Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Feed the twitter bugs

IN THE GROOVE Gordon Ramsey

The world’s never been this small. Access has never been this easy. Celebrities have never been this real.

Thanks to Twitter, the food world’s never been more exciting.

Get recipes directly from Martha Stewart, cunningly squeezed into Twitter’s 140 character limit. Like “GUACAMOLE Mix juice 1 lime, 4t crushed garlic, 5 chop scallion, 1C chop cilantro, 1 mince jalapeño + 3 ripe avocado.” Jamie Oliver, can help you figure out why your last pudding failed. Gordon Ramsey’s on hand to give you some refreshingly brash advice. Then there’s Heston Blumenthal, who transforms from celebrated culinary alchemist into a quirky real person on Twitter. He’s famous for food like Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream. However, not all his meals are cutting-edge culinary experiments. “Ever since my TV shows everyone expects me eating hogs heads and sheep brains for lunch. Ha ha… I usually end up with a simple soup and a roll if I am working.”

Most of these celebrity chefs follow each other. Except for Gordon Ramsey, who follows just one person, despite having about 6,400 followers. This person’s Lennie Nash, or Chef Sandwich, a “writer blogging about retraining as a chef.”

Nash explains why Twitter’s so powerful, and addictive. “Just within food blogging there are many spheres — and you are able to find people with your exact outlooks and experiences.” He adds, “It’s also good for getting ‘breaking news’ and rumours on restaurant/cheffing topics.”

Twitter gossip? It’s simply delicious. Like Nash’s story about how Prince Philip phoned Heston Blumenthal to ask for his fish and chips recipe after eating at the Fat Duck. Or Ramsey’s tweet “April head chef at Claridges set the *beep* kitchen on fire, we had to evacuate, Clooney and Pitt stood outside saying *beep* chefs.”Over here celebrity chefs communicate directly with you, making them so much more fallible, and thereby real. Jamie Oliver for instance has endearingly individual spelling. (“Get lost you idiot I’m dislexic and I can’t spell so stick that in your pipe and smoke it!!!”) Blumenthal worries about his waistline. “Going for a suit fitting tomorrow. I hate it. There always seems to be more tape measure required every time.” Ramsey lost his iPhone while “sledging with the kids.”

Nash says the site’s great for capturing and connecting with a specific audience because it is so direct and immediate. “You can just put an idea out there, and it can quickly snowball into a ‘trend’ with everyone able to throw in their ideas rather than just celebrities or pundits. It is much easier to gauge what interests people, rather than just what interests you,” he says. Blumenthal tweets about how he loves reading what other people are doing around the world. “Everyone’s doing and thinking something different.”

So when he tries “a new way of smoking deer with a blueberry smoke and serving with lemon and thyme covered garden peas,” you know first. You also get Ramsey’s inside story on his TV shows. “Taking live cook-along to the U.S., on Fox network, but I’ve been warned to watch my language. No cursing, that’s the deal. *beep*.” Things can only get better. Already Blumenthal’s running a competition on his page. “Doing a Harry Potter themed meal around October time for about 50 people, 10 of which I will choose from twitter (U.K. only).” He’s likely to get flooded with replies, considering how many food nuts there are on the site, judging by the handles: MsMarmitelover, GingerGourmand, ThePorkyDrunk, TheMeadmaker and even LambshankRdmptn!

As for happy endings? Who can resist the story of Gregg Wallace, TV star ingredient-expert, who’s calls himself the “cooking woman’s crumpet.” and goes by Pudding Face on Twitter. Pudding Face made contact with Heidi Brown, who’s 17 years younger, on Twitter. “@Heidipopps missed you, but then you know that. Xxxxxxxxxxxx.”

They’re now married. So what’s a celebrity foodie romance like? “Very romantic evening with my lady. Dinner from Tesco Metro, eaten on a balcony in Crewe overlooking McDonalds. Sun setting on Large fries.” Now, honestly, who needs real ity TV?

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail