Hell's Kitchen: Grant Bovey
Tuesday, 14th April 2009.
Entrepreneur and businessman Grant Bovey says that this will be the first time he and wife Anthea Turner have worked together on a TV show and is hoping their “bickering” in the kitchen won’t annoy Marco.
He says they have been offered lots of reality shows before but always turned them down – until now.
“Hell’s Kitchen is different. There is a purpose. The objective is to turn yourself into a much better and much more capable chef and that is what appealed to us.”
”Anthea and I are very close as a couple but we do bicker, so I suspect we will bicker in Hell’s Kitchen.
“I don’t have a problem, if Anthea did something wrong and Marco chose to shout at her and he said 'come on get into gear and speed up’ or whatever, that is absolutely fine.”
As the first couple to enter Hell’s Kitchen, Grant reveals that he and his wife have very different thoughts on food and have even built two kitchens in their house, so they have one each.
”I eat because I enjoy it and Anthea eats because she has to, so if I am not here she will go through a whole day on a lettuce leaf and a tomato whereas if I am here on my own I will cook myself a proper meal, because I enjoy it.”
“We now have Anthea’s kitchen and Grant’s kitchen, there is two of everything, two lots of saucepans, two lots of cutlery.
“You will often find me in Marks and Spencer on a Friday afternoon. I don’t make a list so what I do is wander down the aisles and if I see something then I will put it in the basket, whereas Anthea will make a definitive list and would never dream of going off piste.”
2 out of 10
Rating himself a ‘two out of 10’ for cooking, Grant says Hell’s Kitchen will help broaden his culinary skills from spaghetti bolognese.
“My culinary skills at the moment are pretty low down the scale. I really, really enjoy food, I am one of those people who eat because I enjoy eating and I do cook, a lot. I can easily do rack of lamb, steak and chips or spaghetti bolognese, but beyond that I have no experience whatsoever.”
“Where else is someone like me going to get the opportunity to stand that amount of time with one of the world’s greatest chefs?”
Fond of the French attitude to food, Grant admits that even though he has briefly met Marco, he still finds the chef “a bit scary”.
“I am very fond of French food, because their whole attitude to food is different. The whole of France just spends two hours a day where they just go and eat, where the average British person is quite content with a cheese sandwich.
“I thought Marco was quite an imposing man, but I have the utmost respect for anyone who reaches the top of their tree which he clearly has but I think he can be a bit scary…I like people like him and I like people with charisma, he makes a difference when he walks in to a room.”
Grant’s two eldest daughters, Lily and Amelia, were “very perplexed” at the thought of their dad being on TV. While they are used to seeing Anthea on screen, he thinks that they will find it slightly strange to see their dad cooking on national television.
“Well, I told the oldest two of my three daughters because they are old enough to understand, but I haven’t told my youngest but I’ll tell her nearer the time, but they were very perplexed by the thought of their father cooking on national television. When I cook here I tend to turn up the music very loud and have a glass of wine, but I won’t be allowed to do that will I?
“They are very used to seeing their stepmother on the television but they are not used to seeing me…this is the first time we have done something together which I think the children will find slightly, slightly strange.
A fan of cooking shows, Grant reveals that breakfast is his forte and that tends to be his domain over the weekend.
“Saturday Kitchen is a great show and we just have it on in the background normally. There is a cooked breakfast at the Bovey household on a Saturday and Sunday, which is something I always do. Anthea doesn’t tend to cook breakfast, I tend to do that so there is a big cooked breakfast going on and Saturday Kitchen in the background."
Photos: ITV
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