Chef Ramsay’s tips for dining out in The F Word

‘Veep’, ‘Valley’ renewed by HBO

LOS ANGELES, May 28, (Agencies): Avoid the specials, be suspicious of outlandish boasts and prepare to haggle for your beverage: three golden rules for a heightened dining experience, as newly revealed by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

The Michelin-starred cook offered AFP his tricks for getting the most out of a restaurant visit as he inspected the Los Angeles set of his latest show, a US version of his hit British series “The F Word,” which debuts on Fox on Wednesday.

“Specials are there to disappear throughout the evening. When they list 10 ‘specials,’ that’s not special,” Ramsay told AFP at a soundstage in Hollywood that is being transformed into a functional restaurant capable of serving 100 diners.

The 50-year-old British presenter recommends booking a table for at least three if you are planning a romantic meal for two, as your small lie will improve your chances of being able to spread out and avoid “getting stuck in the corner like a doorstop.”

One of only four chefs in Britain to maintain three Michelin stars and the owner of a string of restaurants around the world, Ramsay knows better than most how to read between the lines on a menu, and says there are some dishes he wouldn’t order anywhere.

“When they turn around and tell me it is the ‘famous red lasagne,’ who made it famous?” he demands.

“They start coming up with these terminologies, saying ‘and the wicked, famous, best in the country profiteroles.’ Who said that? Who named that?”

Ramsay, who trained under Albert Roux, Marco Pierre White and Guy Savoy, is famous for his foul-mouthed rants on numerous hit TV shows including “Hell’s Kitchen,” and his acerbic comments have landed him in hot water on several occasions.

The Scot’s notoriously filthy language embarrassed British network Channel 4 after an unedited episode of his “Hotel Hell” aired by mistake on a midday in April. Ramsay used the “F word” six times in 15 minutes before the episode was pulled.

His word-for-word reaction to the controversy — at least to AFP — is unprintable, but the gist is that he thinks the channel should be taking the heat for what was, in the end, a scheduling error.

Ramsay’s broader thoughts on his reputation for profanity are also unsuitable for daytime consumption but, in summary, he senses a hypocrisy in the way the press singles him out for his “industrial language.”

He is no different, he believes, from other professionals — “from journalists to basketball players to footballers to school teachers” — who use the lingua franca of the shop floor.

Ramsay’s profanity never comes across as anything less than authentic, yet one can’t help but suspect that he enjoys his brand.

A filthy-mouthed chef fronting a show called “The F Word” — notwithstanding Fox’s insistence that the initial stands for “food,” “family” and “fun” — knows exactly what it is that makes him a bankable asset for billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s lucrative cable TV division.

The series is going out live in primetime and Ramsay’s only protection from censure will be a five-second delay and a producer hovering over the “bleep” button. But the defiant chef says he won’t pull punches or “wrap anything in cotton wool.”

HBO has renewed comedy series “Veep” and “Silicon Valley.” The new seasons for both shows will premiere in 2018.

Currently in its fourth season, “Silicon Valley” has been nominated for 21 Primetime Emmy Awards and won two. The series, about a startup set in the cradle of the tech industry, stars Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Josh Brener, Amanda Crew, Matt Ross, Jimmy O. Yang and Suzanne Cryer. Created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky, the series is executive produced by Judge, Alec Berg, Michael Rotenberg, and Tom Lassally.

In its sixth season, “Veep” is the winner of 12 Primetime Emmy Awards. The series stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the former vice president and president of the United States. Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Kevin Dunn, Gary Cole, and Sam Richardson also star.

NBC has delayed its plan produce “Bye Bye Birdie” toplined by Jennifer Lopez as live musical until next year.

The tuner had been set to air as NBC’s holiday musical event this year. The decision to push it a year was driven by Lopez’s overflowing schedule, which includes two series for NBC, “World of Dance” and the drama “Shades of Blue.”

The postponement of “Birdie” means NBC will not stage a musical event this holiday season. Earlier this month, NBC unveiled plans for a “Superstar Live” event to air on Easter Sunday next year. That project will be shepherded by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the pair behind all of NBC’s live musical events to date. Given the high cost of the one-night-only live events, it was unlikely that NBC could field “Superstar” just a few months after staging “Birdie,” had the show stayed on its original date, and also deliver a holiday musical for 2018.

NBC emphasized that it remains committed to producing “Bye Bye Birdie” but network execs didn’t want to be in a position of having to rush rehearsals and production around Lopez’s schedule. She’s serving as a judge and exec producer on the reality series “World of Dance,” which premieres May 30. “Shades of Blue” will begin production on its third season this summer. The multihyphenate is also committed to her concert residency at Planet Hollywood in Vegas that runs through early June and resumes in September and October. Furthermore, Lopez is juggling several movie projects in various stages of development.

“Birdie” had lined up Harvey Fierstein to write the teleplay and Jerry Mitchell and Alex Rudzinski as directors. Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions is on board to produce with Sony Pictures TV and Zadan and Meron’s Storyline Entertainment banner. Fierstein was a writer and co-star of NBC’s most recent live tuner, “Hairspray Live!,” which aired in December.

Zadan and Meron are also working on a live staging of Aaron Sorkin’s play “A Few Good Men” for NBC. That project was pushed from its initial target premiere date this year because of difficulties in casting the lead roles and by Sorkin’s film schedule.

NBC kicked off the mania for live TV adaptations of stage shows in December 2013 with its “Sound of Music Live” production that shocked the biz by becoming an event that grabbed nearly 20 million viewers. NBC has made it a holiday-season tradition for the past four years with stagings of tuners “Peter Pan” (2014) “The Wiz” (2015) and most recently, “Hairspray” (2016).