[thechat] Recipe: Tom Yam Gai (Thai Hot n' Sour soup)

[Norman Beresford]

Hi Madhu

He's in his 20's.  The mockney bit is that he worked in his dad's pub in
Essex, the truth is that his dad ran one of the first gastropubs in rural
Essex.  Then went and worked in a few kitchens before working in the River
Cafe.  The River Cafe helped revolutionise English culinary culture and was
the subject of a TV series.  A producer spotted Jamie in the background and
decided to make him the star of a cookery programme, The Naked Chef.  That
was a big success, bascially him in a loft/warehouse style apartment cooking
food in a laid back style (lots of handfuls, dipping of fingers, and
utterings of mockneyisms "pukka").  He released a couple of hugely
successful cookery books to tie in with the show.  Became the star of a
series of TV adverts for Sainsburys (which caused the BBC to cancel his
contract), which were probably more responsible for most people's hatred of
him then his TV series were.

He really had his way paved for him by Garry Rhodes, who was the original
'young' cook.  He was responsible for the rebirth of 'British' cookery, ie
lots of traditional recipies (faggots, stews, steamed puddings etc).  He
also had spikey hair, drove a sportscar and cooked with obvious enthusiasm.
And he's generally reckoned to be the best British cook around.

We also have Nigel and Nigella (oh it's incestous).  Nigel (Slater) is a
food writer, who does 'blokeish' cooking.  Lots of sausages, hangover cures,
fry ups and beer.  Nigella (Lawson) is THE domestic goddess.  Daughter of
Nigel Lawson (politician and famous for losing a massive amount of weight),
she's hugely photogenic and cooks a lot of comfort food.  I'm a huge fan of
Nigel stuff, but not of Nigella.

There's also Rick Stein (sea food), Hugh Fernly Wittenstall (dropping out of
the rat race and cooking good farmhouse kitchen stuff), Antonry Worral
Thompson (looking like he should be in Lord Of The Rings as one of the
dwarves), Ainsel Harriot (far too big and bouncy in my opinion) and Gordon
Ramsey (ex-footballer, specialises in shouting, swearing, and threatening
people).  Infact the list goes on and on.

Couple of bits of salicious gossip.  According to PB (www.popbitch.com) when
filming at Deliah's house for her last TV series the film crews weren't
allowed to use her toilet and had to bring a portable one with her.  After
filming was over they came to remove the portaloo and discovered that her
cat, whcih had gone missing, had been crushed to death underneath it.  And
according to some other sources it was actually Nigella who unplugged Marc
Quinn's "Self", rather then her builders who got the blame.

Norman

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thechat-admin at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thechat-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Madhu Menon
> Sent: 08 January 2003 11:09
> To: thechat at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: RE: [thechat] Recipe: Tom Yam Gai (Thai Hot n' Sour soup)
>
>
> At 04:25 PM 08-01-03, Martin Burns wrote:
> >Part of that is that we've seen his TV persona, not his working chef
> >persona. There was too much of a contrast between his native way of
> >speaking and the way it was sanitised for TV.
>
> Could you tell me more about this Oliver bugger? He's about the
> same age as
> I am (I think), but what I want to know is how someone who's not all
> grey-haired from years of cooking (Jacques Pepin, for instance) gets a hit
> TV show, more than one book published, etc.
>
> Maybe I can take some inspiration. I want to be a celebrity TV
> chef too. :)
>
> Regards,
>
> Madhu
>
> <<<   *   >>>
> Madhu Menon
> Internet User Experience Consultant
> e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net   |   Yahoo messenger: cold_logic
>
> Content * Interfaces * Usability * Net Strategy
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