A black (pudding) day for Giles

The fact that the mistake was made by one of London’s top newspaper and telly food critics, Giles Coren, just made the unfairness of it all worse for Ramsay’s, whose pudding just last week won Scotland’s first ever Three Star Good Taste Award.

It’s understandable that local readers of the Sunday Times were stunned and shocked when they read a column by the critic, describing this proud example of Carluke cuisine as being like “a piano coaster beer mat or an insole made of indestructible stuff” that he claimed he was still chewing ten days after putting a forkful in his mouth!

Surely this couldn’t be the Ramsay’s black pudding we all know and love? Well, actually, it wasn’t...

The Mysterious Case of the Wrong Black Pudding all began when Mr Coren, more used to reviewing London’s finest restaurants, topically tested his refined tastebuds on the Olympic Breakfast at a branch of the Little Chef fast-food chain, advertising Ramsay’s black pudding as an `optional extra’.

Boss Andrew Ramsay takes up the sorry story, revealing: “Well it WASN’T our black pudding he was served.

“It’s not actually Giles Coren’s fault.

“What happened was that Little Chef wanted to stock Ramsay’s pudding in all its branches after a trial run in some of their special Heston Blumenthal-restyled outlets.

“Well, of course, we were absolutely delighted to get this order but, before we could get all the Little Chef outlets restocked with our brand, some branches changed their menus prematurely to advertise that they were now selling Ramsay’s.

“In fact, the branch Giles Coren reviewed hadn’t received its Ramsay’s delivery yet and so, despite what the menu told him, he obviously got whatever that branch had in `off-the-shelf’ at the time.

“Little Chef have since written to me to apologise for what happened and I understand that some of our loyal customers sent angry emails to the Sunday Times!”

As for Mr Coren, well, although his mistake was understandable, for local readers he’s ended up with not only egg on his face but a whole cooked breakfast - black pudding and all.