Ramsay claim sparks furore

Pub chefs have rounded on Gordon Ramsay after he claimed that women can't cook.

Ramsay has launched a national campaign to get women back into the kitchen as part of his Channel 4 series The F Word, after claiming 'women can't cook to save their lives'.

In a Channel 4 survey 78% of women admitted not eating a proper home-cooked meal in the evening and most viewed cooking as a chore, whereas men seemed to relish the challenge.

Chef/licensee Carol Haime, of the Sandrock in Boundstone, Surrey, said: 'On a Friday night when I do 51 covers on my own I'd quite like Ramsay to be on hand for the washing up.'

Gareth Eddy, head chef at the Old Custom House, in Padstow, Cornwall, said: 'How can he say that when the head chef at Claridge's is a woman? I learned everything I know from my mother. My sister is a pastry chef and has worked for Marco Pierre White.

'Perhaps the kind of cooking women end up doing is the problem - usually for their families and not very exciting.'

Michelle Crook, chef and licensee at the Castle of Comfort Inn, Bristol, said: 'One of his head chefs is female. Maybe in the past 10 years women have pursued careers rather than stay at home. I think in the next few years we'll start to see more female chefs because cooking can be a career.'