“Having worked for some of the most notoriously foulmouthed, abusive and violent chefs as a young man, I made a conscious decision. When I was punched and kicked and had hot pans and plates thrown at me, I decided that would not be me. I would never abuse the trust of someone who wanted to learn from me. I would never raise my voice, stamp my feet and madly hop about, and I would definitely not take out my anger or frustration on someone else. Instead I have always tried to keep my head, and calmly deal with the situation. I am proud of the fact that I am not a shouting egotistical chef who revels in the abuse of their staff. However I feel that I have let the public and myself down, by being tarred with the same brush as some of the bullies.

Kitchens are fast moving highly charged environments. Throw into the mix lots of heat, emotions, integrity, perfection and ego and you have quite a volatile cocktail. As an observer you are never going to hear the head chef politely ask for the soup for table 2. However the abuse of anyone, whether staff or members of the public, is completely unacceptable, unnecessary and degrades the industry. Chefs often swear, and I am not separate from the crowd. When I do swear however, I aim it at an inanimate object, like the oven, pan or in this case the omelette. I have and do genuinely apologise for this mistake that I made, of swearing on live daytime television. I had no intention of causing offence and am mortified that I did, as I thought I was swearing under my breath. I understand of course even that is not acceptable on daytime television.

I am aware that children watch the program. I am saddened by my actions as I have spent a lot of time teaching children and enjoy inspiring young people to uncover their love of food. Food is about love, life and generosity, and I hope to move on from this incident and continue to inspire that love and joy in all the people that I teach.”

I have represented Tom Kime a number of years now and I have to say the man is truly a gentleman.  That he has survived the abusiveness of a number of kitchens over the years is only testament to his willingness and ability to succeed in one of the toughest careers a person can choose.  Following his training experience he vowed to himself long ago never to treat people the way he had occasionally been treated himself, so the only thing he’ll swear at is inanimate objects like eggs, and never people.  And there’s a difference – think on the one hand about Tom swearing at the omelette, then recall a scene from one of Gordon’s more angry TV episodes and you’ll get what I mean.  It’s the latter type of swearing that makes me uncomfortable.

Chefs swear.  They swear all the time and sometimes to a degree that it borders on an art form.  Yes it was inappropriate of Tom to swear on Saturday Kitchen, BBC’s Saturday morning show, and he knows children watch the show.  He is deeply remorseful about this and fully accepts that he won’t be back on the show ever again.  It’s a great shame, as Tom is a very talented chef whose specialty is Asian cuisine and world street food.  He is a rare master of spice blending and taste combining and makes all those delicious dishes that seem so foreign and difficult to achieve.  Try his books, Asian Bites or Street Food published by Dorling Kindersley to learn his secrets.  Or for more general seafood recipes, his latest book was a labour of love, entitled Fish Tales and published by Kyle Cathie. Tom wanted to write a book about sustainable fisheries – perhaps not a sexy topic but one that is close to his heart.

Currently based in Australia, Tom works between London and Sydney and has always enjoyed working with the Saturday Kitchen team.  It seems the BBC are making an example of him, as a stick to shake at various other BBC faces who let slip the occasional swear word.  Bad news for Tom, but bad news too for television foodie fans like me.

A great example of this good for the planet living is Alys Fowler.  She started out doing some appearances on BBC’s Gardeners World last year and this March her own series, The Edible Garden, hits our screens.  Alys is a great one for recycling waste and turning it into something useful, and in this series she taps into our desire to grow our own and make our own.  Her book, The Thrifty Gardener: How to create a stylish garden for next to nothing published by Kyle Cathie last year also touches on this although The Edible Garden has a tie in book of its own (BBC Books).

Alys’ generation recycle as a matter of course, and not because it makes them feel good, or adds another tick to their “save the planet” to do list.  They darn socks instead of throwing them out, they knit, and they make all sorts of foodstuffs from scratch:  They bake bread, they make jam, they make their own stock.  And, if Alys has her way, they may even start to grow some of  their own food no matter how small their outside space is.  I have to respect their efforts and celebrate that perhaps one day parents might even return to making their own baby food and resist convenience toddler meals, for instance.

I, like many people, have grown wary and fed up with picture perfect vegetables shrink wrapped in plastic, possibly flown to my country from many miles away.  Nobody seems to be listening though, so the next step is to grow my own vegetables.  Last year I had some success with beetroot, potatoes, herbs and carrots. This year I’ll try more.  I’m not doing it to save the planet, I just want me and my kids to experience the simple pleasure of growing and eating our own food, and Alys is showing me the way.  She has taken gardening away from the blue rinse and/or retired brigade and made gardening cool and I thank her for that.

For more information about Alys, visit http://www.deborahmckenna.com/client-full-bio.aspx?ID=87&Name=Alys-Fowler