Ramsay Preps Food Off-Site

[RedRum]

I think you missed my point (or I did not convey it properly...). It is not the quality of the ingredients, I am sure the ingredients he uses are top notch, properly prepared, cooked, stored etc.

It is the notion of "cutting corners in the kitchen", used ready-mades whatever the quality is. He bashed Delia and MPW for approving ready-mades, because it takes away of the cooking pleasure, the care that goes into the food. I have heard GR over and over and over and over and over mentioning these in his "preaches".

[PhilD]

I think you missed my point (or I did not convey it properly...). It is not the quality of the ingredients, I am sure the ingredients he uses  are top notch, properly prepared, cooked, stored etc.

It is the notion of "cutting corners in the kitchen", used ready-mades whatever the quality is. He bashed Delia and MPW for approving ready-mades, because it takes away of the cooking pleasure, the care that goes into the food. I have heard GR over and over and over and over and over mentioning these in his "preaches".

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I would say that Tim Haywards comment (up-thread) addresses the difference between pre-prepped and ready made.

As I understand it professional kitchens don't cook to order, instead most dishes are pre-prepped to some extent. The only difference here is that the pre-prep work is carried our in Ramsay's offsite/central kitchen rather than in the service kitchen. Top Michelin starred restaurants are similar: they have a series of kitchens including a prep kitchen which take the raw ingredients and then feed the service kitchen with the pre-prepped components of the final dishes (some of which will be complete in their own right).

This is very different from buying-in ready meals that simply need to be plated and that you (or your staff) had no involvement in the preparation. Ramsay's team take the raw ingredients - he owns the all the kitchens and employs all the staff - and preps then for his pubs. IIRC Delia buys her ready made ingredients from supermarkets, using products that have been manufactured by large commercial food companies in factories, and then assembles them into meals. To me that is a fundamental difference.

[Jon Tseng]

I understand the macarons that Laduree sell in Harrods and Picadilly are made offsite in a kitchen on an industrial estate in Ealing.

How is this any different?

J

[thom]

There seems to be a drip drip drip of people saying that Ramsay is facing a major "story" soon for ages now, but it fails to appear in print.Explain to a simple chef why, if they have the story, they sit on it?

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Excuse me meandering slightly off topic but I was reading Private Eye on the train today and it offered up a nice example of the games tabloids play to help answer Basildog's question (at least in comparison to my initial meandering, fact-less and fluffy answer).

From Private Eye No. 1234:

"A month has passed since Ashley Cole obtained an injunction to stop the Sun publishing a picture of him sitting with a blonde in a nightclub (as footballers tend to do) while his wife was away climbing a mountain for charity. Although the Sun made a front-page hoo-ha about the order at the time there's still no sign of an appeal.

Nor will there be. For, the Eye can reveal, the photo of Cole and the blonde was far too innocent and boring to be worth printing. The Sun decided to wind up Cole with hints of what might be in the picture, in the hope that he would panic and scamper to the high court. This would be a far better story, implying the photo really must be sensational. But would even the clod-hopping Cole be stupid enough to fall for the ruse?

Of course. And, on the night he won his injunction, there was champagne all round at Wapping."

Tricky little buggers aren't they?

Cheers

Thom

[Hearno]

Indeed - my eyes have been well and truly opened during some shift work in London. My news editor in Henley was Daily Mirror for twenty years, so I had heard a lot about the practice of the national tabloids. I wasn't naive.

But what I saw and heard about took me back. Great times though, and not without its virtues.

[Basildog]

Thanks Tom, i kind of understood some of the reasons, but just wondered if there was something particular to Gordon and the press.

[david goodfellow]

Life must be very Waring for Gordon at present,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...s-best-100.html

[Hearno]

re: Article - on the Guardian food blog, in a video interview with Jay Rayner, Wareing says it is a "shame" that Ramsay has dropped off the list and in no way puts the boot in.

Whats going on?

[Hearno]

Apologies - double post

Edited April 22, 2009 by Hearno (log)

[RDB]

re: Article - on the Guardian food blog, in a video interview with Jay Rayner, Wareing says it is a "shame" that Ramsay has dropped off the list and in no way puts the boot in.

Whats going on?

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Hearno I think what Marcus stated on video has a little more cred than something from the Daily Mail, as a journalist you should know that

[olicollett]

re: Article - on the Guardian food blog, in a video interview with Jay Rayner, Wareing says it is a "shame" that Ramsay has dropped off the list and in no way puts the boot in.

Whats going on?

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Hearno I think what Marcus stated on video has a little more cred than something from the Daily Mail, as a journalist you should know that

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In next week's daily mail:

"Gordon Ramsay causes cancer"

[RedRum]

wait a moment... I have bashed Ramsay in this thread, but come on.. wasn't he 13th last year? I find it impossible that the quality of the restaurant dropped more than 90 places with in a year... I suspect it was a mixture of loathing, jealousy and envy for the tons of money he has made...

[Tim Hayward]

re: Article - on the Guardian food blog, in a video interview with Jay Rayner, Wareing says it is a "shame" that Ramsay has dropped off the list and in no way puts the boot in.

Whats going on?

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I really hope this isn't going to shake the foundation of your belief system, Hearno but some papers have been known to make stuff up for a better story.

[Hearno]

Text isn't the best medium for sarcasm, granted. Still, it's sad to see that the Mail isn't the great gospel of truth and morality I had long held it to be...

Edited April 22, 2009 by Hearno (log)

[nikkib]

http://www.spearswms.com/spears-world/salo...-hes-down.thtml heres william sitwells take on it all, sounds rather sensible to me

[CaptainJack]

http://www.spearswms.com/spears-world/salo...-hes-down.thtml  heres william sitwells take on it all, sounds rather sensible to me

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Nice article, shame its not in a major paper so more people could read it. Thanks

[confiseur]

Find this quite an amusing topic...

...ever wonder what those Brake Brothers and 3663 lorries which you see everywhere are full of?

Bit naive...rightly or wrongly..if you think everything you eat which is presented as 'home-made' is actually made on the premises.

[david goodfellow]

Marcus Wareing speaks fondly of his formative years with GR

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_...icle6160525.ece

[PhilD]

Find this quite an amusing topic...

...ever wonder what those Brake Brothers and 3663 lorries which you see everywhere are full of?

Bit naive...rightly or wrongly..if you think everything you eat which is presented as 'home-made' is actually made on the premises.

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I don't understand your point. We all know what the lorries are full off. I believe we all have a fair understanding of the types of restaurant/pub that use them. Thus we understand the nature of the term "home made" in these types of places.

What has it got to do with Ramsay, to my knowledge he doesn't use them?