Cooking for Putin was my very worst kitchen nightmare
HE has a reputation as a firebrand who is never afraid to forcefully speak his mind.
But Gordon Ramsay has shared details of the most intimidating person he has ever encountered – Vladimir Putin.
The chef said he was terrified he might give the Russian president food poisoning when asked to prepare a meal for him.
The 55-year-old Scot cooked for Putin and then prime minister Tony Blair at a lunch in Downing Street in 2000. But the Hell’s Kitchen star, famed for his foulmouthed outbursts, admitted: ‘I genuinely did s*** myself. I was thinking, “Could you imagine if you food-poisoned these two? Could you imagine the kind of s*** I would get if I took these two down?”
‘It was quite an extraordinary experience. I was standing in between them to say hello and they were asking me about the English asparagus and I’m thinking “Get me the f*** out of here, I’m done”.’
Speaking on the Kelly Clarkson show in the US, Ramsay said he served a menu that included tomato consommé with golden caviar from albino sturgeon, mosaic of chicken and ham knuckle, and roasted sea bass on crushed new potatoes with white asparagus in a red wine sauce.
Ramsay said he donated his fee for the lunch to charity.