''Gordon Behind Bars'' is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

television series in which

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, List of restaurants owned or operated by Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has ...

teaches inmates of

Brixton prison HM Prison Brixton is a Category C training establishment men's prison, located in Brixton area of the London Borough of Lambeth, in inner- South London. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Before 2012, it was used as a loca ...

how to cook. It was broadcast in four episodes from 26 June – 17 July 2012 on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

Premise

Ramsay, a Michelin Star Chef in the UK, enters

over a six-month period (December 2011 to June 2012) with the goal of teaching inmates how to cook and run a sustainable business selling goods prepared inside the prison to the general public.

Bad Boys' Bakery

After some training from Ramsay, the inmate cooks of Brixton prison are formed into a business dubbed "Bad Boys' Bakery", under the slogan "Life Changing Taste", selling a Ramsay version of a lemon treacle tart (later changed to a lemon treacle slice). Eventually, Ramsay was able to negotiate an agreement for a trial order of 100 bars (per location) to be sold in 11 Caffè Nero locations across South London. As of September 2017, the tarts remain available at 15 outlets, while there are plans to expand to 190 locations throughout London.

The cooks

Of the twelve cooks originally chosen to take part, five had left the program by the end of the series. In the fourth episode, five additional inmates were recruited to replace them, and five more were recruited after Ramsay had left.

Original twelve cooks

UK ratings

Safety issues

During filming of the program, there were incidents where fights would break out. Ramsay has stated "I was standing close by one bloke with another opposite me, and then this guy lunged over and went to headbutt him. I had to sort it out." Ramsay's wife was also concerned about his safety and instructed him to take self-defence classes.

American version

Ramsay personally pitched the idea of an American version to Kevin Reilly at

Fox Broadcasting Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...

; however, Reilly declined, saying, "We have a lot of Gordon on the air right now."

References

External links

* * 2012 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings Channel 4 original programming British cooking television shows 2010s British prison television series Television series by All3Media British English-language television shows Television shows set in London {{food-tv-prog-stub