, creel-caught langoustines, Cornish crab and lobster. Total cost was £635.60, including 50g of the Almas golden caviar at £600. Blanc created the salad to mark National Salad Week, which runs to 13 July. A version of the salad will be on offer at Blanc's Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons at between £35 and £40.
Celebrity chefs jump on brands gravy train
TV presenter Loyd Grossman has the most successful celebrity brand in Britain, according to a new league table. The former Masterchef host's sauces and salad dressings have, erm, grossed £50m since they were launched in 1992.
Celebrity chefs dominate the list. Antony Worrall Thompson is in second place, with his own-brand goods worth an estimated £48m.
Ainsley Harriott, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith also made it into the top 10, compiled by Radio Times.
Hope nobody choked on the designer labels
Top French pastry chef Pierre Herme has launched his 2003 autumn-winter collection of pƒtisserie on a Paris catwalk. The mouthwatering desserts were presented on trays by waistcoat-wearing waiters just as a fashion designer parades his latest creations.
The unique presentation, with a Japanese theme, met with rapturous applause from an audience of restaurant professionals at Paris's Palais de Tokyo exhibition hall.
The pièce de résistance was a dessert named the ph3 - golf ball-sized white chocolate spheres filled with lemon and hazelnut, apricot and pistachio and caramelised apple.
May I suggest the Zappit 1998, Sir?
British holiday-makers at Bulgarian Black Sea resorts can choose from up to six types of mosquito repellent on the menu at many of the local restaurants. So many tourists have complained about the mozzies that all the main restaurants have started listing repellents. One restaurant owner in the South-eastern Bulgarian town of Bourgas said: "People would sit down and seconds later be surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes, and were off again before they could even order. Now the insect repellent is the first thing to be ordered - even before the drinks."