Gordon Ramsay to host new Idiot Sandwich show inspired by viral Julie Chen Moonves meme
Gordon Ramsay has revealed that he will be hosting a new show called Idiot Sandwich, inspired by his viral meme.
The British celebrity chef, 56, famously featured in a parody sketch of his popular Hell’s Kitchen cooking show for The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2015.
Titled Hell’s Cafeteria, Ramsay barked orders at Corden and Big Brother host Julie Chen Moonves as they went head-to-head to earn the honour of head chef.
At one point in the spoof, Ramsay holds two slices of bread on either side of Moonves’s head as he yells: “What are you?”
Looking defeated, Moonves responds: “An idiot sandwich.”
The clip has since been viewed on YouTube over 13 million times, going on to inspire countless memes. Its “ballistic” success, Ramsay recently told People, is what influenced him to begin work on the forthcoming Fox series.
“Wherever I go, there’s some young kid somewhere that wants to be called an ‘idiot sandwich,’” he said.
Idiot Sandwich will welcome contestants to compete in sandwich-making for a cash prize and the title of Idiot Sandwich, according to People.
Ramsay wrapped the 21st season of his hugely successful Hell’s Kitchen series in February. Season 22 will premiere on 28 September on Fox in the US.
Elsewhere in his interview with People, the restaurateur opened up about the death of his and wife Tana’s unborn son, who they named Rocky, in 2016.
“There’s no book that guides you through that loss, and so losing Rocky was really tough,” Ramsay said. “Watching the trauma unfold, it’s this life-changing moment.”
Three years after Rocky’s death, the couple welcomed their fifth child, Oscar (now-four). The couple also shared daughter Megan, 25, twins Jack and Holly, 23 and daughter Matilda (“Tilly”), 21.
Tana met Ramsay when she was 18 and the pair married in 1996. She was a Montessori-trained schoolteacher but is now a cookery author and a TV broadcaster.
Speaking to British GQ in April, Ramsay joked that his youngest son is his “only hope” for having a chef in the family.
“They needed to find their passion, and I couldn’t be prouder knowing that they have,” he said of his other children. “I suppose my son Oscar [aged three at the time] is my last hope of having a chef in the family. I’ve started putting him to bed with a f***ing whisk and a ladle.”
