The Plonker Club

Gordon ramsay appeared once again on Conan O’Brien on August 12 to perform their now standard cooking demonstration. No viewing restrictions on this great clip which runs for almost ten minutes!

On the menu, this night was baked alaska, Gordon Ramsay’s thoughts on Los Angeles traffic and former Hell’s Kitchen contestant Chef Joseph not to mention lots of laughs!

Enjoy

Chief Plonker
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite
www.theplonkerclub.com

Despite his controversial interview on the same show last year, Gordon Ramsay has again appeared on Australia’s Today show upon arriving Down Under for a month of public appearances and charity events.

In an interview that ran almost 10 minutes (and uncharacteristically featured no swearing!), Gordon immediately launched into light-hearted attack on host Karl Stefanovic – stating that he was happy to hear Karl NOT slurring his words. This was in reference to a controversial appearance the host made the night after the Logie Awards show, where many believed that he appeared on the show intoxicated. Gordon carried this theme through the show, asking Karl to modify an desert recipe for poached pear replacing the red wine for water. Gordon also had been kept in the loop by someone about a previous cooking demonstration on air that went askew, and also took the female hosts to task on it!

Without the swearing, Gordon’s mischievous sense of humour still rang true, making numerous underhanded sexual references, all of which would have passed by the censors, who no doubt had their fingers on the ‘bleeper’ ready to edit out any choice language! He also took his usual digs at overweight chefs (now that he isn’t one) and Jamie Oliver, as usual, copped it.

The star of Hell’s Kitchen USA and UK also spoke about his fitness regime and how is preparing for his first triathlon – on the back of completing his tenth London marathon. He says this level of activity is necessary because he “eats like a horse” (although I’m sure the quality of food is considerably better!).

Gordon Ramsay is in Australia, as previously mentioned at the Plonker Club for the Good Food and Wine Festivals in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as other appearances at charity events in Queensland and Perth. He said that he will be demonstrating a three course meal of cod chowder, baked salmon poached pear with fragrant lemongrass mascarpone.

Gordon also said that his wife Tana would be joining him on this tour, as she also had cooking demonstrations and booking signings – as well as a quiet holiday in Queensland. She may struggle though, as Gordon relayed the story of her breaking her wrist rollerblading with their four children in recent days.

Gordon spoke about his new passion for surfing, relaying a story where his wife and children had stood up on their boards within 15 minutes of first attempting it. The superstar Hell’s Kitchen Chef said that “The new fitness regime is surfing, it is addictive and it is fun”.

In the interview Gordon Ramsay also discussed the effect of the global recession on his business and in people’s eating habits in general, commenting that it has now well and truly established that the customer is once again king! Kitchen Nightmares fans will no doubt be familiar with his mantra of fresh, rustic and local and Gordon once again suggested that this is one of the solutions to the economic crisis for restaurants, along with being inventive and not always insisting on the most expensive produce and cuts of meat,

Gordon was surprisingly asked how him and his family has handled their public scrutiny over the past year, as some people had indicated in previous interviews that such questions were off limits. Gordon said that being hounded 24/7 had brought his family closer together and that things were fantastic.

The hosts finally subjected Gordon Ramsay to a rapid-fire quiz, asking the chef of his preferences between Meat Pie or Pizza, Marmite of Vegemite, Soccer or Rugby, Sydney or Melbourne, U2 or Coldplay, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, Kylie Minogue or Elle MacPherson and finally Blondes or Brunettes.

Check out the full interview at The Today Show Homepage to see Gordon Ramsay’s answer and how he described Daniel Craig’s downstairs as being like ‘an Asian toddler”.

David Driscoll
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite
www.theplonkerclub.com

I reported a few days ago that several session of Gordon Ramsay at the Good Food and Wine Show were sold out. I now know that this wasn’t the case – but I thought I had it from a good source – the ticket vendors themselves – Ticketek!

Now I have tickets to an earlier show that will be a pain in the ass to get to, because of some kind of stuff up. If you spent anytime online trying to order, with no success you may have had the same problem that I did. There is a section that says something to the effect of enter your promotional code – if you don’t put your customer number in (despiet being logged in) – you won’t be able to proceed!

I also found it annoying that there was no mention on the Tictek website of the Good Food and Wine Show nor Gordon Ramsay, the day before, searches just came up blank!

Anyway, tickets are unlikely to sell out soon for Gordon Ramsay’s cooking demonstrations since the organisers have a new 2 500 seat theatre (I feel sorry for the opther chefs who are trying to fill it!

As the promoters said “Gordon was such a massive hit at last year’s Sydney show, we thought it only fitting that we bring him back to give Sydneysiders another chance to see him and give Melbourne a piece of the pie too,” said James Laing, exhibition director.

If there was another way to get tickets, believe me I would be recommending it! Here’s what you will see at the Sydney and Melbourne Good Food and Win shows – remember everything is included in your tickets price EXCEPT seeing Gordon Ramsay’s cooking demonstration.

The site also says that “Book Signing – Chefs appearing in the Celebrity Theatre will be signing their books in the Book Store located near the Theatre for approximately 30mins after each of their sessions. ” Since the line for Gordon Ramsay last year was over an hourn long – you might want to line up one show before or after the one you plan on attending.

Gordon Ramsay at The Good Food and Wine Show Melbourne

Session Friday 5th Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 12:45pm – 1:15pm
2 Tobie Puttock – The Italian Job 2:00pm – 2:30pm
3 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 3:15pm – 3:45pm
4 MasterChef Australia Live 4:30pm – 5:00pm
5 Gordon Ramsay Live 6:00pm – 6:30pm
6 Gordon Ramsay Live 8:00pm – 8:30pm

Session Saturday 6th June Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 9:30am – 10:00am
2 Tobie Puttock – The Italian Job 10:45am – 11:15am
3 Gordon Ramsay Live 12:00pm – 12:30pm
4 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 1:15pm – 1:45pm
5 MasterChef Australia Live 2:30pm – 3:00pm
6 Gordon Ramsay Live 3:45pm – 4:15pm

Session Sunday 7th June Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 9:30am – 10:00am
2 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 10:45am – 11:15am
3 Gordon Ramsay Live 12:30pm – 1:00pm
4 MasterChef Australia Live 1:45pm – 2:15pm
5 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 3:00pm – 3:30pm
6 Gordon Ramsay Live 4:15pm – 4:45pm

Session Monday 8th June Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 9:30am – 10:00am
2 Tobie Puttock & Matt Moran 10:45am – 11:15am
3 Gordon Ramsay Live 12:30pm – 1:00pm
4 Tobie Puttock – The Italian Job 1:45pm – 2:15pm
5 Gordon Ramsay Live 3:00pm – 3:30pm

Gordon Ramsay at the Good Food and Wine Show Sydney

Session Friday 3rd July Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 9:30am – 10:00am
2 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 10:45am – 11:15am
3 Tobie Puttock – The Italian Job 12:00pm – 12:30pm
4 Gordon Ramsay Live 1:15pm – 1:45pm
5 MasterChef Australia Live 2:30pm – 3:00pm
6 Tobie Puttock – The Italian Job 3:45pm – 4:15pm

Session Friday 3rd July ‘After Dark’ Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 6:00pm – 6:30pm
2 Gordon Ramsay Live 7:15pm – 7:45pm

Session Saturday 4th July Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 9:30am – 10:00am
2 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 10:45am – 11:15am
3 Gordon Ramsay Live 12:30pm – 1:00pm
4 MasterChef Australia Live 1:45pm – 2:15pm
5 Gordon Ramsay Live 3:00pm – 3:30pm
6 Gordon Ramsay Live 4:15pm – 4:45pm

Session Sunday 5th July Times
1 Gordon Ramsay Live 9:30am – 10:00am
2 Tobie Puttock – The Italian Job 10:45am – 11:15am
3 Gordon Ramsay Live 12:30pm – 1:00pm
4 Matt Moran – Sharpen your Knives 1:45pm – 2:15pm
5 Gordon Ramsay Live 3:00pm – 3:30pm

David Driscoll
The Plonker Club

The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite
www.theplonkerclub.com

It seems like we’ve heard from everyone else but the man himself – but not directly. I won’t claim to have any new insight into the situation, just merely collecting all of the little bits of information that are floating around.

It seems the first statements from Gordon, reportedly came during a cooking demonstration and tells us that he still has his trademark sense of humour. Numerous sources have reported (although media were allegedly banned from the event) that during the show Gordon joked a number of times about the situation. Among these lines were;
“What a week I’ve had. My Mum is in here tonight so I’m on my best behaviour, ooh la la. Oh f%$k it. I didn’t do it Mum, I love you.”
“I have been up close and personal with Mrs Smith – Delia. I got in there…. She gave me a book about how to cheat – but I didn’t think anything of it at the time…. I wanted to show her my spotted dick recipe.”
“I have had a mattress arriving this week, everyone thought it was because I had to sleep in the basement. “Mattress, mistress, mattress, what a load of bull$@#*.”

But my personal favourite is “If things go wrong and something slips out like ‘Oh f%$k me’, I don’t mean it literally. It’s because it’s gone wrong,” he joked.

Numerous other stories about apologies, admissions and holiday cancellations have all been from un-named friends (we all need friends like that!!) and haven’t to date been verified.

In the latest exchange, in response to Sarah Symonds exclusive (cha-ching) to the News of the World, the UK Mirror reported that at a cooking show in Birmingham, he said “Come on, if I was really going to cheat it wouldn’t be with a complete slapper.”

In the same, story, the Mirror also reported on the latest weeks episode of Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live (which isn’t on youtube yet!) – Gordon also joked that “Can I start by saying, yes it is true, it is official – I have been shagging Delia.”

He added later: “I was watching TV last night and tuned into a new show on Channel 4 called Gordon Ramsay’s Bedroom Nightmares. “And then I switched it over to E4 – and it was Shag Along With Ramsay.”

It seems the only response has been humour – read into that what you may!

David Driscoll
www.theplonkerclub.com
The Plonker Club
The Unofficial Gordon Ramsay Fansite