Accusing Gordon Ramsay & Jamie Oliver of being driven by fame instead of cooking

As if Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White needed anyone else's fuel to fire their long running argument, Antonio Carluccio stepped into the fray this week accusing the likes of Ramsay along with Jamie Oliver of being driven by fame instead of cooking.

Carluccio said he was 'disappointed' by the second generation of famous chefs.

In an interview with The Telegraph, he said "Ken Hom, Madhur Jaffrey, myself and Raymond Blanc, we wanted to make people more interested in food. Now it's all about the fame."

"I don't like Gordon Ramsay. I liked him at the beginning, before he learned that he could get attention by constantly saying that word. He learned everything from Marco Pierre White, anyway, who is, of course, a better chef."

He also dismissed Delia Smith as "the most boring person in the world" but said her cooking was lovely.

Carluccio, who in 2005 sold the chain of restaurants that still bear his name, is currently considering opening another venture believing he had been "rediscovered".

Carluccios opened on Chiswick High Road in 2006 almost a year after Marco Pierre White launched Frankie's Italian Bar & Grill with his business partner Frankie Dettori. Gordon Ramsay took over at The Devonshire in October 2007.

March 19, 2009