Posted on 05/09/2008 10:46:08 AM PDT by John Jorsett
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says British restaurants should be fined if they serve fruit and vegetables which are not in season.
He told the BBC that fruit and vegetables should be locally-sourced and only on menus when in season.
Mr Ramsay said he had already spoken to Prime Minister Gordon Brown about outlawing out-of-season produce.
He says it would cut carbon emissions as less food would be imported and also lead to improved standards of cooking.
'Out of control'
The TV chef said it was "fundamentally important" for chefs to provide locally-sourced food.
"Fruit and veg should be seasonal," he said. "Chefs should be fined if they haven't got ingredients in season on their menu.
"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, whose London restaurants include Petrus, The Savoy Grill and Maze, added that Britain had become a nation of lazy eaters, following trends and fads, rather than substance.
He also said chefs became "lazy" when excited by "frills", and making out-of-season produce illegal would raise "levels of inspiration".
"There should be stringent laws, licensing laws, to make sure produce is only used in season and season only," he said.
"If we don't restrict our movements within this industry of seasonal-produce only, then the whole thing will spiral out of control."
Canned insult
Meanwhile, Terry Jones from the National Farmers Union (NFU) said that, while he agrees with the chef's complaint, legislation would be going too far.
He said: "We've almost got too much legislation in food and farming as things stand.
"Really what we need to see is that passion and that commitment to seasonality being pushed into consumer education and into this commitment on menu transparency."
And the Soil Association's Food for Life Partnership director Emma Noble said the celebrity chef was right to suggest that "seasonal menus are a key step in cutting the environmental impact of our food".
Famous for his bad temper, Ramsay also spoke passionately about another environmental concern - plastic bags - saying they simply "did not make sense".
Speaking to the BBC before the start of the fourth series of his Channel 4 show The F Word, the father-of-four said he plans to get the nation back into the kitchen, cooking healthy, wholesome fare.
He says the obesity problem in the UK could soon rival that of the States, and he blames parents for giving into children and not having the discipline to say no.
He also vented his anger at fellow TV chef Delia Smith, whose latest book, How to Cheat at Cooking, encourages people to mix together ready-made food rather than cook from scratch if they are short of time or on a tight budget.
He said: "I would expect students struggling on £15 a week to survive eating from a can but the nation's favourite, all-time icon reducing us down to using frozen, canned food. It's an insult.
"And it makes our lives, from a chef's point of view, a lot harder. Here we are trying to establish a reputation across the world for this country's food and along comes Delia and tips it out of a can. That hurts."
What little I’ve seen of this ass I’ve disliked. Now I have a new reason.
But I do, Chef. Don't I recall you getting in someone's face about how popular your restaurants are?
What an ass this guy is. I wonder how he acts when he gets a bad review, probably like a petulant child.
Now he’s advocating Food Police? Idiot.
Ramsay always has risotto on the menu. I didn’t realize there was such a thriving rice industry in London.
Hey Ramsey: Get back in the kitchen and make me a sammich, BITCH.
He’s British, everything he prepares is overcooked and underspiced if he is into tradition anyways.
That’s why people are not sticking to their traditional fare, they had a taste of something far better and won’t let some egotistical egg beater get his panties in a twist and try to keep them from it for traditions sake.
I would love to send back a meal at one of his restaurants just to see how he would react to the criticism.
He has a point though, that we are importing various foods from various countries now...creating a wave of trade that didn’t exist before. All of this requires fuel/oil...and we are simply adding to our fuel footprint. Even if we are paying 40 percent more for that out of season product...as part of the fuel requirements...we don’t seem to care. Beneath it all...Gordon has a point.
Oooh, the Vegetable King has spoken. Glad I am not HIS subject. Molon labe (my out-of-season vegetables).
I’ve seen this ass-hat on TV and he is revolting. Every third word that comes out of his mouth is bleeped. I’m not kidding. Now I like him even less (not that I liked him anyway.)
Looking for a rickets rebound?!?
What bothers me in this is that the DBM perceives it as a story about a “celebrity’s” quirks, when in fact it’s a part of a carefully calculated and pernicious effort by the socialist left to politicize food—precisely as Stalin did in the 20s.
And didn’t THAT turn out well!?
Why then does he not also keep consistent with the other menu items? Doesn’t it create any “carbon emissions” to transport scallops, or kobe beef, or Chilean sea bass?
Isn’t this idiot famaliar with the concept of northern and southern hemispheres? Fruit and vegetables are always in season somewhere.
Two words....POTATO FAMINE.
Best way to use up leftovers EVER.
Ramsay is not a Chef, he’s a Kitchen Shock Jock. I watched his program once, never again...the man is a foul mouth fool.
He does have a point. Despite the amount of dislike displayed for the guy, I have to admire his work ethic. He’s one who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps; he’s not afraid to get up early and work very hard. Yes, he’s rough around the edges, but he always cuts to the quick and identifies the problem with those he is trying to save from financial disaster. He’s no fool. And he’s not some upper-crust hoity-toity.
No bananas, olive oil, vanilla, chocolate, oranges, most wines, many fish, pecans, etc... He’s just on the “local food” fad to bring in more “socially-conscious” diners. He doesn’t really mean it or he’d be serving the customers only oats and turnips with their mutton.
If you are referring to the Irish potato famine, you can blame that one on a zealous over-commitment of the Whig government to the principles of lassez-faire free-market economics.
Ironically, if the UK government had been socialist at that time, the effects of the famine wouldn’t have been anywhere near as devastating....
He could use the furrows on his face to plant asparagus.
Farm fish raised in a sewer, shrimp with fluoroquinolone antibiotics...
Too bad the government started paying farmers to turn our food supplies into gas. Kinda hard to buy local when all the farmers do is grow corn, and burn it.
There is a certain kind of person who can’t trust good ideas to take root on their own; they have to impose them under pain of law.
They don’t want to trust that their personal vision can compete in the commons, because they can’t abide the thought that others might disagree with them, and get away with it.
It isn’t so much what you do that bothers people like this, its that you did it without consulting them first. You acted without first getting their permission. There is no point arguing the merits of their case, if their case has merit let them act on it. When the rest of us see it work, if we like the outcome, we’ll probably copy it, adding our own wrinkle into the mix. It won’t matter; just you adding your own wrinkle will upset them just as much as anything, if you do it without permission.
Hey, I've eaten at Ramsay .
Do you mean to suggest that those bananas, guavas & fresh passion fruit on the menu aren't in fact harvested down in the steamy, fecund jungles of tropical Kent?
Quel scandal! I'm truly crestfallen, I tell you!
LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!
Regulating this sort of thing ludicrous but the main concept is fairly sensible.
The wholesale importation of fruits and veggies hasn’t expanded the number of choices, it’s just limited them to a narrow selection of transportable foods.
In 1900, the average local farm just about anywhere in the U.S. had a staggering number of different crops in 3 seasons. We forgotten these foods and wouldn’t know what to do with them if they became available.
We don’t buy foreign fruits or veggies and we grow a lot of our own. We freeze and can. Sure, I know how do things to kale that would make a grown man cry but at least we’re a little bit self-sufficient.
Brits won’t be called “Limeys” anymore — unless global warming brings citrus orchards to the UK.
Groves, I mean.
I’m with Chef Ramsay.
People freely spending money on things they want to buy. What is this world coming to? /watermelon off
Sorry to disagree, but this “local food” idea is absurd on it’s face.
Without imported food there would be no tea or coffee in England, no spices save salt, no citrus.
Are the British really going to sacrifice their tea and coffee on the alter of Global Warming?
But a little goes a long way. The curiosity lasted not much longer than a month.
There was something very odd about the guy.
When I buy fresh produce, I tend to buy stuff that is ‘in season’ in the USA for two reasons:
1. That is when it is the best.
2. That is when it is the cheapest.
I used to break down and buy a peach or melon out of season from time to time, but they always looked better than they tasted.
One word: "FRUIT".
Reminder
This Sunday on C-Span 2:
Everything you said. To heck w/his mouth. I've been known to drop the F bomb on occiassion, so what? Have you seen the idiots on his shows? They're lucky he's not throwing food at them.
The guy gets down in the dirt, cleans kitchens, helps people who really need it because he understands that for many of them their restaurant is their family's livelihood and that people will lose their houses, savings, etc. if the restaurant fails because of some foolishness that can be fixed. He helps young people make cooking careers for themselves. It's not just slinging hash, it's a way of life for some, and a chance to have a clean, successful life for others. So he curses, big deal. Plus, on American tv they bleep a lot of it anyway, so the delicate flowers won't get offended.
btw - I could live without hearing 'risotto' again.
No longer strictly true. Tea is now cultivated in Cornwall.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.