IAN HYLAND on last night’s telly
Gino, Gordon And Fred: Road Trip ★★★★
Iknow it’s neither big nor clever to bring up a man’s past misfortunes and misdemeanours. But when Gino D’Acampo pulled out a guitar in the back of a mobile home in the South of France, I was hoping Paul Young might be watching, going: “Hang on, is that one of mine?”
I’m sure Gino won’t mind me bringing up his wayward days, where burgling the 80s singer’s house led to a stay at Her Majesty’s pleasure. It’s only banter. And if there’s one thing Gino loves it’s the banter – although being Italian he probably calls it il banto. Fred Sirieix is a big fan of the banter too, although being French he probably calls it le banteur.
The head chef of banter, though, is clearly Gordon Ramsay, although being Gordon he probably calls it the f ***** g banter.
Of course, some people don’t like the banter at all but if there is a place for it, then this mid-life crisis masquerading as a culinary tour of Europe is probably it.
We fellas should lap it up while we can. Now that Mansize tissues have been blown away, I reckon these blokey TV road trips will disappear faster than you can say, “B-b-but there was that one where Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley visited the Champagne region”.
Road Trip is basically Clarkson-era Top Gear meets Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s The Trip meets Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
To make things more competitive, they’ve added a cooking contest, although given Gordon is a worldfamous prize-winning chef, that hardly seems fair on glorified waiter Fred.
As for lowly telly cook Gino, I bet the closest he’ll ever get to an award from Michelin is points on his loyalty card when he buys new tyres for his motor.