Apparently, Hell’s Kitchen hasn’t been a big ratings success this time round, which must be a bit galling for ITV.
You can surmise that when they realised that uberchef Marco Pierre White had agreed to take on the celeb chef role, they would have been creaming themselves.
Yup, the ‘enfant terrible’ of chefdom agreeing to appear on a reality TV show on ITV. Scarcely believeable. I know I didn’t believe it.
But there has been very little screaming and shouting. He hasn’t spent his time telling the ‘celebs’ that they’re a useless sack of shits, or whatever other insult chefs use. Quite the opposite. In fact, he’s been encouraging and pleasant.
And ironically, for me that’s what’s made the series so compelling. Unlike Gordon Ramsay, who is on TV every other day, MPW has hardly ever been interviewed on TV (in recent years anyway). Consequently, I knew nothing about the way he spoke, or acted.
And all the fireworks (and headlines that produce ratings) that Gordon Ramsay brought to the show are absent. The biggest story has been Jim Davidson’s use of the word ‘shirt-lifters’ to describe gay men. Admittedly not very PC and Brian Dowling had every right to be aghast, but there are far worse terms in use.
And watching MPW cook is beautiful. Every night he creates something that he loves to eat. Dover Sole with mushrooms the other night, which looked divine.
So actually a great programme to watch if you genuinely like food, but terrible if you’re a normal ITV1 viewer.
There’s something very sweet about him, isnt there?
I bet he was a bastard when he was running Harveys, though,
but I love the way that there’s a smile playing on his lips
on the programme these days.