When chips are the low fat option.

Well, what a great night we had last night! We were invited to dine in Hell’s Kitchen and to enjoy the world-renowned cuisine of Marco Pierre-White.

Hell’s Kitchen is a working kitchen created in a film studio. But once you step on to the red carpet you suddenly walk from an industrial zone to luxury dining and a red velvet curtained bar with a menu of exotic cocktails. How easy it would be to have 1000 calories before you even had your first mouthful of food.

On our table we were joined by Anthony Worrall-Thompson and his lovely wife Jane, and chef Rosemary Shrager who was a delight.

I chose crab as my starter – a low fat option as it was served with a simple but delicious sauce - while Mike selected seagull’s eggs. The crab was the most delicious I have ever tasted. For the main course Mike chose steak tartare whilst I preferred the lamb. My portion was much too large for me and I would have loved to have bagged the portion of lamb I left for our dog but I didn’t have the nerve. (No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country).

Having watched the creaminess of the potatoes being prepared over the last few nights I’d figured that having chips would be a lower fat option to accompany my lamb, so, much to everyone’s surprise, that’s what I selected. However, the lamb arrived with creamed mash anyway. I didn’t eat it. Our new table friends Anthony and Rosemary informed me that the mash was 50% butter so I guess this was the first time in my life that chips provided the low fat option!

The evening’s conversation covered many topics, not least the merits of the celebrities in the kitchen. Who would have been fired if Bruce Grobbelaar hadn’t decided to leave? Was Niomi just being weak and pathetic when she couldn’t cream the mash?

Only Marco knows who would he would have fired on Tuesday night but as far as the mash is concerned, you can take it from me that Niomi wasn’t being a weakling. She just wouldn’t have had the physical strength to endlessly beat those potatoes. And this is why:

Our muscles are made up of millions of fibres and when we use our muscles to work extra hard, those fibres are pushed to their limit. A gentle task would challenge the fibres just a little but a massive overload of work, such as beating a pile of potatoes, would cause the muscle fibres to become exhausted. Over time, if we continued to challenge our muscles, they would grow bigger and stronger but that would take months. In addition, women naturally have smaller muscles than men so it stands to reason that a woman would physically not have the power or endurance to cope with such a workload, particularly a woman as slight and young as Niomi. It would be like asking a mini to tow a 30 ft caravan.

But Hell’s Kitchen isn’t about physical strength, it’s about team work, character and determination. Last night, 70 guests were served an exquisite meal efficiently. It was the best meal I have ever had the privilege of eating in any restaurant anywhere in the world and for that I take my hat off to the team of celebrities who worked their socks off – and to Marco who, through his leadership and skill, empowered the team to deliver a superb menu. I say ‘well done’ to all of them. You did a great job and I loved it!