When Ian told me about a “Gordon Ramsay’s Taste of Christmas” event happening at ExCel, my first thought was that it sounded like a direct competitor to the BBC Good Food Show and it was.
We went yesterday with Jodie and Steve and were pleasantly surprised at the entrance as we walked through a “Christmassy” hall with falling artificial snow, putting us right into the festive mood. We had booked tickets to see Gordon Ramsay’s first cooking show of the day. The demonstration hall was like an amphitheatre; it was quite packed out and we got seats in the second row 
The show started with an entertaining bloke who looked a lot like Peter Hellier (but it wasn’t obviously), followed by Mark Sargeant (Head Chef at Claridge’s) and finally Gordon Ramsay showed up energetically in the midst of the crowd. Gordon threw eight inflatable giant “Christmas puddings” at the audience and eight lucky people got to go on stage to sample a parsnip-celery-apple creamy soup, panfried duck breast with caramelised endive and brussel sprouts sprinkled with crushed chestnuts; and a pear and frangipane tart. I really liked the sound of the soup and wanted to try the recipe out. The show ended with some trivia cooking questions.
After the show, we walked around a bit and it became apparently that it really was a Gordon Ramsay show. Half of the restaurants available on the day were his restaurants. There was even a Ramsay-branded pub in the back and of course there were book signings for Gordon Ramsay cookbooks. Eventually the smell of the food available made us all hungry and we managed to get a table to start our sampling…
Clockwise from top left: Pork belly with spiced apple sauce puree; duck with pear chutney and toasted sourdough; red wine braised beef with oyster mushrooms and creamed mash; red snapper with couscous.
Clockwise from top left: Salmon ceviche with chilli, lime and coriander; cuttlefish wrapped in pancetta; hot chocolate fondant; sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce.
In the afternoon, we went to Angela Harnett’s cooking demonstration where she made one of her family favourites, pumpkin ravioli. Afterwards, we wandered around the various stalls until we found a nice spot to rest our tired legs. Ian and Jodie went and bought some drinks for us to sip on while we waited for the next cooking demonstration with Jason Atherton where he cooked panfried quail.
All in all, watching Gordon Ramsay’s cooking show was great but I still prefer the variety of stalls from the Farmers’ market at the BBC Good Food Show.
