G to the Ordon Ramsay
We recently made friends with Luke Jeftha, who works at Primedia. He is helping us make radio magic happen, we’re going to be running radio adverts from June (listen out for them!). In a brainstorming meeting last week, he threw out that Gordon would be at their offices for a Media conference on Friday 14 May. We contemplated this, then dangled Luke over our balcony railing in the rain until he said we could attend.
We arrived at the Primedia offices in Greenpoint at 7:30 this morning, and were interrogated by a solemn security guard. There are strange stalker-type folk out there, so we appreciated the importance of this. He asked us if we had guns. We said no.
We had tea, met Aiden Thomas (who hosts 567 CapeTalk’s breakfast show), said hi to Luke (who has flu) and then shuffled into the conference room. Primedia are going all out for Football Friday. It’s quite impressive.
After a few delays, Gordon arrived wearing a Bafana soccer jersey. He had us from the get go. People were allowed to ask questions, and our very own Shane Dryden asked Gordon about his favourite kitchen tools. He spoke about how much he was currently enjoying grinding fresh pepper in his chunky Pestle & Mortar. He also said that he loves Microplane‘s, as they make it easy to zest-up salads and other meals and make them more appealing to the eyes and nose. He said this especially helpful when feeding children as ‘kids eat with their eyes‘. Wise.
Throughout the session, Gordon seemed completely at ease, and was very entertaining. He shared personal stories and insights, and admitted that he is ‘probably the worst dinner guest at a party‘. A highlight was his story of falling asleep at a boring event, in a bathroom against a woven basket, and emerging with a cheek that looked like a checker-board.
Some of you might be wondering if he swore like a trooper, and the answer is no. It’s a shame this is often the only thing people mention about him.
We had a tiny gap to speak to him, and mentioned what we do – he seemed quite interested (victorious air-punch). The best part is we get to see him again tomorrow at the GourmetSA Chef in Action event. When asked what could be expected at these live events, he said he was looking forward to cooking a solid three course meal using local fresh-produce and easily accessible ingredients (none of that high-end hard to find stuff).
Finally, when quizzed about South Africa, he was quick to compliment our wines and reckoned the SA Food industry was a force to be reckoned with. We like him. He signed one of our business cards, and we plan to frame it. More on that soon.