<Pic credit: Alvinology.com>
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has tried Tian Tian's Hainanese chicken rice and found the chilli 'too spicy'. The Scottish celebrity chef was at the stall earlier today (July 5) to learn how to make the local dish.
The Straits Times reported that crowds gathered at the famous stall from as early as 8am today morning to await the arrival of Ramsay. Excited members of the public itching to get a good shot of the chef shoved each other to get closer to the chef, who shook hands with some of them.
Ramsay, known for his fiery temper and cooking shows such as Hell's Kitchen, The F Word and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, is in town for the Singtel Hawker Heroes challenge on Sunday.
The telco and some food bloggers here had issued him a challenge to cook with the best hawkers in Singapore. The top three competitors were determined by a poll.
On Sunday at Newton food centre, he will have a cook-off with Tian Tian, Jumbo Seafood and 328 Katong Laksa; making chicken rice, chilli crab and laksa. People can judge which versions are better.
Madam Foo said in Mandarin: "I didn't know who he was before he came here. I had heard he was very fierce, but he was very nice to us." After giving a Tian Tian staff member a high five and asking for votes, he left the bustling hawker centre with his plate of chicken rice.
The chef has also appeared in a recent Youtube video of him learning to make rendang in Malaysia.
Ramsay, who has been awarded 15 Michelin stars and has hosted multiple television programmes about cooking and food, was shown who's boss by a Malaysian auntie when he learnt to cook rendang.
In the video found on YouTube, Gordon Ramsay was at a restaurant in Malaysia run by an auntie "with a temper as fiery as a barbeque." Ramsay asks Aini, the owner of the restaurant, to show him how to make rendang.
Aini proceeds to boss him around, prompting Ramsay to say in a voiceover, "I'm not used to getting shoved around like this. I'm beginning to wish I was still sitting outside." Later, when Ramsay tries to figure out how much of a particular ingredient is used, Aini says, "Oh don't be shy Gordon, just pour the damn thing out."
Recently, it was reported that Gordon Ramsay will take on three of Singapore’s top hawkers in a cook-off, putting the spotlight on Singapore’s hawker heritage. The Michelin-starred chef was issued an invitation to the food challenge, Hawker Heroes, by local telco SingTel.