WHAT’S YOUR POISON?

I don’t know about you but I’m not too keen on the traditional English salad and in the last few days I’ve found another reason to get my quota of vegetables during the Summer months in a more robust Continental fashion.

It seems that Anthony Worrall-Thompson, a chef of some profile and no little repute, decided to offer some seasonal food tips to readers of a healthy living magazine. However, while recommending herbs to add some oomph to an everyday salad he made what could have been – quite literally – a fatal error.

Rather than suggesting a wild herb called fat hen, he ended up praising the virtues of henbane. But this particular plant would do more than leave your tastebuds tingling. It could leave you quite dead!

Worrall-Thompson – who hadn’t taken his own taste tips - was left red-faced but he’s not only the latest big-name cook to come a cropper in the last 12 months. Jamie Oliver was embarrassed after admitting that, despite a campaigning against cruelty to chickens, one of his restaurants had been serving eggs from battery-farmed birds. Foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay’s impressive first-time spearfishing feats in Devon for a Channel Four show were shown to be totally bogus.

Best of all, Gordon Irvine, a Brit who became a celebrity TV chef in the US, had his show cancelled when it emerged that his most impressive bit of cooking had been done to his CV. No, Mr Irvine had never prepared food for the Queen. And Her Majesty had absolutely not given him a castle by way of thanks for his culinary expertise.

One of the golden rules in protecting your reputation is think before opening your mouth…especially if you’re going to put something in it or recommend that others do the same. Chef celebrity used to be measured in Michelin stars and a good write-up courtesy of Egon Ronay. Now, their fame generates TV and book deals, huge contracts and merchandising ranges (come in, Ainsley Harriott!).

However, the bigger the act, the bigger the target they have pinned to their backs by the media. There’s a need to realise that just as they wouldn’t let a dodgy gazpacho anywhere near a customer’s table without giving it a thorough once over, they shouldn’t open their mouths or pen their columns without checking it once, twice and once again…just to make sure. The fact that in the newspaper industry, the process is known as ‘copy-tasting’ should make it even easier to remember.

Crying ‘foul’ after being exposed in print is a bit cheeky from individuals who have built a career by trying to appeal to telly and tabloids alike. After all, chefs – more than anyone – should know that if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!!