Considering the new documentary Rise of the Rockstar Chef, it’s a shame the term “kitchen sink drama” was conceived in the 1950s, because what a fitting moniker: working-class men, gritty and with something to prove, frustrated by social constraints and economic rigidity… tirelessly, hopelessly romantic all the while. Who would’ve thought chefs, once pinned down to hot dark basements, skilled but unseen and almost always French, would become rockstars from northern council houses, McCartney-esque, befitting of a Hollywood caper let alone a BBC three-parter? It took years of negotiations to see White, Ramsay and Blumenthal in the same room, around the same table, eating three of their most lauded dishes.
