If you watched Gordon's Great Escape (9pm, C4, Monday 23 May) you were in the minority.
Apparently fewer than a million people tuned in to the first episode, which says a lot about the nation's questionable taste in TV (Ramsay was up against the crudely titled Supersize Ambulance - a documentary about, you guessed it, ambulances for fat people) and perhaps more about the sweary one's declining popularity.
I'm not surprised given his perennial boorishness, use of obscene language and puerile humour. But although he lacks the empathy and enthusiasm of the Hairy Bikers, the charm and insight of Anthony Bourdain or the joie de vivre and chemistry of the Two Greedy Italians, there was plenty to enjoy in Ramsay's culinary tour of Malaysia.
Forget beef rendang, it turns out most Malaysians are into fusion food such as the Chinese-style pork dish prepared by the first of many "aunties" featured older women charged with imparting their culinary wisdom to the not always receptive younger generation.
Containing prodigious amounts of smoked garlic, it looked amazing, but not very Malay. Cue a trip with some foodie Hell's Angels-types to try torpedo soup. The clue IS in the name it's made with a certain part of a bull's anatomy and as he prepared it, Ramsay relished the opportunity to vent his fury at the critics. "AA Gill. Michael Winner. Giles Coren. Matthew Norman," he recited gleefully as he chopped the penis up, clearly not thinking ahead to the fact he'd soon be eating it.
Ramsay looked decidedly queasy as he bit into a chunk, which he described as '"muscly, gristly, like an oxtail with a bone inside" (perhaps he should have swallowed!). But he was the one laughing when the saucy "aunty" making the beef rendang handed him more than the food on a plate. She invited him into the garden to show him a plant she referred to as "my clitorial bush".
"Does your husband ever come and pick your clitorial bush?" Ramsay duly sniggered. And you couldn't help but smile too.
He may be a parody of himself these days, but who else on TV would have the balls to say that? In the words of another old ham, Gordon's alive! Even if his ratings aren't.
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Apparently fewer than a million people tuned in to the first episode, which says a lot about the nation's questionable taste in TV (Ramsay was up against the crudely titled Supersize Ambulance - a documentary about, you guessed it, ambulances for fat people) and perhaps more about the sweary one's declining popularity.
I'm not surprised given his perennial boorishness, use of obscene language and puerile humour. But although he lacks the empathy and enthusiasm of the Hairy Bikers, the charm and insight of Anthony Bourdain or the joie de vivre and chemistry of the Two Greedy Italians, there was plenty to enjoy in Ramsay's culinary tour of Malaysia.
Forget beef rendang, it turns out most Malaysians are into fusion food such as the Chinese-style pork dish prepared by the first of many "aunties" featured older women charged with imparting their culinary wisdom to the not always receptive younger generation.
Containing prodigious amounts of smoked garlic, it looked amazing, but not very Malay. Cue a trip with some foodie Hell's Angels-types to try torpedo soup. The clue IS in the name it's made with a certain part of a bull's anatomy and as he prepared it, Ramsay relished the opportunity to vent his fury at the critics. "AA Gill. Michael Winner. Giles Coren. Matthew Norman," he recited gleefully as he chopped the penis up, clearly not thinking ahead to the fact he'd soon be eating it.
Ramsay looked decidedly queasy as he bit into a chunk, which he described as '"muscly, gristly, like an oxtail with a bone inside" (perhaps he should have swallowed!). But he was the one laughing when the saucy "aunty" making the beef rendang handed him more than the food on a plate. She invited him into the garden to show him a plant she referred to as "my clitorial bush".
"Does your husband ever come and pick your clitorial bush?" Ramsay duly sniggered. And you couldn't help but smile too.
He may be a parody of himself these days, but who else on TV would have the balls to say that? In the words of another old ham, Gordon's alive! Even if his ratings aren't.
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