LONDON: Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay goes behind the camera for a new series, “Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars,” that shines the spotlight on restaurants working to attain the coveted culinary accolade.
The multi-starred restaurateur and TV personality is an executive producer of the eight-part Apple TV+ series premiering on Friday, which visits eateries in the United States, Britain, Italy, Nordics and Mexico seeking to gain, or retain, stars.
“(It) is a sort of a real reflection on what goes on in these businesses: what’s at stake, what kind of jeopardy is up for grabs and then the emotions,” Ramsay told Reuters.
“This is (an)...unscripted, real version of life in the culinary world and the extent you go to for the badge of honor ... Actors want Oscars, football players want F.A. Cup winners’ medals, chefs want Michelin stars.”
Episodes show host Jesse Burgess meeting chefs as they compose menus, primp up dishes and seek to impress that lone diner who may be a secret Michelin inspector. There is also input from the anonymous Michelin inspectors, voiced by actors.
“We ask them questions and they answer. In reality, it was all ... very secretive so that none of the producers or nobody actually saw the real-life inspectors,” Burgess said.
“They just judge the food on the plate.”
The first Michelin guide was published by the French tire company in 1900, with the restaurant star rating introduced in the 1920s. The annual guides award up to three stars.
Ramsay received his first Michelin star when he was head chef at London restaurant Aubergine. His own Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has held three stars since 2001.
“You become an overnight sensation and then you’ve got the fight and the slug to maintain it ... you need to understand the word delegation, teaching, creating, and most importantly, passing the baton on,” he said.
“I have one foot in the kitchen and one foot in the media world and am I there 16 hours a day? No, of course I’m not. I am there like a conductor and I’ll sign things off, but I want to hear from them ... And so maintaining it is where the real work starts.”
Asked if he still gets nervous when Michelin issues new editions of the guide, Ramsay said:
“I do get nervous ... no one likes losing ... (going) down to even two stars is unique, but ... it’s major headlines if you do. I’m often asked, ‘What would you do if you did lose a star?’ Then, I’d fight and win it back.”
Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Knife Edge’ spotlights culinary world’s chase for Michelin glory
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Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Knife Edge’ spotlights culinary world’s chase for Michelin glory
- “We ask them questions and they answer. In reality, it was all ... very secretive so that none of the producers or nobody actually saw the real-life inspectors,” Burgess said
‘Right to enjoy culture’: Prisoner sues Australian state for ban on Vegemite
- Andre McKechnie, serving a life sentence for murder, takes his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria
MELBOURNE, Australia: A prisoner is challenging an Australian state’s ban on prisoners eating Vegemite, claiming in a court suit that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread that most of the nation revers as an unfairly maligned culinary icon breaches his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.”
Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, according to documents the court registry released to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
While more than 80 percent of Australian households are estimated to have a jar of Vegemite in their pantries, inmates in all 12 prisons in Victoria are going without as the national favorite for smearing thinly across breakfast toast is considered contraband.
McKecknie is suing Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety and the agency that manages the prisons, Corrections Victoria. The case is scheduled for trial next year.
Prisoner argues Vegemite ban breaches Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities
McKechnie is seeking a court declaration that the defendants denied him his right under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.”
The Act guarantees “All persons with a particular cultural, religious, racial or linguistic background” the right to “enjoy their culture, to declare and practice their religion and to use their language.”
He also wants a declaration that the defendants breached the Corrections Act by “failing to provide food adequate to maintain” McKechnie’s “well-being.”
He wants the court to order the decision to ban Vegemite to be “remade in accordance with the law.”
Vegemite has been banned from Victorian prisons since 2006, with Corrections Victoria saying it “interferes with narcotic detection dogs.”
Inmates used to smear packages of illicit drugs with Vegemite in the hope that the odor would distract the dogs from the contraband.
Vegemite also contains yeast, which is banned from Victorian prisons because of its “potential to be used in the production of alcohol,” the contraband list says.
The Australian favorite since 1923 considered an acquired taste
Manufactured in Australia since 1923 as an alternative to Britain’s Marmite, Vegemite was long marketed as a source of vitamin B for growing children.
The spread is beloved by a majority of Australians, but typically considered an acquired taste at best by those who weren’t raised on it.
The last US president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said: “It’s horrible.”
Australian band Men at Work aroused international curiosity about the yeast-based spread when they mentioned a “Vegemite sandwich” in their 1980s hit “Down Under.”
The band’s lead singer Colin Hay once accused American critics of laying Vegemite on too thick, blaming a “more is more” US culture.
It’s a favorite on breakfast toast and in cheese sandwiches, with most fans agreeing it’s best applied sparingly. Australian travelers bemoan Vegemite’s scarcity overseas.
The Australian government intervened in April when Canadian officials temporarily prevented a Toronto-based cafe from selling Vegemite in jars and on toast in a dispute media branded as “Vegemite-gate.” Canadians relented and allowed the product to be sold despite its failure to comply with local regulations dealing with food packaging and vitamin fortification.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety and Corrections Victoria declined to comment on Tuesday. Government agencies generally maintain it is not appropriate to comment on issues that are before the courts.
Queensland prisons also ban Vegemite, but Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, does not. Other Australian jurisdictions have yet to tell AP on Tuesday where they stand on the spread.
Victims of crime brand Vegemite lawsuit frivolous and offensive
Victims of crime advocate and lawyer John Herron said it was a frivolous lawsuit and was offensive to victims’ families.
“As victims, we don’t have any rights. We have limited if any support. It’s always about the perpetrator, and this just reinforces that,” said Herron, whose daughter Courtney Herron, was beaten to death in a Melbourne park in 2019. Her killer was found not guilty of murder by reason of mental impairment.
“It’s not a case of Vegemite or Nutella or whatever it may be. It’s an extra perk that is rubbing our faces in the tragedy that we’ve suffered,” Herron added.
McKechnie is currently held at maximum-security Port Phillip Prison. He was 23 years old when he stabbed to death wealthy Gold Coast property developer Otto Kuhne in Queensland state in 1994.
He was sentenced to life for murder and transferred a decade later from the Queensland to the Victorian prison system.
He wrote last year that he spent eight years out on parole in Victoria before he decided that the system “had done more damage than good” and opted to return to prison.
McKechnie’s lawyers didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
