Gordon Ramsay calls a spade a spade and people get all upset

The multi-Michelin-starred chef compared a photograph tweeted to him of medu vada to prison food. Going by the aesthetics of the snap, he wasn't half off. But not everyone saw humour in the humorous

At times, we all love cooking up a storm. Gordon Ramsay likes to do it whenever he can. That's an awful many times. It seems he always has his foot in his mouth - when he should have tasting portions in it. Which is why almost every piece on him begins with the Famous First Words of (or adaptations thereof), "Known as someone who doesn't believe in mincing words." Late British food critic A.A. Gill had once remarked, "Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being"; and journalist Tracy Grimshaw called him (an) "arrogant, narcissist bully". I laughed out loud when Ramsay, sometime back, in a rendering of Ramsay Brothers Horror Show, said, "If one of my daughters' boyfriends turns out to be vegetarian, I swear to God I'd never forgive them." I laughed at the outrageousness of it all: the fact that it's not really his bleddy business who his daughters choose to date.
The vegetarian world, however, chose to be outraged over a completely different point of view: the statement was deemed an "insult" to herbivores the world over. (Celebrity vegetarian and ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney was one of the torchbearers of the charge.) Things got worse when the F-word-loving Ramsay, reportedly, expanded on the V-word theme: "My biggest nightmare would be if the kids ever came up to me and said 'Dad, I'm a vegetarian'. Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them." Of course, he wasn't serious, that's the way he speaks, but, as they say, watch what you say.
Clearly, here's a man who loves stoking fires - and not just in his hell's kitchen.
Despite all this, late last week, I developed a bit of a crush on the enfant terrible of the culinary world. All thanks to a story that unfolded on social media before taking on a life of its own. A gentleman in Mumbai went to a street-food eatery - one that'll not snag very high marks for dining presentation - ordered himself a plate of medu vadas (one of my fave foods - I'm always ordering these savoury doughnuts, with sides of sambhar and coconut chutney, when I'm over at Aryaas all too often), clicked a photo and tweeted it to Ramsay with the line "please rate my medu vada, sambhar and nariyal (coconut) chutney". Now, this gent said "my", but it's obvious from the photo that the medu vadas are not his. It's like me holding a slice of carrot cake from Starbucks, and saying, "I'm loving my carrot cake." It was kind of sweet and all, but if I were to, in a haze-inducing food coma, tweet a photo of my canteen lunch to Marco Pierre White, and ask him to rate it, I wouldn't exactly expect a response. But Ramsay was incredibly gracious: he actually responded to the medu vada tweet, thereby dignifying it in one shot. He replied, "I didn't know you can tweet from prison." I thought it was hilarious, as in ha-ha hilarious. I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
The collective whole of Twitterati was, however, outraged. And as sad as it may be that personal tweets are determining social commentary of the journalistic kind these days, the media was quick to put together a story: that Ramsay was undermining the entire "gastronomic" ethos of a South Asian nation, and is, therefore, a racist. I know these are Trump paranoia-fuelled days, but, NO, he's NOT. While the medu vadas I'm sure were/are lip-smacking, the picture (sorry!) was a little prison-foody (remember, thanks to Instagram, we now eat with our eyes?). If Ramsay had actually tasted the vadas, it may have made sense to ask him to rate the "dish". But he was "eating with his eyes," so what else could he have done other than be quick on the uptake?
Meanwhile, the medu vada tweeter, the man from Mumbai, has been basking in his moment in the sun; Ramsay's response got his profile trending in the world of Twitter. He isn't complaining. As for me, I'm loving the chef's saltiness.
sushmita@khaleejtimes.com
Sushmita is Editor, wknd. She has a penchant for analysing human foibles.
 

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