Ramsay's F Word for butchers

- Published: 01 June, 2006

A group of butchers from Birmingham had a brush with fame last week as they made an appearance on Channel 4's The F-Word with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Robert Jones, a director at Walter Smith's butchers - a chain of shops, three of which are Guild of Q retail outlets - said he and his three colleagues thoroughly enjoyed the experience of cooking in front of the cameras.

Joining Robert for the programme, was Nigel Rose, manager of the Lichfield shop, Kevin Langtree, shop manager at Knowle village in Solihull and Lawson Easthope, manager at the Stourbridge shop in Dudley.

The team had to cook up a three-course meal for restaurant-goers and the celebrities on set and scored a total of 112 points out of a possible 150.

The butchers were up against other groups of cooks in the nine-part series and the overall winners will take part in a final cook-off.

Robert said: "I got a phone call from a Channel 4 researcher after she had found us on the Guild of Q website and asked me about the Smithfield Award which we won last year.

"She then asked if I fancied taking part in Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word - to which I said yes, no problem."

Robert said that Easthope felt the sharp edge of Ramsay's tongue more than the others during filming. He added another reason he decided to go on the programme was because he wanted to promote the Guild of Q butchers and put something back into the organisation.

By appearing on the Channel 4 programme he said it also gave him the opportunity to promote the butchery trade to a younger market.