The F Word!

[The Blissful Glutton]

Did anyone see last night's episode where he slaughtered the pigs? I admire what he has is doing even if it can be hard to watch.

[FoodMan]

Did anyone see last night's episode where he slaughtered the pigs?  I admire what he has is doing even if it can be hard to watch.

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yeah...it was rough, he was genuinely hurt. It was a bit tough to watch as well seeing as we also have seen these two very cute creatures every week (almost) since they were wee piglets. On the other hand I bet those pigs will taste great and they sure lived a life any 'factory/Smithfield' pig would envy.

I kept telling my wife through out the whole thing though, why on earth did he give them names? I would not. They are meant to be raised for food...not pets. It just makes it much more difficult knowing you're eating Suzannah's loin rather than a pork loin.

[The Blissful Glutton]

Seeing the pigs hanging post-slaughter with the name tags had me wondering the same thing. I did not feel so bad for being affected after watching his reaction. He was trying to comment on the process being well-choreographed, but it looked like he was about to break down. Notice how the camera panned away from him quite quickly?

[FoodMan]

Seeing the pigs hanging post-slaughter with the name tags had me wondering the same thing. I did not feel so bad for being affected after watching his reaction. He was trying to comment on the process being well-choreographed, but it looked like he was about to break down. Notice how the camera panned away from him quite quickly?

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It was quiet a coincidence too that I had just seen Delicatessen the night before and all I could see was the face of Clapet the butcher wielding his shiny cleaver with the pigs hanging and waiting to be dimembered and divied up .

[The Blissful Glutton]

That movie is a classic--one of my fave directors.

I am just curious what that response is England has been to Gordon's turkeys and pigs.

I remember Jamie Oliver getting serious media backlash when he did a similar thing on one of his shows years ago.

[I_call_the_duck]

I kept telling my wife through out the whole thing though, why on earth did he give them names? I would not. They are meant to be raised for food...not pets. It just makes it much more difficult knowing you're eating Suzannah's loin rather than a pork loin.

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I haven't watched the episode yet, but I have it on my DVR. As for naming pigs, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to name your dinner (I ate Paolina when I was in Italy), as long as you don't develop an emotional attachment to them as Gordon had. He was putting sunblock on their ears so they wouldn't get burnt — which I found absolutely endearing. I didn’t know until the end of the episode I was watching that those little piggies are going to be food, and I'm thinking, uh-oh that isn’t going to end well.

[FoodMan]

I kept telling my wife through out the whole thing though, why on earth did he give them names? I would not. They are meant to be raised for food...not pets. It just makes it much more difficult knowing you're eating Suzannah's loin rather than a pork loin.

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I haven't watched the episode yet, but I have it on my DVR. As for naming pigs, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to name your dinner (I ate Paolina when I was in Italy), as long as you don't develop an emotional attachment to them as Gordon had. He was putting sunblock on their ears so they wouldn't get burnt — which I found absolutely endearing. I didn’t know until the end of the episode I was watching that those little piggies are going to be food, and I'm thinking, uh-oh that isn’t going to end well.

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It's not necessarily 'wrong' to name them...but it makes it much easier to form that emotional attachment at least for me it would.

[I_call_the_duck]

I kept telling my wife through out the whole thing though, why on earth did he give them names? I would not. They are meant to be raised for food...not pets. It just makes it much more difficult knowing you're eating Suzannah's loin rather than a pork loin.

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I haven't watched the episode yet, but I have it on my DVR. As for naming pigs, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to name your dinner (I ate Paolina when I was in Italy), as long as you don't develop an emotional attachment to them as Gordon had. He was putting sunblock on their ears so they wouldn't get burnt — which I found absolutely endearing. I didn’t know until the end of the episode I was watching that those little piggies are going to be food, and I'm thinking, uh-oh that isn’t going to end well.

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It's not necessarily 'wrong' to name them...but it makes it much easier to form that emotional attachment at least for me it would.

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Yes, maybe 'wrong' was not the correct word. But I definitely agree with that. When I named a lobster Pinchy it was really hard to stick him in the pot. (But he was tasty!)

[mrsadm]

I believe Gordon named those animals as a funny swipe against other British personalities. The turkeys all had first names of other chefs; the pigs, Trinny and Susanna, are named after the hosts of "What Not to Wear".

[Kayakado]

I think I mentioned this on another thread on this topic, there were a bunch of episodes of this show on youtube. It seemed like he was always killing stuff, pigs, lobsters, turkeys, etc.

[Claudia Greco]

I think I mentioned this on another thread on this topic, there were a bunch of episodes of this show on youtube.  It seemed like he was always killing stuff, pigs, lobsters, turkeys, etc.

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I noticed those - either that, or Gordon tossing his cookies. BBCAmerica is running scattered episodes (Wednesdays at 12 noon? Fridays? I forget), and a whole block of Kitchen Nightmares tomorrow from 8a-1p. I guess this will just have to hold us over until Hell's Kitchen Season 3 starts in July.

[Corinna Dunne]

Well, the F Word is back.

I missed last week’s, but the focus this series is on lamb.

So after munching through the green, green grass of Gordie’s home, the little flock was despatched to Sarah Beeny’s for a few bites, and will be hitting some posh nosh when they are moved to Beckingham Palace next week. How’s that for a mixed diet? Presumably portion control won’t apply to the animals.

So, when it comes to sourcing locally, it looks like we all got the food miles thing wrong. It seems like these little lambs are going to clock up quite a few miles before they face the inevitable slaughter. Speaking of which, Ramsay found himself overcome with nearly-tears when it came to pulling the trigger on the cutest little deer on his Gordie does hunter gatherer segment. No surprises that he was an expert shot on target practice (you are obviously a highly motivated and driven person noted the completely unscripted, experienced huntsman), but when it came to squeezing the trigger, he knew that you can show geese being force fed, but if you dare shoot Bambi… there’s no going back. Wise man.

And in the kitchen, the cheffin ’n shoutin continues… although this time the brigade were making an ‘excellent tv’ contribution themselves, serving up burnt “mandolins” and some seriously good quotes.

Gordie was back on top with the cooking competition, showing a man who lives in a very big house in the country how saddle of lamb is so much better when it’s not cooked in hay and the diners/tasters sounded a little less grating and annoying than the last time… I think.

So the format is still very much the same, with perhaps a slight softening of the Gordie image… a nice cuddly cardie and quite a few bemused smiles to the camera.

[Simon_S]

the completely unscripted, experienced huntsman

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Love it!

Remind me, is this repeated? One of my colleagues mentioned that they did a taste test of "natural" foie vs force-fed. I didn't see it, and I'm wondering was it in any way sensitively handled. I trust the goose-a-la-gavage won?

Si

[offcentre]

he seems like a bit of a pussy. Can't kill what you eat. Retches at eating a bulls ball. Doesn't sound like a hard-man to me.

[Corinna Dunne]

Remind me, is this repeated? One of my colleagues mentioned that they did a taste test of "natural" foie vs force-fed. I didn't see it, and I'm wondering was it in any way sensitively handled. I trust the goose-a-la-gavage won?

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I'm not sure if there are repeats at the moment. And yes... our hero, blindfolded by Janet Street Porter, proved the "superiority of his palate" by immediately identifying le gavage... so much creamier in the mouth; the Spanish acorn and orange fed livers had a "rougher" texture. No surprises.

Was the foie gras segment handled sensitively? Listening to JSP was far crueler than watching guzzling geese expand their purpose built gullets to gorge on corn.

[naebody]

I've only caught bits of the current series, as Gordon's tinted lenses are getting too Omen to engender a restful night's sleep. However, does anyone else get the impression that the diners are finally wise to the gameshow bit: ie. they can decide not to pay, with none of the expected reprecussions or awkwardness.

The amount of satisfied customers appears to have dropped sharply from previous series. I can see only three possible explanations for this: the quality has dropped off (why would it?); the contrived setup has negated an English reticence to gripe; or the restaurant is now attracting freeloaders.

Edited May 30, 2007 by naebody (log)

[Matthew Grant]

Are people still watching this crap?

[Corinna Dunne]

Yes... I think Ramsay has found an exciting new angle in food.

Forget provenance when it comes to sourcing your lamb.

If you want to be achingly now, you need lambs with a back story. And Beckingham Palace is hopefully going to deliver handsomely next week. Max Clifford has probably approached the lambs already.

[fisherman]

Are people still watching this crap?

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3.55 million watched last weeks show, which I'm guessing is more people than watch you at work

[Matthew Grant]

Considering he's "not a tv chef" that's quite an impressive amount. I'll take a punt that most of those viewers eat out about once a month down the local Indian or Chinese

[le petit boucher]

i had a telephone call from the f-word last week! they wanted a pig for gordon to carry around, within the hour! we didn't have anything that size but hey, would have been a giggle

[Stephen_K]

A starter of black pudding and a fried egg on a hash brown?! Surely this is breakfast?? Ramsey has to be taking the proverbial, serving this up in a restaurant and trying to pass it off as good cooking, I'd get better in my local caff..........Escalope of veal is not exactly pushing culinary boundries either.......

[Corinna Dunne]

A starter of black pudding and a fried egg on a hash brown?! Surely this is breakfast??

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Yes… certainly not one of Ramsay’s most exciting starters, and it didn’t work well on his menu either. The escalope was a nice dish, I thought. Not rocket science… but look at who he had in the kitchen. I still don’t get the point of having civilians “cook” for customers. If the point is that it’s difficult, eh, I think we all know that by now. At least he’s not yelling at them as if they were aspiring chefs, which is an improvement. He just seems exasperated and bewildered… a bit like the viewers.

Interesting to note that Ramsay has switched to the assumptive close on his mission to get people back in the kitchen and his new catch-cry is: of course you have enough time to cook. And he proceeded to show a team of builders how easy it is to rustle up a one-pot beef stew using a stove on site. As he generously presented them with an electric stove, you could sense immediately that there was going to be a major change in their eating habits and that Stanley knives would take on a whole new meaning for this team of inspired men. Probably best if they begin with the starter of black pudding and eggs.

And the shootin ‘n cookin slot featured Mini Me in training to be the new Jack Bauer. Yes, he’s a perfect shot, and cute too. A chip off the old block, mused proud Daddy, who skilfully whipped the breasts off the rooks and cooked up a great looking lunch.

The sheep clocked up their food miles, electric gates were opened, the un-posh welcoming committee appeared, and no, there were no celebs in the house, but Posh talked on the phone from Madrid about children getting lost in the long grass.

Gripping.

Next week... a problem with one of the sheep. Oh, the suspense.

[Pat Churchill]

I believe Gordon named those animals as a funny swipe against other British personalities.  The turkeys all had first names of other chefs; the pigs, Trinny and Susanna, are named after the hosts of "What Not to Wear".

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I think he had a lot of fun naming them - specially when some turned out to be of the opposite sex from their names.

I remember going to a fellow journo's family farm for his 21st many years ago. All the turkeys, ducks, pigs and pet lambs were called "Christmas Dinner".

I love pictures of newborn lambs and daffodils but I don't associate them with the body parts that end up as Sunday roast. Guess I'll never be a vegetarian...

My farming uncle used to slaughter a sheep for home use and give us kids the liver, kidneys, sweetbreads, tongue etc to take back up to the farmhouse while he butchered the rest. Never worried me. I saw meat, not dead animal.

[jeffreys1]

Has anyone heard if or when season 3 of the F Word will air on BBC America?