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From Super Stardom & My World Kitchen, To The World of Football And World Cup Cuisine, Chef Ainsley Harriott Is Cooking Up A Storm Around The World In His New TV Series

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He Talks To A Mix of Footie Friends Before The World’s Biggest Football Competition Kicks Off In A Couple of Month’s Time (Sunday November 20 2022)

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It’s A Sporty Combination of Food & Football In ‘Ainsley’s World Cup Flavours’

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Hardwork, Dedication & Perserverance Means Ainsley Harriott MBE Is Now One of The Most Successful Chefs In The World. And As A Result He’s Done A Lot of International Travel.

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In 2019 ITV Broadcast His Dream Series of A Lifetime “Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen”. We Recommend You Watch It As He Cooks His Way Around Different Caribbean Islands. He’s Literally In Chef’s Paradise (Available On ITV Hub).

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The Man Must Be Blessed Because Now They Are About To Broadcast Another Series of A Lifetime Where He Gets To Indulge In Another of His Passions – Football!

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From Saturday October 22nd 2022, On ITV – 11.40 am, ‘Ainsley’s World Cup Flavours’ Will Be The Field of Play For Various Famous Football Fans Over The Following 5 Weeks.

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They’ll Be Sharing Stories of Football Forays, Favourite Football Matches, Fun Football Facts, And Fabulous Food For Football Fuel. With Food From All Around The World, It’s Official – The Culinary Countdown To The World Cup Starts Here.

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TO.P Took The Opportunity To Have A Chat With Ainsley Before It All Kicked Off!

The Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022, November 20 – December 18, Is The First World Cup To Take Place In The Arab World.

Ainsley’s World Cup Flavours, On ITV X, Including The Wonderful Jill Scott As A Guest, Starts A Month Before The Tournament, During UK Black History Month And Leads Right Up To The Start of The World’s Biggest Football Competition.

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In May 2022 TheOrator.Press (TO.P) Saw Ainsley In Action At The British Library As He Treated A Dedicated Audience To A Talk About His Career, Struggles Along The Way, And His Journey To The Top @ainsleyfoods

Following On From That, Further To His New Series Scheduled To Start On ITV Next Month (Saturday October 22 2022) We Caught Up With Him Again For A Pre-Series Interview.

It Was Edgy, Interesting And A Great Warm Up To His New World Cup Series. At 65 Ainsley’s Long Since Earnt The Right To Speak His Mind And We Gleaned Some Interesting Insights As We Spoke About Some Major Events Including The Lioness Success In The Euros In July, Passing of The Queen Shortly Afterwards And The Start of The World Cup And His New Food & Football Series Called Ainsley’s World Cup Flavours.

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The Passing of The Queen Earlier This Month Has Seen An Historical Outpouring of Different Opinions, Emotions & Expressions Over The Last Few Weeks. And We We Talked About The Queen’s Passing. Amongst Other Things.

Without Doubt One of The Late Queen’s Favourite Events In The Social Calender Was Vistiting A Certain Famous Flower Show. This Year Ainsley Visited The Event Too. As He Is Apt To Do. However A Prickly Legal Issue Arose From What Appears To Be An Unfortunate Health & Safety Issue Befalling One of His Companions. We Had To Ask Him About It As It Became Big News And Was Out There In The Public Domain. However Subsequent Legal Proceedings Meant He Declined To Discuss The Case In Any Great Detail.

He Was However More Forthcoming When We Spoke Football. Women’s Football. Particularly The Lionesses Success At The Euros This Year. And His Own New Football Show. A Lack of Racial Diversity Was To Prove Disappointing, But We’re Hoping The Production Company Will Keep Things Moving Towards A More Reflective Future.

In Part Two Next Month We Also Look At How His Personality & Presenting Style Has Helped With Mental Health. And We Also Discussed The Other Sport He Loves – Namely Tennis. And His Hopes For Roger After “Retiring” And For Serena Whose Is “Evolving”.

So It Was Rather Like A Chat of Two Halfs. But As Ever With Ainsley, Along The Way There Were Some Laughs. And of Course Some Very Tasty Grub!

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Part One (September 2022) ~ Current Issue

Diversity Disappointment & Missed Opportunity For A World Cup Audience

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Part Two (October 2022) ~ Next Month’s Issue

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Chef Harriott Hailed A Horticultural Hero

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This Summer, In June 2022, At A Famous Flower Show, Ainsley Was Hailed A Hero After He Helped To Rescue A Lady Who Had Fallen Into One of The Ponds. So We Had To Ask Him About It.

It Was On Press Day And Ainsley Had An Invitation And So Was There Larger Than Life As Usual. Those Tickets Are One of The Hottest In Town During The Summer Season. And Press And People Were In Attendance.

Out of Nowhere Drama Ensued As A Lady Suffered An Unfortunate Sequence of Events And Found Herself In One of The Ponds, Soaking Wet And In Distress. Not Much More Can Be Said About That As A Legal Case Involving The Organisers Is Now In Progress.

What Was Not Reported In The First Instance Is That The Lady Concerned Was His Sister. His Older Sister Who Is A Very Proud And Dignified Woman, According To Her Younger Brother, Ainsley. Suffice To Say Ainsley Is Now 65.

“It Was Tough For Her” He Says.

“My Immediate Concern As Her Brother Was That She Was Alright So I Just Focused On Helping To Get Her Out.”

“A Medical Team Came And Put Her On A Trolley And Took Her To The Medical Centre. They Were Pretty Hot On That of Course Because The Queen Was Known To Be Attending That Day.”

On The Trolley She Said To Me “We Won’t Be On The Six O’Clock News Will We?”

I Said “Nobody Cares Sis.”

But People Were Concerned Once The Story Broke And He Started Getting Calls Asking If He Was Alright, Which of Course He Was. And It Was In Fact Soon All Over The News.

And He Tells That Knowing What A Proud And Dignified Woman His Older Sister Is He Was More Concerned About Her Clothes Being Clingy And Wet. So He Did His Family Duty And Went Shopping Down The Kings Road For A New Dress.

“Two Hundred Quid Later” He Says With His Famous Vivacious Laugh…

But In All Seriousness He Says He Can’t Talk About It Further Due To The Ensuing Court Case And It Was His Sister Who Decided To Pursue The Case, Not Him. Nonetheless In His Opinion (To Which He Is of Course Entitled), “It Was A Hazardous Area And Should Have Been Roped Off”.

In A Civil Case Such As This It Will Be A Judge Who Decides On Liability, Not A Jury (Who In Criminal Cases Decide Innocent or Guilty). It Certainly Won’t Be Ainsley. Just The Judge, The Lawyers & Due Court Process Will Determine The Outcome. And All Concerned Must Wait Patiently To See How The Sunsets On This One.

In The Meantime It’s Good To Know Chivalry Is Not Dead!

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Loving The Lionesses

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@lionesses

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When TheOrator.Press Attended His Talk At The British Library In May, We Noted He Said Two of His Favourite Things Are Football And Tennis. And Two Mayor Events Have Since Recently Happened In Football And Tennis. The Lionesses Winning The Euros And Serena & Federer Respectively “Evolving Away From Tennis” And “Retiring”. So Naturally We Asked Him About These Two Things.

TO.P: So What Did You Make of The Lionesses Doing So Well In The Euros This Summer & Winning The Tournament?

AH: “I’ve Always Kept An Eye On The Ladies. They Got off To A Slow Start Over The Years. For Example Women’s Football Used To Be On Too Late At Night For Me To Watch As Much As I Would Have Liked To. I Like To Watch It In The Moment. It’s Not The Same Watching It On Catch Up.”

“But Now It’s Brilliant And A Bit Like American Women’s Football Was A Few Years Ago.”

The American Women’s Football Team Are Modern Day Legends Famously Led To Glory By Meghan Rapinoe. The Team Won Gold At The 2012 London Olympics, They Won Both The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, And The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.  Meghan Also Played For The Team At The 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Where They Came Runner Up.

AH: “It Was Superb. I Was Absolutely Transfixed. Now It’s Enormous And We Ain’t Going Back”.

Well Said!

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‘Ainsley’s World Cup Flavours’ Is A World Cup Hub With Great Football Grub

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Photo Courtesy of ITV/Agent/Insta: Ainsley Harriott With A Replica of The World Cup Trophy – Mixologist Carl Anthony Brown, 2016 Great British Bake off Winner Candice Brown, Former England Manager Glen Hoddle, And ITV’s Freeze The Fear Star Owain Wyn Evans All With Ainsley. All Three Food Professionals Again With Footballer Jermaine Jenas And TV Presenter Denise Van Outen. Glen Hoddle And Ainsley With Some Homemade Pies. A Delicious Looking Onion Quiche. Owain And Ainsley With Said Delicious Looking Onion Quiche. All Receipes @ainsleyharriott.com And ITV X

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TO.P: So TO.P Understands That You Are About To Make Your Own Football Dreams Come True With A New Series About Food & Football.

AH: Absolutely. It’s About Food And Football. Which Is Great As I Love Food And Football. And It’s In Anticipation of The World Cup. It’s All Done Now. We’ve Recorded It And It’s Coming Out In October. The Nature of The Programme Is All About Positivity. For Instance Even Though I’m An Arsenal Fan I Love Glen Hoddle And He’s One of The Guests. Plus There’s Jermaine Jenus, Jill Scott, Michael Owen, And Sam Allerdyce Coming In During The Five Episodes.

TO.P: Wow That’s A Really Interesting Selection of Guests. Each With Their Own Interesting Stories To Tell About Their Experiences With The Beautiful Game. And In Some Cases Stories of Redeemption. We Love A Good Redeemption Story Here At TO.P or Simply Perseverance.

AH: The Nature of The Programme Is All About Positivity.

TO.P: TheOrator.Press (TO.P) Slogan Is “A Positive Magazine. For Positive People. By Positive People.” So It’s Sounding Great & Like Our Kind of Programme Already.

AH: We Discuss Favourite Players, Different Competitions, Different Inspirations, Being Able To Play In Front of Deafening Crowds, Those Sorts of Things. And Different National Cuisines.

Mixologist Carl Anthony Brown Is Taking Care of Drinks. And Candice Brown Will Also Be Helping Out In The Kitchen With Half-Time Nibbles Such As Nachos, Toasties, And Savoury Filo Pastries.

TO.P: Sounds Pretty Cool. How Did You Come Up With The Idea And The Guests You’ve Got Coming Onto The Show?

AH: It’s The Same Production Company I’ve Worked With On My Other Series. It’s Run By David Nottage And His Partner Charlotte. It’s A Team Effort And We Discuss Things Internally And Make A Decision. It Was Then Put To ITV.

Food On The Menu Over The Five Weeks, Is Mouth Watering And Includes: Chargrilled Argentinian Bavette Steak, With Sweet Potatoe Wedges. German Doner Kebab With Garlic Sauce. Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings And “Dutty” Loaded Fries (Best Patois On The “Dutty” Pronounciation Please). Cameroonian Spiced Beef & Peanut Kebabs With Tomato Salad. Crispy Cod Fritters With A Spicy Aji Dip. Brazilian Inspired Sticky Pork And Smokey Bean Tacos With Pinapple Salsa. French Caramelised Onion Quiche. Homemade Tortilla Chips. Toasties And Filo Pastry Parcels. Yum!

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Photos Courtesy of ITV/Agent/Insta: Ainsley, Candice And Carl As Before. Plus Left Is Mark Pougatch, Olly Murs And Sam Allerdyce. Right Is Australian Actor Alan Fletcher And Former England Football Michael Owen. Ainsley’s Jerk Chicken Wings With Dutty Fries (Patois Pronounciation On The “Dutty” Please If Poss!). All Receipes @ainsleyharriott.com And ITV X

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Diversity Disappointment & A Missed Opportunity With A World Cup Audience

After Interviewing Ainsley (Which Was A Joy) The Full Line Up of Guests For All Five Shows Later Became Available And The Full Guest List Was At Least Twice As Many As Initially Mentioned (And Potentially Three Times As Many If There Are Three Guests Per Show, As In The First Episode, Featuring Former England Manager Sam Allerdyce, ITV Sports Presenter Mark Pougatch And Pop Singer Olly Murs, Which Would Have Made It 15). In Reality Eleven Scheduled Guests Have Been Officially Confirmed And Only One Of Them Is Black. And That Is Former Footballer Jermaine Jenas Who Is Mixed Race.

Other Famous Guests Appearing Over The Coming Five Weeks Include Another Former England Manager, Glenn Hoddle, Former England Footballer Michael Owen, Lionness Jill Scott, Ian Broudie Lead Singer of The Lightening Seeds (Who Co. Wrote “Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home)” With Comedians Frank Skinner And David Baddiel), TV Presenter Denise Van Outen, Welsh TV Presenter Owain Wyn Evans And Austrailian Actor Alan Fletcher (aka Dr Carl From Aussie Soap Opera Neighbours, Which Ceased Broadcasting In The UK Earlier This Year To Much Fanfare And Proclaimed Sorrow From Various Networks, Publications And Members of The Public).

It’s A Great Line Up of Guests (All Their Profiles In The Picture Galleries In This Article), But It Chronically Lacks Racial Diversity [EP 1: Sam Allardyce, Mark Pougatch & Olly Murs – EP 2: Alan Fletcher (Aka Dr Carl Kennedy from Neighbours) & Michael Owen – EP 3: Jill Scott & Ian Broudie (of the Lightning Seeds) – EP 4: Jermaine Jenas & Denise Van Outen – And EP 5: Glenn Hoddle & Owain Wyn Evans].

Photos: Ainsley With His Cod Fish Fritters With Spicy Aji Dip, Candice And Carl As Before. Plus Jill Scott And Ian Broudie. All Receipes @ainsleyharriott.com And ITV X

There Is However Age Diversity, Gender Diversity And Sexual Orientation Diversity. And That Is A Good Thing. But This Is A World Cup Programme And Those Watching And Actually Playing Will Be White And Black And Brown. That Should Be Reflected In The Programming. It Seems Odd That It’s Not. Especially Considering The Recent Boldness, Courage And Honesty of Jermaine’s (Channel Four) Football Documentary. (Hunting The Football Trolls: Available On MyFour).

Reflecting On The Full List Certain People Were Conspicuous By Their Abscence Given The Total Number of Guests Scheduled To Be On The Programme (11) And The Fact That Ainsley Is An Arsenal Fan. It Looks Like ITV Have Scored Something of An Own Goal In Terms of Missed Opportunities Somewhere Along The Line And This Is Definitely One For The Linesman, And It Needs To Be Tackled Head On. There’s No Side-Steppin’ This One.

We Adore Ainsley, We Are Very Happy For Him, Ainsley’s World Flavours Is A Great Concept For A Show, He’s Got Some Great Guests, It’s Obvioiusly Topical & Timely, And Once Again We’ll Be There Watching.

But There Is A Sense of Disappointment Here As Life Is About Progress And Moving Forward – Not Going Backwards. For Instance, It Is Utterly Inconceiveable That An Italian Chef, Would Make A Great Programme Travelling Around Italy And The Surrounding Countries, Meeting Fellow Italians, Both Felow Italian Citizens & Fellow Italian Food Professionals, Which Proved To Be A Big Big TV Hit And Then Make A Five Week Football Series, With 11 Guests And Have Only 1 Single Solitary Italian Guest. Frankly It Just Wouldn’t Happen.

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The Racially Non-Diverse List of Guests Is Particularly Disappointing Considering How Many Guests Have Been Squeezed Into The Show, Which Incidentally Starts In Black History Month.

This New Generation Coming Up Expect And Anticipate More Diversity & Inclusion. And Frankly So Does The Current One. We’ve Lived Through More Than Enough of This Crazy Stuff. It’s One Historical Step Forward. Two Historical Steps Back.

To Be Fair ITV Is Currently Doing Great Work With Diversity (And We’ve Said So On A Number of Ocassions, Regarding A Number of Their Programmes, Including Ainsley’s Fantastic Previous Series ~ Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen). So What’s The VAR Explanation For This Extreme Case of Exclusion? A Lack of Diversity Behind The Cameras? It Never Even Occurred To Anyone As A Consideration? Jermaine Jenas Was The Only Black or Mixed Race Football Personality Available During The Making of The Series (Highly Unlikely)? Or Some Other Explanation…?

It Is A Searing Irony That Jermaine Jenas Made Has Made A Number of Great Documentaries Including One Last October (Black History Month) About Football And Racism (Hunting The Football Trolls: Available On MyFour).

ObservingThis Lack of Diversity Is Not About Quotas. It’s A About Quality. And Equality. At Such A Big Moment! An Entire Football Field of World Classs Black Football Talent, Young & Old, Has Been Excluded In A Modern Day, World Cup Food & Football Programme, Hosted By A Veteran, Charismatic, Highly Acclaimed Caribbean Chef, To Boot! And In This Country, In This Day And Age, That Is A Crying Shame!

It’s The World Cup And Quite Literally The World Is Watching. Here Was A Mutual Chance For The Show To Shine And For The World’s Audience To Learn Through Examples of True Diversity & Racial Harmony, In A Context That Could And Should Have Been Organically Exemplary. Football Is Said To Be The Language of The World.

The Audience (Including Us) Have Been Denied Equality, Diversity of Stories, And A Golden Opportunity For Even More Great Interactions, And Fun & Jokes, With Other People Who Have Caribbean And African Heritage, Just As Ainsley Does. Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen Is A Proven Success Which Highlights That Such Inclusion Makes A Huge Difference. Making This Backward Step By Displaying Such Racial Exclusion, Especially Starting With A Programme Scheduled To Start In Black History Month, Seems Like A Bit of A Penalty Situation.

Maybe Next Time The Powers That Be Will Find Extra Time For Some VAR Post Match Analysis And Call up Some of Those Who Have Previously Been Benched And Make Sure Such Disappointing Oversight Doesn’t Happen Again.

The Food On The Menu Is Wonderfully Diverse. The People Actually On The Show Should Be Too. Just As Ainsley’s Fans Are!

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” Now It’s Enormous And We Ain’t Going Back ”

Chef Ainsley Harriott On The Lionesses Success In Winning The Euros 2022

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In Part Two Of This Interview Next Month We’ll Look At The Great Work Ainsley Has Done In Terms of Mental Health Due To His Positive Attitude, His Perspective Following The Queen’s Passing And Being on The BBC’s Geneology Show Who Do You Think You Are? And His Other Favourite Sport No Longer Starring Roger And Serena.

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