Lurching

[smokingboot]

So after much stompiness at myself, I settled down to vent my spleen at the footie. Turned out it was a brilliant game. larians can bear witness to my superior powers of prophecy; Only two people believed Liverpool could come back from 3-0 at half time, Raffa Benitez and me.
Having got over one stupid thing, I then did another and thanks to a stupendous combination of lager, honey beer, red wine, whisky and pizza, made myself very ill. You know you're in trouble when you drink cold coffee to settle your stomach.

Read about Gordon Ramsey, 'tricking' a vegetarian into eating meat and laughing about it http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/15/nrams15.xml


I am now desperate to go to one of this nasty character's restaurants with a bag full of roaches. Let's see how the bugger laughs then.

I see the cold stare of chav-cat watching me from beside the shed. He looks like Robbie Coltrane. God, I hope I'm hallucinating.

Comments

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the article, but I was watching the show - he didn't know when giving the vegetarian the pizza that it had meat in it. It was prepared by one of the kitchen staff who described it as a tomato and mozzarella pizza but didn't say that it had a base of parma ham. Yes he laughed about it and took the piss a bit (the vegetarian thought it was the tastiest pizza of the ones he tried) but he didn't deliberately trick anyone into eating meat and the humour was at the level of just taking the piss a bit, it wasn't mean or nasty. It came across more as someone joking their way out of an embarassing situation; although, without a doubt, Ramsay had absolutely no sympathy for the guy or his beliefs.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear another side to this story, but I am still bugged by the lack of care taken. I wonder what would have happened had the volunteer been Moslem or Jewish?

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

I expect he would have been more sincerely apologetic and it wouldn't have been shown on TV - he did absolutely treat it as just an unfortunate, but funny, thing that had happened. I expect he would have had more respect for someone's religious beliefs.

There was nothing he could do before the event, however, the person who created the pizza didn't tell him it had ham in it.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Not knowing what's in the pizza is a pretty poor excuse - all this shows is that one cannot trust the food for which he is ultimately responsible, and that customer satisfaction is pretty far down his list of priorities.

Still, it's reassuring to know that ignorance not malice was the key.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

I remain unconvinced, the chefs at the restaurant are quoted as saying that he knew what was in it and clearly Ramsay knew what was in it in order to identify it to the vegetarian. He clearly thinks that he knows best when it comes to eating food, as witnessed by his "most recent lie".

If you've gone off the cockroach idea then let me have the box ... because I haven't.

[mitchy.livejournal.com]

He was told after the fact. Just remember you don't see everything that goes on, the TV show is highly edited. So there would have been camera downtime when Gordon was told there was meat in the pizza. And then they filmed a scene with him telling the customer that. Who, btw, wasn't a paying customer. He and another lady were volunteers dragged in off the street to taste test 3 pizzas.

If you haven't watched the show, don't believe everything you read.

sorry, had to change this a bit

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Very wise - but there is still no excusing the way he treated the volunteer. It doesn't matter that the guy wasn't paying, it is the principle of courtesy that is so lacking. A person who has sampled one's food goes pale and miserable. One doesn't laugh! What kind of example is this supposed master of his trade setting to others in his industry?

Re: sorry, had to change this a bit

[mitchy.livejournal.com]

He didn't "laugh". See, this is what the newspaper said, right? Well they would, wouldn't they, they want to stir shit. From what I saw of the incident, it was that sort of very embarrassed laughter that one does when you're in a tricky situation that's also faintly amusing. And, let's be honest, if a veggie ate a meat pizza and then said it was the best of the three, you'd be a cross between embarrassed and amused too. Not from lack of respect but because it would be odd.

Re: sorry, had to change this a bit

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Ai! That it should come to this...someone speaks commonsense and I find I like it... you are ruining my fine evil mood you know, and turning me back into a kitten!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Tis the wise words of mitchy and my total lack of actual knowledge (I never saw the programme) that stops me from leaping off to my local pet shop right now. But I'm still twitching...

PS this should sit under binidj's comment, but it won't do as I tell it!

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

It wasn't his restaurant and it wasn't his food. It's a show about him helping people run their restaurants properly and in an attempt to find someone other than the chef who might be able to cook he got everyone working in the place to design and bake a pizza which they then tried out on the passers-by. By the time it was sold to customers I feel pretty sre they'd have known what was in it and if it had been food with his name on it, you can be damn sure he'd have known what went in it.