The Time Top Gear Had Jamie Oliver Make A Salad On The Racing Track
Jamie Oliver has accomplished many things. He has hosted an impressively lengthy list of culinary TV shows, written an equally large collection of cookbooks, created an award-winning TED talk, and launched several charitable and awareness-raising campaigns. He has even established the Jamie Oliver Cookery School. No one seems to "get 'er done" better than this British celebrity chef. On a visit to the set of "Top Gear," however, he was presented with an impossible challenge (via Youtube).
Things seemed to be going well for Jamie Oliver as he sat and chatted amiably with host, Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson poked fun at Oliver's Maserati; Oliver returned the dig by labeling Clarkson's current ride a "hairdresser's car." When Clarkson turned to the topic of Jamie's Volkswagen camper (which was inexplicably present in the studio), he lulled Oliver into a state of complacency. As the chef waxed on about how his 1959 Samba had been upgraded to include a double bed, kitchen, TV/DVD, and (this deserves a drum roll) a Porsche 3.6 liter engine, he seemed to think he was simply there to talk. While all eyes admired Oliver's pristine, royal blue VW, one question was burning in the audience's minds. Why was the camper van there?
Oliver's racing track food prep was a fail
It turns out that Jamie Oliver was about to experience a massive food preparation fail (as shown in this YouTube clip). As "Top Gear" viewers know, Jeremy Clarkson loves a good laugh. So, when he asked Oliver to cook in the van while it sped around the track, viewers couldn't be too surprised. As the camera panned on the spotless Samba accelerating at breakneck speed, everyone knew that Oliver was in trouble — except, maybe, Oliver himself.
As he began what sounds like a standard cooking show, he announced he will be preparing "a beautiful salad of mozzarella, fig, rocket, mint and all those beautiful things." He barely managed to complete his first sentence before he was thrashed to-and-fro, bouncing from one bench seat to the other. He spent much of his cooking time with his backside and legs up in the air. And for the big finale, he winds up with the full salad on his shoulders and face. When asked what happened, he confessed that he felt quite ill after despite his insistence that he "really wanted to show off and make it good."
While he may have failed at his attempt to be a mobile chef, you need not feel bad for Oliver for too long. He did manage to whip a Suzuki Liana around the show's track in 1 minute 50 seconds, tying with Gordon Ramsay. Needless to say, Oliver was a very happy camper owner.