Ramsay food fines idea gets a roasting (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Ramsay food fines idea gets a roasting

7:57am Tuesday 13th May 2008 in

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A leading Bradford restaurant owner has hit out at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for suggesting that restaurants serving out of season fruit and vegetables should be fined.

The star chef says the move would help tackle global warming by limiting the amount of produce being flown across the world to the UK.

But Peter Bashir, owner of Zouk tea room and grill and Kebabeesh restaurants in Bradford says the idea would not achieve its aims.

He said: "Our restaurants are green as we recycle everything we can including cooking oil that goes for biofuel. But I think Gordon Ramsay's suggestion of fines is just silly.

"Much of the out-of-season produce we use in this country is grown by poor farmers in areas such as east Africa who are only just scraping a living. If we stopped importing it then they would suffer.

"These farmers are growing in natural sunny climates and not using glass houses to force their produce like we have to do here, which is not exactly green. Whilst there is the carbon footprint of flying in the produce, I believe we would be doing far more damage by banning imports."

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