GORDON RAMSAY
Berita Utama EKO KURNIAWAN, S.Kom(Diskominfo) 26 Juni 2020 08:03:21 WIB
Following the success of season one, Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, a National Geographic television series featuring the British food genius and his culinary expedition is set to premiere its second season today in Southeast Asia at 9am. In Thailand, the show will air back-to-back episodes every Monday morning, and a primetime repeat at 9pm on the same day.
Known for being raw, energetic and exceptionally charismatic, Ramsay is undoubtedly one of the most famous chefs on the planet. From his days presenting the hit competitive cookery series Hell's Kitchen, today Ramsay is all over TV screens with multiple cooking reality shows under his belt. But Uncharted is the one that is quite different from the rest.
The show follows the multi-Michelin star chef as he travels around the world in search of various gems of traditional cuisine. Ramsay even journeys deep into remote and untouched locations to uncover cuisines that viewers may not yet have heard of.
Along the way, each ingredient he finds and dish he tastes will inspire a new recipe from scratch, created to represent the heart of that culture. In each episode of Uncharted, Ramsay will meet and study each secret recipe and cooking technique from each local master chef by his side.
In season two, we see Ramsay feast and venture his way through seven new regions -- from South Africa, Tasmania, Louisiana, Norway, India, Guyana and Indonesia. Recently, Life had the opportunity to talk with Ramsay while he was in Padang, Indonesia, where he was learning how to master a classic Sumatran dish. He told us all about his experience filming the latest season, his favourite childhood food, and what it's like cooking with Indonesia's own top chef William Wongso.
- Gordon Ramsay is on the road again
- Restaurant city
- Indonesia jails IS-linked couple who tried to assassinate minister
Indonesian chef William Wongso, left, and Gordon Ramsay during the big cook. Photo: Justin Mandel
What has been your highlight working on the show so far?
I'm a student in this show and I think that student essence is about knowledge, but I have to be honest, I'm a crazy student. Three weeks ago I jumped out of a helicopter into shark-infested waters in Durban to swim ashore. The helicopter couldn't land because of the wind conditions, and I'm 300m from the beach. Huge, giant 3m waves and I jump out the helicopter to get to land to meet my guest. I dived in Norway for four giant scallops in -25C frozen waters. And then two weeks ago, I dived in Tasmania among great white sharks for giant crayfish. So, yeah, crazy student.
How much did you enjoy Indonesia's West Sumatra side and its local cuisines?
We've been here like a week now and it's been incredible. I think Indonesian cuisine sometimes gets a little bit lost in translation and it gets sort of swallowed up into that amazing sort of backdrop. But until you come here you don't understand how individually it is. And so understanding there are over 200 variations of rendang [Indonesian spicy meat dish] and how everything's localised. We don't have issues like that in the UK, we have the Lancashire hotpots of the North, but then we don't have 20 versions of it. The nice thing about the essence of food here is in the preservation. You know, locals are buying fresh produce daily and last time I experienced everything exciting as this was when I was in Vietnam. The paste of sambal [chili sauce], and even the soup with the chicken feet for breakfast. Yeah, really beautiful.
What it's like hanging out and cooking with William Wongso?
So I knew I was gonna get my ass kicked by Wongso, I knew that [laughs]. He is 73 years of age, he's been cooking for, you know, six decades, and he knows too many versions of rendang. And so he gave me turmeric leaves this morning, rolled them up, tied them in a bow and told me to put them in my rendang. I said, why? He said, trust me. So two hours later, you know, it made the dish a little bit more fragrant. So, I'm very lucky to become a student under someone like William.
What did you find working in Uncharted that is very special to you?
I think for me, Uncharted was about coming off the glamour side of the tourist attractions and going into the real heartbeat of what the country stands for. Some people think because you have three Michelin stars and 37 restaurants, you can't become a student. Uncharted for me was going back to learning because I got stripped of everything I've got. I got my pants and my top, my sunscreen, and my boots and I go off. So, everything was about something I've always wanted to understand from a different culture. Because growing up with the love of British cuisine, studying in France, I never got this chance to become a student. Uncharted for me was documenting my student relationship with mentors. So, I did the same last week in Tasmania. I did the same with an amazing Zulu chef in South Africa. And then I did the same again in the mountains in Norway in the middle of a reindeer country.
So when you're travelling the world and learning about all these different cultures and also learning about their food. How do you navigate that journey in a way that does the food justice?
Last year, we opened a flagship Asian restaurant and I'm not from Asia. So when you're saying that in every country, you need to be from that country if you want to learn that food, that's total rubbish. I'm not an Indonesian chef, but I'd certainly use beef rendang when I get back to my restaurant in London, without a doubt. Because I know I've been to the heart and the essence, so I think food today is somewhat multicultural and the exchanging of experiences is super important. I went to Kyoto and spent three months with a Japanese family. I'm not a Japanese chef but I understand the Japanese culture and respect the ingredients. So every country we go to, I put myself under pressure to get up to speed. It's not about beating the chef, it's about trying to match that chef. So, that's the important part about Uncharted for me.
Since the show cultivates traditional, very local foods, what was a typical food at your home when you were a child?
My family, we didn't have lots of money. My parents didn't even own their land and so we had a tiny council house, supported by the local society. And so cooking was stews and curries. We had fish on a Friday, roast ham hock on Sundays. And what we didn't eat on Sunday, we would finish on Monday. It started off with the roasted ham hock, and whatever is left from that, my mom would put the ham, knuckles into a pot, fill it with stock, onions, carrots, celery, barley, and do a ham hock soup for Thursday after you finish school. It was very rustic, very charming but I think, at the age of eight, you just loved your mom's cooking. She worked as a cook in a local restaurant. The food that they didn't sell, she brought home. So, we were lucky. It was good food, really good food.