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Gordon Ramsay has swapped his chef's knife for the red pen as guest editor for the May issue of olive magazine. The UK's most famous chef teamed up with the stylish monthly food magazine to produce a special edition of the award-winning title and admits the "refreshing" challenge was "unlike anything" he'd done before. In the magazine he reflects on what has influenced the food he cooks and eats, from his mum's Bakewell tart to goat curry. He also provides some fascinating insights in response to questions from olive readers, including the last thing he cooked that went horribly wrong – some "absolutely disgusting" fish soup - the next big food trends, wiping out ready-made mashed potato and why he’d have made a lousy football coach.

He also gives the Ramsay seal of approval to his favourite seven chefs in Britain: Andy Needham at Zafferano, Chris Mackett at the Peat Spade Inn, Clare Smyth at his own restaurant, Tristan Welch at Launceston Place, Sat Bains at Restaurant Sat Bains, Francesco Mazzei at L'Anima and Rachel Humphrey at Le Gavroche. He provides his top tips on where to eat in London, NYC, LA, Paris and Tokyo and who would be on his dream dinner party list, an eclectic mix including Chris Moyles, the Beckhams, Pele and Ramsay's wife Tana. Anthony Worrall Thompson would do the washing up, "I wouldn't let him near the cooking."

Also in this month's issue a Mexican menu for six, a dish a day, 31 dishes to see you through the month, eat like a local in Italy and an olive investigation into food security. May's olive magazine is on sale now, priced at £3.40.


NOTES TO EDITORS
About olive Magazine
olive is the stylish, monthly magazine for food lovers with an emphasis on getting great value. It has 88,944 monthly readers according to the last Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures.

olive magazine recently won the "Best Restaurant Guide" award at the prestigious Rosemount Taste Awards 2008, and was competing with specialist reviewers such as toptable, Eat london, the Luxe city guides, and Hardens.


Toby Hicks