Carleton’s residence cafeteria is defending the quality of its food after receiving a biting response from Gordon Ramsay.
Ramsay is a famous British chef, restauranteur, and television personality. He is known for starring on cooking competition shows such as Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef and MasterChef Junior, but Ramsay is often more known for his foul comments than his professional cooking skills.
The chef is active on Twitter, with people tweeting pictures of food they have cooked at Ramsay, in order to see the criticism that he has for them.
Emma Cahill, a first-year criminology student who lives on residence, recently tweeted to Ramsay concerning food served at residence’s dining hall, The Caf.
On Oct. 9, Cahill tweeted a photo of the cafeteria’s lunch to Ramsay, with her plate consisting of breakfast potatoes and sweet and sour chicken.
“.@GordonRamsay what do you think of the cafeterias second try at thanksgiving dinner?” Cahill’s tweet asked.
“Is it a cafeteria for dogs?” Ramsay’s account responded.
Cahill said in an interview that she and her friends decided to publish the tweet in order to see if they could have their five minutes of fame and get a response from Ramsay.
“We were looking through Gordon Ramsay’s feed, and we realized he tweets a lot of people. We wanted him to notice us, so that’s why we tweeted,” Cahill said.
However, Cahill was quick to defend the quality of food served in the cafeteria. She said that there is nothing wrong with the taste.
“Everything’s good in the cafeteria, I just thought that it would be funny. It was just a joke,” she said. “I didn’t mean any harm at all.”
Ed Kane, the assistant vice-president of University Services, commented on Ramsay’s tweeting style in an email.
“His tweets are usually short and pithy, and often feline, canine or grandparent-based in content. His followers seem to want him to have an overt and negative reaction in line with his brand of sensationalism, which is what happened in this case,” Kane said.
Kane said he firmly believes that Ramsay’s opinion of The Caf’s food is unfounded. According to him, Cahill’s tweet is misleading, since he said the dining hall served its traditional Thanksgiving dinner the night before the meal in the tweet was served.
“Pictures and tweets may not always be the best medium for informed or constructive feedback, nor do they speak to the overall performance of our residence dining hall,” Kane said.
Kane said that Dining Services is always open to feedback. According to him, students’ comments are reviewed and adjustments are made to reflect what the students want.
Cahill posted another tweet on Oct. 11, reading, “yoo I didn’t mean anything bad about the Carleton caf, just not your typical Thanksgiving meal.”
“I want to apologize for any negativity you’ve gotten for this. You all work very hard doing what you do, and all the students are super thankful for it,” Cahill said, addressing The Caf’s staff.
