Chef Hermes

Johnnie Mountain, TV Chefs & Twitter.

Posted by Chef Hermes on March 19, 2013 · 4 Comments 

Yet again there was a bun fight on Twitter this week; it’s an oh too regular occurrence these days & you’ll be glad to hear, I wasn’t involved at all. But those who did participated were: Gizzi Erskine; Sophie Michell; Johnnie Mountain & Rebecca Marshman amongst others. Sophie, Johnnie & Rebecca all filmed a BBC America programme called Chef Race, after that Miss Marshman went to work for Mr Mountain at the English Pig in Westminster. Just to give you a flavour, here is a YouTube clip introducing the UK team.

It’s really hard to work out who started throwing the insults first, whether it was Johnnie Mountain telling Sophie Michell ‘that she needed to lose some weight & couldn’t cook’, or that Miss Michell had emailed Miss Marshman:

….A little bit of advice, you are at the start of your career, being rude and disrespectful to people in the industry will get you nowhere. You’re Twitter page is full of abuse for chefs like Marcus Wareing, who is actually incredibly good at what he does and very much respected. You need to wake up and realise that what seems like fun and games and a good way to be part of JM’s little pig sty could actually, in the long term damage you….

Miss Michell also claimed that she was being:

..trolled and stalked by Johhnie Mountain..

If she really knew what being trolled was, it might have gotten a bit of sympathy; but as Miss Michell clearly doesn’t, it wont.

It really is all playground stuff with handbags at dawn, so why Gizzi Erskine got involved is beyond me. She tweeted:

And I suppose that’s the measure of this, Miss Erskine & Miss Michell are TV cooks; book writers, not chefs, well not in the conventional use of the word. While the whole thing is 6 of one & half a dozen of t’other, Mr Mountain felt compelled write it all down & ask if I’d post it. Having spent 30minutes on the phone with him today & read some of Johnnie’s timeline, there is a sense of regret coupled with frustration over TV cooks & their ilk.

Here is Johnnie Mountain’s post, everything in it are his views, & not necessarily those of anybody connected with ChefHermes.com.

In My Honest Opinion….

After yesterday’s (Monday 18th March) twitter debacle, I felt compelled to put ‘pen to paper’….
For those that really know me, I am sure you understand, for those that don’t, well here goes.
I have a problem with people who profess to be something that they are clearly not, you know what I am talking about, thieves, robbers, muggers of old ladies, bullies and the likes….. and although this sounds a little over the top when I see so-called ‘celebrity chef’s’ informing the nation of cooking tips or techniques that are so wrong, it infuriates me.
I know I only received a famous ‘2’ from Marcus Wareing and therefore in some people’s opinion, who the f*ck am I?
Well I’ll tell you who the f*ck I am, I have worked in the catering business for over 25 years, working for some of the best in the business and certainly some of the worst in the industry, I started building my own restaurants 13 years ago and sure I have had a couple of failures, but at least I tried. Most of my life before this I was a drunk, a really shitty, aggressive, bullying alcoholic!!
After marriage to my beautiful wife Manjri and the birth of our children becoming a truthful person became imperative….why would you bring another human into this world and fill their heads full of shit??
Then the TV world approached me, it wasn’t me running to them and after a number of years and a number of requests I decided to go for it….Borra Garson was at the top of my list as an agent and after she kindly accepted me into her ‘fold’ a couple of opportunities came my way. This is when the problems started, meeting and seeing people on television that had little knowledge and yet they were very popular with the General Public, I thought WTF, or rather Why the F*ck do people still watch them?? Believing the information that these ‘chef’s’ give out really, really hurts. It hurts because it’s not true or accurate and falling back into the realms of being ‘false’
Well if that’s the world we live in, so be it. F*ck television, they didn’t really like me in the first place!!…
So for all you cyclists that ride through red lights, motorcyclists (which I am one!!) that ride down cycle lanes, pedestrians that cross the road without looking, cheats, womaniser’s, abuser’s and all you so-called, wannabe, successful(or not) TV Chef’s……F*CK YOU and Goodnight!!

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