Cooking Ramsay’s Books
"BEHIND every great man there is said to be a great woman," observes Hello!.
This is, of course, correct, and many is the great man who has left his great wife behind the moment fame and fortune have tapped him on the shoulder and shown him upstairs for a good time.
So here is Tana Ramsay, wife of "culinary Olympian" Gordon Ramsay. She is still with her man. And she is not so much behind him as standing to his left. In another picture she stands alone.
And that is appropriate because Tana has set out to prove that Gordon is not the only cook at chez Ramsay. She has produced a cookbook all of her very own called Tana Ramsay’s Family Kitchen. The book aims to teach chidlren how to cook and eat.
And do not doubt that this is a valid book. Gordon might pen books of his own and front all manner of TV cookery shows, but budding Ramsays tuning in might learn less how to make a sticky toffee pudding than they will to make a f*cking sticky toffee pudding.
Tana is necessay. She knows children, having four of her own, and this in spite of fertility problems on both sides ("polycystic ovaries and a low sperm count"). "Small wonder that Tana then set out to bring up her brood on really healthy food," notes Hello!.
And she has the tools to do it. Tana and Gordon’s London home has not one but two kitchens. The main kitchen boasts a "bespoke, state-of-the art cooker the size of a small, stainless steel country", or Surrey.
Not that she uses the cooker. Tana says her book is about feeding the children healthy food, "often with things straight out of the cupboard or fridge". This sounds less a cookbook than a supermarket brochure.
Perhaps this is why we never actually see Tana do any cooking. Indeed, we don’t even see her open a cupboard, plunge a cup of soup into the microwave nor nip to the supermarket for a packet of mince. We see Tana relaxing. She knows what she knows. It works for her.
And very soon it will be time for dinner…
Posted: 7th, December 2006 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
