The F Word episode which I spoke about nearly a month ago finally aired Tuesday night (the same night as the Quiz Night actually) so I guess I can now speak about our experience.

Jenny and I were lucky enough to be seated with a very friendly couple, Fran and Chris. Like us they too were reserves so out of the whole room I think our table was the most genuinely excited and interested to be there. It may be harsh to say but many of those around us looked like posers ..

It was just as well that all four of us got along so well because we were stuck at the filming for nearly six hours! Although forewarned that it may take that long I don’t think anyone of us genuinely believed that it would take six hours to film what was essentially about 15 minutes, maybe 20, for the show. Granted it was amateur chefs in the kitchen and they had to serve 3 x 50 dishes but still. In actuality the reason we were there for so long was that between courses they would come around and survey everyone’s opinion of the food and then film some footage for the show plus give everyone (Gordon and Co) a break.

The celebrity “guests” for the evening were David Gest and Faith Brown. David was true to his big life character and was certainly loud and the centre of attention. I’m not sure it was partly self-serving but it was still nice that he came around and shook all of our hands. Not something I think a lot of the other celebrities on the show do.

I wasn’t at all interested in appearing in an interview for the show and Fran and Jenny were the same way … until they observed that a lot of the other tables were getting a lot of camera attention (interestingly not many of them eventually ended up on the broadcast.) After that the job was on to try and get some screen time. Jenny’s comment on her uncooked potatoes will surely go down in history: “The potatoes were a bit hard. Al dente is nice for vegetables and pasta but not potatoes I think.” Classic.

Oh, our three courses and my opinions below:

Starter		Seared Tuna Nicoise Salad	I could see where Gordon (first name basis of course) was going with the salad but unfortunately I think what I received was the bottom of the bowl as I ended up with an overcooked tuna, and triple the amount of capers, anchovies, olives and dressing as everyone else. As a result I ended up with a fairly unbalanced starter.
Main		Pan Fried Chicken with Asparagus served with Morel Mushroom Sauce	Although disappointed with the unadventurous meat choice I was pleasantly surprised with my chicken and the good clean flavours. It was cooked to perfection and the sauce it was served with was delicious if a little watery. A few more asparagus and potatoes (cooked a bit more) would have been nice also.
Dessert		Cameralised Apples and Pears served with Madelines and Home Made Vanilla Ice-cream	The star of the night, this dessert was superb and would have had us licking our plates if it wasn’t impolite! Normally I find at the end of the dessert that there is never enough ice-cream but that wasn’t a problem tonight. Surprisingly the combination of the madelines and ice-cream were enough to compliment the richness of the sauce.

Overall, I had a very good evening and I’m assuming that Jenny did as well. It was definitely a unique experience and at the end of the day a great opportunity to sample some of Gordon’s food. The only way it could have gone better was if we’d had a chance to speak to the big man himself! Some clips from our episode can be found here.