Top 10s 4Food's top 10 TV moments

Date Published:

03/10/2008

4Food looks back over a year of Channel 4 food programmes and creams off the best bits

Gordon does battle with a granny in Kitchen Nightmares USA So this is how Kitchen Nightmares works: Gordon visits a failing restaurant, identifies why it's going wrong and uses his skills and business acumen to turn it around. So when customers complain after the makeover Gordon's pride is rankled. "Madam, unfortunately you're talking out of your rear," says Gordon and as a parting shot, he calls her an old bag. Some people can dish it out…

More aggro from the States. It was like a kitchen based David and Goliath when Sebastian, the pint-sized pizza pusher fronted up to Ramsay. Only this time, David lost. Sebastian thought he was going to make his pizzas a worldwide brand. "My ability is endless," crowed the compact cook. Gordon and several hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt suggested otherwise.

Doing sterling work for the Labour party's PR, patronising Tory Boy Brian, got his fellow Come Dine With Me hosts rubbed up the wrong way from the start. When guests got to musing what they'd do with the prize money, Brian cut them right down to size: "To be honest, if I wanted to spend £1000, I'd just go and do it," he bragged. Brilliant then, to see him using the kitchen floor as a work surface and spraying whipped cream over tinned orange segments for dessert. High society Brian? Dream on.

Getting an invite to a posh dinner party with Jamie Oliver as host should be a gourmet delight. Even the bizarre presentation of a salver of fluffy chicks couldn't curb Jamie's evening-dress decked guests' ear-to-ear grin. The look of horror on their face when the chicks they'd hand sorted were gassed in front of them was one of the most powerful moments of January's Big Food Fight season and had shoppers across the UK reaching for free range.

Jamie's egg exposée continued to turn stomachs with the presentation of the catering trade's most freakish invention. Holding it aloft like a flaccid, gelatinous wand, Jamie demonstrated how much processing goes into turning an egg from one of nature's simplest foods to a commercial catering ingredient for the benefit of easy slicing. Egg mayo for lunch anyone?

Lawks-a-mercy - this spring we discovered River Cottage didn't have an asparagus patch! At least that was Hugh's excuse for getting down in the dirt with fellow River Cottager, Catherine. Quite how successful the crop will be is anyone's guess as Hugh seemed more interested in feeding the seductive spears to his faithful aide. "Oh no I've had an accident! A delicious accident," called Hugh stuffing one into his own mouth. Easy tiger.

River Cottage Spring saw a group of gardening newbies set up and run their own farm in inner city Bristol complete with rescued hens and pampered pigs. Charmed by one of the pigs, farmer Claire took a crash course in show-pigging and led celebrity sow, Blossom, to the local country fair. Despite Claire's best efforts, Blossom refused to play ball. Or trot in a straight line. Or stand for the judges. Happily, no-one left the fair empty handed and the headstrong Blossom walked off with rosettes for 'most out of control' and 'grumpiest pig'.

Janet's a lady with a lot to say so when it came to promoting the virtues of British veal, she went all out and agreed to raise her own veal calves. She might be used to cutting the crap in a battle of words, but when it's in her back-yard barn, the experience was a lot more trying. Even Janet's fiercest detractors couldn't fail but be melted by the sight of the sharp-tongued hack, up to the ankles in cow-dung singing Elton John ballads to two calves.

Think Mr Darcy emerging from the lake, white shirt clinging to his torso, steely determination in his eyes. Then add a big gun. Tommi Miers' recipes might have been the driving force behind Wild Gourmets and A Cook's Tour of Spain but the tasty dish we wanted a piece of was hunky hunter-gatherer, Guy. Delicious.

Was it cooking? Was it panto? It was hard to tell when jungle-bungler, Biggins, descended on the F Word kitchen. Most of the series' celebrity families made a decent go of cooking for the F Word diners but the Biggins brigade was a shambles. More worrying than the salt drenched spatzle and exploding blenders was Christopher's see-saw mood swings - from girlish-giggles to ranting hissy-fits. Is that steam coming out of Gordon's ears? No it's a pan fire.

Catch up with the latest Channel 4 Food shows

Back to top