Gordon Ramsay strides round the room and barks the instruction: “Taste as you go!”. Which is all well and good in theory, but I’m frying bacon and I’ve been a vegetarian for a decade and a half.
Though, if anyone knows anything about the hot-tempered superstar chef, it’s that you ignore him at your peril.
So, once I’ve shakily mixed the bacon into the creamy pasta, I swallow a whole mouthful.
Abandoning my principles in the face of celebrity isn’t something that fills me with pride, but do you know what does?
Later that afternoon, Gordon, 56, describes my carbonara attempt with two words: “It’s nice.”
Now I wasn’t cooking for one of the world’s best chefs because I have any culinary talent.
In fact, I can barely fry an egg without setting off a fire alarm. Instead, I joined a cohort of journalists put through the wringer to see what it was like to be a contestant on his new TV show, Next Level Chef, which starts next week on ITV.
The series is billed as the “world’s toughest cooking show,” and certainly isn’t for novice cooks like me.
Just ask the man from a rival publication who managed to set his hand on fire while flambéing a steak.
Twelve contestants – home chefs, social media chefs and professionals – battle it out with the help of mentors: restaurateur Nyesha Arrington, superstar chef Paul Ainsworth, and Gordon.
The competition is fierce, and so is the setting which gives the show its name, a 50ft-tall three-storey kitchen. The top level has professional equipment, the second has adequate appliances, and the ground floor is basic with broken kit.
Every week contestants have seconds to grab ingredients and equipment from a moving platform which passes the levels to cook with, and then minutes to create a dish.
“The pandemic has brought out this incredible talent,” explains Gordon, when I sat down with the mentors after he said he liked my food (did I mention?).
“It’s cool to cook now, as opposed to, you know, just for showing-off purposes.”
Although the new show is different in format from his previous programmes including Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, one thing remains: his penchant for swearing profusely.
However, Gordon is quick to dismiss this as part and parcel of his profession.
“Listen, I’m not trying to make amends, but it’s an industry language. No different from politics over the last couple of months, the amount of ‘f****s’ that are coming out of there,” he says. “Journalism, there is a lot of s**t there. So, yeah, it’s an industry language. I don’t focus on the camera. Sometimes the occasional ‘f***’ comes out. But the contestants can go toe-to-toe with me.”
Californian restaurateur Nyesha, 40, who was also a mentor on the US version of the show, agrees with her co-star.
“It is just intensity and passion. We’re working with seconds to strive for perfection. So a lot of it is you’ve already asked politely twice so I’m going to have the chicken or burned and by the third time you say it, ‘f***ing give me the chicken’. That’s the part they remember, not twice that I’ve asked you nicely.”
When the mentors tried our dishes, Paul, 44, and Nyesha were critical but fair, whereas Gordon, ever the entertainer, spat out food and dialled up that swearing.
“Today you saw some s**t going in the direction of our palates and so we have to protect them in a big way,” he says. “You’ve got your brains and beautiful writing. We’ve got our f***ing palates and without them, we are f***d.”
Still, despite his precious palate, the chef explains he isn’t just about eating in fancy restaurants. His Strictly Come Dancing star daughter Tilly, 21, is going to treat him to a free Nando’s.
“Tilly is desperate for a black card from Nando’s and it’s a birthday coming up. She said as soon as she gets a black card she’s taking me to Nando’s,” he says.
But food isn’t just about precision for the star. “Food is emotion,” he says. “On the show, we’ve got a home chef from up north who cooks on a tight budget. She’s got five pounds a week, which has to go across five meals.
"When she doesn’t get it right, it all comes out. It means so much because a) she cares and b) she feels like she’s let someone down.”
Next Level Chef contestants also include a former SAS chef, a model, and a Paralympian competing for the £100,000 prize. They are also fighting it out for a year-long mentorship from the three professionals.
Michelin star chef Paul Ainsworth, who runs the No6 restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, knows the value of this only too well as he was mentored by Gordon.
“I’m living proof. I was 19 when I stepped foot in his kitchen and my first service, Gordon threw me off the service,” he says.
“I had to go downstairs and clean the fridge. But this is where the mentoring comes in.
“Whenever that happened, he always came back downstairs and told me all about his career.
“It’s a hardcore way of learning, but it was an amazing way to learn. This really does change someone’s life, whoever wins this thing.”
- Next Level Chef is on Wednesday, January 11, 9pm, ITV and ITVX.
