Sweary chef Gordon Ramsay is just as bossy off camera:
Mr Ramsay said he had already spoken to Prime Minister Gordon Brown about outlawing out-of-season produce.
When winter asparagus is outlawed, only outlaws will have winter asparagus.
He says it would cut carbon emissions as less food would be imported and also lead to improved standards of cooking.
Here’s another idea: stop importing foreign television programs.
The TV chef said it was “fundamentally important” for chefs to provide locally-sourced food.
The same presumably applies to locally-sourced television. Ramsay’s UK-sourced program is shown in Australia, the US, Canada ...
“I don’t want to see asparagus on in the middle of December. I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown.”
Ramsay owns a Ferrari; a curious choice for an apparent anti-globalist.
“There should be stringent laws, licensing laws, to make sure produce is only used in season and season only,” he said.
The Green Team’s final tip is just for you, Gordon.
“If we don’t restrict our movements within this industry of seasonal-produce only, then the whole thing will spiral out of control.”
Strawberries in March. Why, it’s absolute chaos!
UPDATE. Ramsay is a food fraud:
[Gordon Ramsay] fails quite brazenly to practise what he preaches in his own restaurants, which serve food from thousands of miles away.
(end)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By serving what his guests WANT, he OBVIOUSLY believes in the free market. If you watch his shows, which I do regularly, he emphasizes using local ingredients not only for their freshness, but to support the local economies.
His BBC show is pretty damn good too.
America’s “Hell’s Kitchen” is a hoot!
BTW ...
A world-renowned chef, he raises most of his own livestock so his kids know where their food comes from.
I assume he uses only locally-grown spices, never touches citrus fruit, mangos, banannas or pineapples (none of which grow in Britain), etc., etc., etc. Oh, and doesn’t drink, use or serve tea or coffee.
I assume he uses only locally-grown spices, never touches citrus fruit, mangos, banannas or pineapples (none of which grow in Britain), etc., etc., etc. Oh, and doesn’t drink, use or serve tea or coffee.
What a load of whale dreck.
You’ve missed the point entirely.
You ASSume the hit piece was accurate.
I bet you’ve never even seen his shows where he guides local restaurateurs to their own local markets.
Among the man’s restaurants he possesses 12 Michelin Stars.
I wouldn’t believe everything negative I read about successful people.
I’m having some trouble believing that all that this piece asserts about Ramsey.
He is a chef after all and does anyone realize what English cuisine is like like when restricted to native foods? There is a limit to the ways you can prepare mutton and potatoes.
I assume he uses only locally-grown spices, never touches citrus fruit, mangos, banannas or pineapples (none of which grow in Britain), etc., etc., etc. Oh, and doesn’t drink, use or serve tea or coffee.
What a load of whale dreck.
You’ve missed the point entirely.
You ASSume the hit piece was accurate.
I bet you’ve never even seen his shows where he guides local restaurateurs to their own local markets.
Among the man’s restaurants he possesses 12 Michelin Stars.
I wouldn’t believe everything negative I read about successful people.
.
Hey, jerk - I didn’t post the subject. If you have a problem with it’s accuracy, take it up with whoever did.
I use and buy local wherever possible myself. But to make some sort of moral/AGW/liberal stand against having fresh vegetables in off-seasons, or foregoing everything that can’t grow locally (which, as I pointed out, I bet he doesn’t) is effing insane, and I don’t care if he has all the Michelin stars in the known universe.
I’m damned glad myself to be able to buy decent fresh asparagus in December or January. If others don’t want to buy it, fine. But don’t lecture me about it.
Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle shows a family, who for one year, tried and pretty much succeeded in getting by on just locally (Kentucky) grown or slaughtered food. It does make for a challenging way of life, and I notice that they eased up considerably after the year was over, but the marketplace will, as always, rule. When imported food gets sufficiently expensive, more and more people will make a profit growing locally.
I have yet to figure out a way to grow bananas in Massachusetts, though. Mayhbe if the CIA leads a plot to overthrow the lefty government, United Fruit will find a way to do it.
...
I wouldn’t believe everything negative I read about successful people.
First, let me say that the chances of succesful people getting ridiculed just for being successful by Tim Blair (a conservative) or me (a conservative) are pretty slim.
What Blair is ridiculing is not Ramsay’s talent or success, but the chap’s statements, which are but the latest in a long string of utterances and actions that, in my opinion, are a driven by a combination of a manic personality, a keen drive for in-your-face self-promotion, and an astute sense of which political buttons to push for greatest effect (climate change, sustainability, etc.)
I have great admiration for talent, smarts (both the book and street kinds), and a hard work ethic, all of which Ramsay seems to possess in great quantities.
What I don’t have any admiration for, and in fact think SHOULD be ridiculed, is the kind of shoot-from-the-mouth drivel that the chap has a penchance for expressing.
I say all this, mind you, while being largely in agreement with the ole adage “Great men, great faults”.
So, I suppose my personal message to Chef Ramsay would be: “Just shut up and cook, will ya? I’m hungry, and I hear you’re good.”
Thanks for the post, “Dwight”. I got a couple of chuckles out of it. For instance, the conclusion:
“Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously ... The future belongs to the gourmet.”
But this one is a real howler:
“Organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients than their chemical-fed counterparts.”
LOL!
BTW, the author is not a columnist. He is:
... the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City, a 2001 James Beard Award nominee for best new restaurant and a noted neighborhood eatery that continues to celebrate the farms of the Hudson Valley with its menus. In the summer of 2002, Food & Wine Magazine featured Dan as one of the country’s “Best New Chefs.” He has since been featured in The New Yorker and Gourmet Magazine, and included in “The Next Generation” of great chefs in Bon Appé###’s 10th annual restaurant issue.
To expand on his philosophy of cooking with sustainably grown, local ingredients, Dan has been working with such organizations as the Kellogg Foundation, Slow Food USA and Earth Pledge to minimize the political and intellectual rhetoric around agricultural policies and to instead maximize the appreciation of eating good food.
Focusing on the issues of pleasure, taste and regional bounty - and how these imperatives are threatened - Dan helped create the philosophical and practical framework for Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and continues to help guide it in its mission to create a consciousness about the effects of everyday food choices.
A bit more on the aforementioned “howler” and such (highlights and such mine):
The great organic myths: Why organic foods are an indulgence the world can’t afford
They’re not healthier or better for the environment – and they’re packed with pesticides. In an age of climate change and shortages, these foods are an indugence the world can’t afford, argues environmental expert Rob Johnston
The Independent
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Myth one: Organic farming is good for the environment
The study of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for the UK, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, should concern anyone who buys organic. It shows that milk and dairy production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). A litre of organic milk requires 80 per cent more land than conventional milk to produce, has 20 per cent greater global warming potential, releases 60 per cent more nutrients to water sources, and contributes 70 per cent more to acid rain.
...
Myth two: Organic farming is more sustainable
Organic potatoes use less energy in terms of fertiliser production, but need more fossil fuel for ploughing. A hectare of conventionally farmed land produces 2.5 times more potatoes than an organic one.
Heated greenhouse tomatoes in Britain use up to 100 times more energy than those grown in fields in Africa. Organic yield is 75 per cent of conventional tomato crops but takes twice the energy – so the climate consequences of home-grown organic tomatoes exceed those of Kenyan imports.
...
Myth three: Organic farming doesn’t use pesticides
Food scares are always good news for the organic food industry. The Soil Association and other organic farming trade groups say conventional food must be unhealthy because farmers use pesticides. Actually, organic farmers also use pesticides. The difference is that “organic” pesticides are so dangerous that they have been “grandfathered” with current regulations and do not have to pass stringent modern safety tests.
For example, organic farmers can treat fungal diseases with copper solutions. Unlike modern, biodegradable, pesticides copper stays toxic in the soil for ever.
...
Myth four: Pesticide levels in conventional food are dangerous
The proponents of organic food – particularly celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, who have jumped on the organic bandwagon – say there is a “cocktail effect” of pesticides. Some point to an “epidemic of cancer”. In fact, there is no epidemic of cancer. When age-standardised, cancer rates are falling dramatically and have been doing so for 50 years.
If there is a “cocktail effect” it would first show up in farmers, but they have among the lowest cancer rates of any group. Carcinogenic effects of pesticides could show up as stomach cancer, but stomach cancer rates have fallen faster than any other. Sixty years ago, all Britain’s food was organic; we lived only until our early sixties, malnutrition and food poisoning were rife. Now, modern agriculture (including the careful use of well-tested chemicals) makes food cheap and safe and we live into our eighties.
...
Myth five: Organic food is healthier
To quote Hohenheim University: “No clear conclusions about the quality of organic food can be reached using the results of present literature and research results.” What research there is does not support the claims made for organic food.
Large studies in Holland, Denmark and Austria found the food-poisoning bacterium Campylobacter in 100 per cent of organic chicken flocks but only a third of conventional flocks; equal rates of contamination with Salmonella (despite many organic flocks being vaccinated against it); and 72 per cent of organic chickens infected with parasites.
Organic farmers boast that their animals are not routinely treated with antibiotics or (for example) worming medicines. But, as a result, organic animals suffer more diseases. In 2006 an Austrian and Dutch study found that a quarter of organic pigs had pneumonia against 4 per cent of conventionally raised pigs; their piglets died twice as often.
Disease is the major reason why organic animals are only half the weight of conventionally reared animals – so organic farming is not necessarily a boon to animal welfare.
...
Myth six: Organic food contains more nutrients
The Soil Association points to a few small studies that demonstrate slightly higher concentrations of some nutrients in organic produce – flavonoids in organic tomatoes and omega-3 fatty acids in organic milk, for example.
The easiest way to increase the concentration of nutrients in food is to leave it in an airing cupboard for a few days. Dehydrated foods contain much higher concentrations of carbohydrates and nutrients than whole foods. But, just as in humans, dehydration is often a sign of disease.
The study that found higher flavonoid levels in organic tomatoes revealed them to be the result of stress from lack of nitrogen – the plants stopped making flesh and made defensive chemicals (such as flavonoids) instead.
...
Thanks for the post, “Dwight”. I got a couple of chuckles out of it. For instance, the conclusion:
“Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously ... The future belongs to the gourmet.”
But this one is a real howler:
“Organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients than their chemical-fed counterparts.”
__________________
____________________
I agree that both remarks are over the top. To me, the issue is not organic, or non-organic, but freshness and the difference in taste between a tomato grown in one’s own garden and what you can buy in the store, especially the tomatoes that are bred to ship well. The same principle applies to any vegetable or fruit which is bred to “ship well.”
Does it make me a romantic to prefer to have a couple hundred farms close by producing most of the food that I eat compared to a huge farm factories in the Sacramento Valley, shipping their stuff to me cross-country? If so, then I’m a romantic. Although I have never done it, it would probably be good for me to buy more expensive more chemical free meats...and eat smaller portions. Hell, I am not prepared to ban much of anything, short of pesticides whose carcinogenic effect on us is over some particular level, but I am getting to the point where I would pay a few extra bucks to support things grown locally, and with the fuel situation that gap MAY shrink.
While I am on my hobby horse, I may as well point out how much we take our food for granted. When people had to produce most of their own food, I imagine that it was more special to them. Now we can buy pretty much anything we want, anytime we want, and lose the
“sacred” quality of our food. OK, OK, I just went over the top with that line. My only excuse is that I am putting a lot of seeds and transplants into the ground each day and feel that there is something more satisfying, fulfilling, sacred, as in Ceres and Dionysus, than driving the car to the local supermarket.
SOME people know that Gordon Ramsay is nothing in person like his schtick on American television. Get over yourself.
MOST of us know that “organic” means very little.
.
Um, I didn’t address the organic issue. As to the subject, I didn’t comment on the guy’s supposed TV persona, and his qualities as a chef are irrelevant to the topic. I ASSume you know that.
