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!

Guests at Hell's Kitchen

Tomorrow, Mike and I have been invited to dine at Hell’s Kitchen in London. I have to admit that this is the first time we have ever attended anything like this as neither of us are huge fans of reality TV programmes. In anticipation of our dining experience we have been watching the series unfold and develop and I have to say it is fascinating to see the true personalities of the celebrities emerging as they experience extreme stress and they become progressively exhausted at the challenges that are presented to them.

Marco Pierre-White is an interesting character and showed his true colours, in my opinion, in the way that he compassionately supported Jody a few days ago as this young man struggled with becoming a team player and the discipline required to run a tight and efficient kitchen to deliver a high quality service in a short period of time to an extremely high level. Jody was given the chance to raise his game but in the end it proved too much and Marco had to fire him in the interests of delivering the standard of cuisine expected of him.

Marco, of course, can appear fierce at times but he comes across as just being firm and in control of the situation and I think everybody respects him for that.

It’s interesting to watch Linda Evans, who with her maturity just gets on with everything, tries her best, never moans and just does whatever she’s asked to do. I hope she comes out as the winner at the end of this series.

What I feel is lacking from the show is educational hints or tips from Marco as to how he produces his amazing creations. I would like to feel that each day as I watch I could learn one tip that I could use in my cooking to make it tastier, easier or more exciting, but maybe that is not what this programme is about. Anyway, fingers crossed for an entertaining evening tomorrow and let’s hope here is something low fat that I can choose off the menu.