He is to cooking what his mother was to singing...
That’s one critic’s verdict on Brooklyn Beckham’s £74,000 show that has crew of 62 to film him making a SANDWICH
HE briefly tried his hand at photography after failing to follow his famous father into football.
Now Brooklyn Beckham has his heart set on becoming a celebrity chef. But so far the son of David and Victoria Beckham seems to be making a hash of it.
His new online cookery series has not been to many’s taste, apparently, even though each eight-minute episode costs a reported £74,000 to make.
One critic likened the 22-year-old’s culinary skills to his mother’s oft-derided vocal abilities in the Spice Girls, telling the New York Post: ‘He is to cooking what Posh was to singing.’
A recent edition saw Brooklyn make his twist on a fish and chip sandwich – fried sea bream, a hash brown and garlic mayonnaise in a bagel.
He said he had ‘enlisted my friend Evan Fox’, founder of Los Angeles diner Yeastie Boys Bagels, and helpfully told
‘Has to be shown really basic things’
viewers: ‘I think with a sandwich you can go so many different ways.’
But his contribution appeared to be limited to spreading the mayo and then assembling ingredients cooked by others. According to the New York Post, the brief online episode, filmed in Los Angeles, required a team of 62 food experts, producers and cameramen, which a senior TV executive said was ‘unheard of’ for anything but a major TV show.
Brooklyn is also said to need ‘cheat sheets’ of expressions to use on screen, with one source saying: ‘Apparently the guy has to be shown really super basic things.’
And a source close to the family claimed ‘everything he does is directed by his parents’.
He launched Cookin’ With Brooklyn in December. It goes out weekly to his 13.1million Instagram followers via Facebook Messenger’s streaming service. One episode saw US chef Nancy Silverton demonstrate a pecan tart, telling him: ‘I think even you can make this.’
Another, in which he had a lesson from Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa, prompted his mother to gush on Instagram, ‘You can cook for me too’ – although last week the figure-conscious designer’s husband revealed she has eaten the same meal, grilled fish and steamed vegetables, every day for 25 years.
And Mrs Beckham would probably not have fancied tucking into one of her son’s earlier online efforts, when he demonstrated the fat and carb-laden ‘Brooklyn burger’ – a quadruple cheeseburger with ketchup, mayo and chopped gherkin relish, accompanied by fries and buttered macaroni. Brooklyn, who is engaged to US actress Nicola Peltz, 27, has also shown off his skills on television.
On NBC’s The Today Show in October he was seen assembling an English breakfast sandwich.
Last week he appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden to prepare steak and chips, leading TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson to accuse him of cashing in on his parents’ fame, adding that her four children have ‘never once relied on me for notoriety or to get them a step up the career ladder’.
If Brooklyn, whose football career ended at 15 when he was dropped by Arsenal, needs help, he could perhaps call in a close family friend – TV chef and leading restaurateur Gordon Ramsay.