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Gordon Ramsay has been criticised for his 'disrespectful' treatment
of Indian chefs in his latest show. Channel 4 admitted it had
received 116 complaints - more than double the average the network
receives for his other show, The F Word.
The 43-year-old restaurateur described an Indian guru as 'Father Christmas'
and repeatedly used obscenities when speaking to locals, at one stage
saying about his host's 90 year old mother "F*** me. I
thought she was dead.".
The public reacted angrily with complaints to Channel 4 and online
blogs by the hundreds such as "Sending Ramsay to India
should've shown a more tactile and reflective man, humbled by the
great food which was often made in difficult circumstances. Sadly, we
didn't get Gordon's Great Escape, but rather,
Gordon Patronises Brown People."
Well-known TV presenter and prolific cookery book writer Mridula
Baljekar, in a letter to Mood Fod says she reflects the views of many
people on the subject, especially those born in the sub-continent.
" When I watched Gordon's Great
Escape on Channel 4, I thought, 'Oh dear, how can I tell everyone
that this repulsive behaviour is not at all British and how can I
comfort my fellow Indians to whom this man is being so disrespectful,
rude and patronising?' I have never liked Gordon Ramsay and usually
switch channels when he comes on, but as this series was about Indian
food and was shot in India, including the North East where I was
born, I felt I ought to watch. Gordon certainly displayed his
ignorance of Indian cuisine, the ingredients and lack of vocabulary,
as he kept swearing during the entire show. It is clear that he did
not do his homework before embarking on this project.
I am tired of watching shows on Indian
cuisine presented by self-styled 'experts', who know nothing about
the Indian culture and how food is intertwined with social and
cultural habits, and religious beliefs. Just throwing a few spices
into the pan does not mean they have cooked Indian food! It is a vast
subject and even after 20 years, I can say I have only just scratched
the surface. Why let Western chefs cook Indian food on television?
Would they allow an Indian chef to cook Western food? If it is
someone like Rick Stein, who shows immense respect to the countries
he visits and brings out the wonderful in the weird, I would be more
than happy to watch them. TV producers really are out of touch with
what the public want. Optomen(the producers)
should know better than to think that swearing on television is
fashionable, and on the part of Channel 4 it is equally disgraceful
to have aired a show which should have been educating, engaging and
enjoyable, but instead it was disgusting as it was full of swear
words and a vehicle for Ramsay to blow his own trumpet. Ramsay goes
to Nagaland and says about the old lady who was quietly sitting in
the room 'I thought she was dead, f&ldots;k me..' I have never seen
or heard anything more repulsive. Ramsay really is the worst kind of
human being and is a waste of space. The public should no longer be
invited to watch him.
Ramsay's knowledge of Indian restaurants
in Britain is also pathetic. Britain has some of the finest Indian
restaurants in the world and the chefs who run them are highly
skilled and have qualified from the finest catering institutes in
India. For Ramsay to say 'everything in ALL Indian restaurants in
Britain tastes the same because they make just one sauce' is a
statement that showed his ignorance about the cuisine he claimed to
be his favourite. Besides, '90% of the Indian restaurants in Britain
are Bangladeshi's' is also untrue. He should definitely have got his
facts right before embarking on such a project.
Is British television ever going to
change? Will they ever learn to take that all-important plunge in
introducing people who know more about Indian cuisine than the so
called celebrity chefs?"
During one episode, the great man watched a woman attempt to break
the world record for bhut jalokia eating chillies and rubbing them
into her eyes. Ramsay called her 'mad' but made no comment on the
dangers these particular chillies represent. On the same day in
Germany eight teenagers needed hospital treatment after drinking
chilli sauce more than 200 times hotter than normal for a dare. The
boys, aged 13 and 14, drank the sauce in school.and complained of
feeling sick, and eight were taken to a hospital. They were kept in
overnight for observation. On the Scoville scale, which measures the
hotness of chilli, it measured 535,000 - compared with 2,500 for
normal Tabasco - bhut jalokia is over 1 million!
Ramsay's attitude to chef legend Imtiaz Qureshi and Indian restaurant
food in UK left many viewers stunned but the opinion of Indians is
yet to be determined as the show has not been widely shown there yet.
The owner of the famous Moti Mahal group, Monish Gujral, was unaware
Ramsey had visited and cooked in one of his restaurants and would
have been even unhappier to have heared the irritible chef's comments
about the lack of kitchen facilities.
Unfortunately the Ramsay shows failed to present a balanced view of
India and its cuisines and gave the world an example of the British
abroad we can all do without but you are unlikely to hear Channel 4
complaining. They enjoyed a viewing audience of 2.3 million and could
only say "Gordon is a passionate character and viewers know what
to expect when watching his programmes." |
