LONDON – British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay apologised yesterday for insulting a high-profile female Australian television reporter.
Renowned for foul-mouthed on-screen outbursts, Ramsey sparked the row on Saturday when he showed a food-fair audience a photograph of a nude woman on all fours, with multiple breasts and a pig’s face, and said the image was of Tracy Grimshaw.
Ms Grimshaw, who had interviewed him without incident the night before, described Ramsay as an “arrogant narcissist” and a “bully”, while Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said the cook’s remarks reflected “a new form of low-life”.
In a statement, Ramsay described his comments relating to Ms Grimshaw as “off-the-cuff and in response to heckling from the audience. “His intention was to make a joke and indeed he did raise a big laugh at the time,” the statement read. “However, with hindsight he realises that his comments were inappropriate and offensive to Tracy Grimshaw. Gordon has given a full and frank apology on the Channel 9 News which Tracy has accepted. He has also spoken to Tracy personally.”
Ramsay, star of reality TV programmes such as Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, is no stranger to controversy in Australia.
In 2008 he prompted a flood of complaints and a parliamentary review of broadcasting guidelines following a single episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he used a four-letter expletive more than 80 times in 40 minutes. – (Reuters)