When Gordon Blew Through Daata

Gordon with the Daata Bray crew MON5FEB24

aturally enough, when the guy on the other end of the line said he was Gordon Ramsay and wanted to book a table that evening, Daata’s Aliha hung up.

No prankster was about to waste her busy Bank Holiday Monday.

And then the phone rang again. This time, it was Gordon Ramsay’s manager. And the rather famous TV chef would indeed like to book a table for himself and his crew after a hard day’s filming up in Powerscourt. If that wasn’t too much trouble.

Sheepishly, Aliha took the booking, but no one at Daata Bray was entirely convinced that this wasn’t a two-man prank call until, at the allotted time, Gordon Ramsay and his crew sauntered through the door.

“Everyone was pretty much gobsmacked,” says owner Waseem. “But the guy had heard good things about our food, and wanted to try it out. Which, of course, put a little pressure on Rahat.”

Thankfully, Daata’s head chef – who also happens to be Waseem’s other half – and her team rose to the occasion. After the meal, there was no shouting. No tantrums. No plates flying across the award-winning eatery.

With his new series, Next Level Chef, currently based at Ashford Studios, the bould Gordon will be out and about Wicklow over the coming weeks. We hear Jokers have already reserved a table right by the window, just in case.

Fellow judges Neyasha Arrington and Richard Blair joined Ramsay for his Daata delights, which, food fans may be interested to know, included popadoms along with starters of veg samosa, lamb chops, tandoori prawns and chicken wings. For the mains, we’re talking butter chicken and Afghani chicken, Lahori lamb, Mughai prawns and Balochi chicken, all with rice and four different types of naan.

Posing for photos with Waseem, Rahat and the rest of the Daata crew, Ramsay described the food as “unreal”, and “very authentic”, taking time out to shake hands with all the chefs.

“That was such a lovely gesture,” says Waseem. “And my son, Fazian, is a huge Gordon Ramsay fan – so, his jaw is still on the floor.

“We’ll be dining out on this one for quite some time…”