Get the F out of my kitchen!

Saturday May 15, 2010

The Good Food and Wine Show came to Cape Town as it normally does every year. However, this year it featured my hero Gordon Ramsay. So you can just imagine how excited I was to go and see him. My friend had booked us tickets and we counted down the days to see him.

We were late in line, and everything seemed a little disorganized at the gate. Standing in a lengthy line we thought that we would miss the start of the show, which was scheduled at 10:30am. It was 10:25am and the line looked impossibly long and moving at an incredibly slow pace.

10:40am we make it through the main gate and run across to the “black theatre” as directed. At the theatre, more confusion as to where to enter. But finally we made it inside and were ushered to our seats. We made it. The MC was still talking and Gordon did not appear yet. Then, he was introduced and out he came, wearing a yellow Bafana Bafana (South Africa soccer team) replica shirt in celebration of the world cup.

He was relaxed and laid back as he is on his TV show, the F word. He also swore a bit, but not as much as he is renowned for. He cooked a 3 course meal in 30min with the aid of another chef. For starters, he cooked a leek and potato soup, a main course of honey chicken with garlic and rosemary baby potatoes and for desert, a very sweet apple tart, not for the health conscious. The chicken in particular looked absolutely divine and is definitely something that I would try.

The show ended up being longer than the 30min and I loved every second of it. When it ended we were ushered out of the theatre, very very slowly and made our way straight into the queue for his book signing.

I realized that I was standing near the very end of the queue, having to walk across the entire theatre to the exit. But I overheard a woman in front saying that it would go fairly quickly as they seemed very organized up front. So I waited. Thankfully, I had my Blackberry and spent the time on Twitter and Facebook uploading my pictures. I stood for about 30 min or so when I finally reached the front. They let 10 people in at a time. I reached the counter and bought my cookbook. Gordon was standing to the far left of the counter and I got some pictures of him which you can see here.

As I held my cookbook, I got even more excited realizing that I was about to meet my hero. The helper ladies all chatted excitedly to me because I was dressed for a later rugby match in my supporter’s replica shirt.  My team was playing a very important match later that evening. The girls were disappointed that they had to work, but said that they were allowed to watch it on the various TVs set around the expo. At this point, I realized that I was the second last person allowed in to get my book signed

As I stepped up with my book, Gordon took a step back and said “look at how cool you are!” I suppose since he was getting to the end of the book signing, he decided to spend a few minutes chatting to his fans. So lucky me had a bit of a conversation with him, beaming from ear to ear. He also signed my name in my book, which as far as I knew, personalized messages were not allowed. I am one lucky girl!

After that very exciting experience for me, I went to the rugby match, and my beloved team won their place in a home semi final. What a day!