Chris Moyles sets fire to the kitchen. Photograph: Channel 4
In tonight's Big Food Fight Finale (try saying that with a wine gum in your mouth) Gordon Ramsay invites the entire nation to 'cookalong' a three course meal for four people with him, live, over the course of 60 minutes. It's another 'first' for the ubiquitous Ramsay as not even Britain's first celebrity chef Marguerite Patten thought of hosting a cookery programme and inviting TV viewers to cook along at the same time. No pressure, then.
On the menu is pan-roasted scallops with tomato and herb salsa, followed by steak and chips, polished off with gloopy chocolate mousse. Luckily there's no chicken involved. Chris Moyles, Alan Carr, Max Beesley and Mica Paris will be wielding their whisks with Ramsay, in what Channel Four hopes will be a spectacular grand finale to its heavily-publicised food fortnight.
The list of ingredients appears daunting but needless to say the supermarkets have stocked up to avoid disappointment.
First off was Asda, crowing that the total bill would be cheaper at its check-outs than any of the others. Then Waitrose hit back, boasting that the 'Gordon Ramsay' effect had hit its stores well ahead of the programme, as thousands of extraordinarily well-organised shoppers (but not this contributor) put their lives on hold and stocked up with frozen scallops.
Astonishingly Waitrose's frozen scallop sales have soared by 600% in the past fortnight. Ramsay has welcomed the scallop sales explosion and said a lot of people did not buy scallops because they felt intimidated by them. Duh! How can you be intimidated by a bit of seafood which is a doddle to cook as well as healthy? It's not quite the same as being intimidated by a live lobster in a tank, or, say, a large, craggy, swearing Scottish ex-footballer.
Also hitting back, and this time at big boy Gordon himself, are fishermen incensed by his comments that we should be buying hand-dived scallops if we can get them. The salty-handed sons of toil say he doesn't know what he's talking about and that he's promoting unsustainable practices. With luck we'll be treated to one of Gordon's famously sensitive polite rejoinders later tonight.
So, as an unprecedented wave of mollusc mania grips the nation Anna Pickard will be blogging the cookalong live over at Organ Grinder, and sharing the results of her efforts here on Monday. Join in and tell us how you got on.
Was your meal an unmitigated disaster, or did you scale dizzy new culinary heights? Have Waz and Lenny inspired you to film it? Would you welcome regular 'cookalongs' and the warm, fuzzy feeling that Gordon Ramsay is actually swearing at you in your own home, or are you a normal human being with a life and an imagination? Did you go down to the pub for a pint and a pickled egg instead? Let us know on Monday!
