Praising his TV co-star Emma Willis, Fred Sirieix told Yahoo: “She’s as beautiful as a Greek statue, literally carved out of marble.”
In this Reality Recall interview, the trained chef talked about his close ties in show business, from working with Willis to his “crazy friendship” with Gordon Ramsay and Gino D’aCampo. The 52-year-old actor also opened up about dealing with the pressures of fame and his secret to staying grounded.
The adorable presenter has taken the TV world by storm this year, celebrating the 10th anniversary of First Dates and returning with the second series of The World Cook. In recent months, he had a memorable role in reality series I’m A Celebrity alongside This Morning’s Josie Gibson, where the temperature in the camp kitchen reached boiling point.
Fred Sirieix’s friendship with Emma Willis
On the contrary, it’s no secret that the TV pairing of Sirieix and Willis is a recipe for success, as they have great fun together fronting the global cooking competition The World Cook. This is Prime Video’s second series and the competition was fiercer than ever. Sirieix heaped praise on co-host Willis, whom he congratulated for being “professional” and “kind-hearted” as well as always looking “flawless.”
“I love working with Emma,” he said. “She’s a very professional and very kind woman. When you work with someone that good, I’m inspired by her. She comes to the set, she knows exactly what to do. She always looks flawless.”
“She’s as beautiful as a Greek statue, literally carved out of marble. I keep telling her how beautiful she is. But the most impressive thing about her is how good she is at her job. She’s really good. So we understand she’s in very good shape and she’s very nice.”
They are equally good friends off-screen. He shared: “When we’re done filming, we can go get something to eat, go for a walk, or just sit and have coffee and chat about whatever. So we have a great time together.”
Gordon Ramsay and Gino D’aCampo
On and off camera, it’s clear Sirieix has forged some close friendships in showbiz. But he became especially close to TV chefs Ramsay and D’aCampo. Gordon, Gino and Fred: The trio, who have been working together on Road Trip since 2018, had incredible fun traveling countries and cities to discover the local cuisine.
“It’s kind of a crazy friendship,” he said of their bond and working together. “It’s unique. I’m really in the thick of it. And you never know what’s going to happen. And I love it. It’s so unpredictable. I love it. I can’t tell you how much I love it.”
Ramsay and D’aCampo are two chefs whom Sirieix greatly admires. “I think they’re amazing,” he said. “Two different chefs, two different reasons. Gordon has been cooking at a very high level, three Michelin stars for 20-25 years. It’s an incredible achievement.”
He added: “What I love about Gino’s is that it stays true to its roots. It’s about classic Italian cuisine, very simple and very well done. It’s his grandmother’s recipe. Everybody loves it. If you want good cuisine then you go to Gordon’s.”
wedding plan
Congratulations are in order as the First Dates star’s wedding date quickly approaches this year. This timely chat comes at an incredibly busy time for Sirieix, who’s juggling all her TV commitments as she prepares for her spectacular wedding to Fruitcake in Jamaica in the summer, but the star is making it look easy.
Used to balancing all the spinning plates, Sirieix has no worries and knows how to best juggle both TV work and wedding planning at the same time. “I think the busier you are, the more time you have because you have to be more organized,” he joked.
I am a celebrity
Worlds away from the swanky First Dates restaurant, Siriex got a taste of reality TV late last year with the show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. At first he settled into the good life as a camp chef in the woods, but things changed dramatically when he became a kitchen porter. Trained chef Sirieix watched in horror as This Morning’s Gibson took on the role of camp chef, calling his cooking “the stuff of a nightmare”. Their fights, sometimes both heated and playful, were the beating heart of the drama on the show. Sirieix and Gibson have since reunited on This Morning, proving there’s no bad blood between them.
Looking back on the lines of I’m a Celebrity now, Sirieix admitted that he was surprised by the way the show was structured. He said: “What you see on I’m a Celebrity is not what you think. You don’t know what the audience sees. What I saw was different from what you saw, but it was edited in some way. It was edited. C’est la vie, you can’t complain… You can’t complain and you can’t explain. You have to be there.” “
Reflecting on the life lessons he learned from reality TV, Sirieix said he would never intentionally do something to upset anyone. “You can only be yourself in life,” she said. “You can do the best you can. When you’re in real life, when you do something wrong, you can tell people, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ People can talk to you on TV because everything is recorded, there’s no opportunity to do that. So, like me, I like people to have a good time. I don’t want anyone to.” “I don’t want to upset you. We can all be upset. Sometimes people do, you know?”
Pressures of fame
Of course, being on television as a host and role model comes with some pressure, but Sirieix said he stays true to himself no matter what. “I’m just me,” she said. “You can just be yourself. Anthony Bourdain had a quote: ‘I don’t feel any pressure to be who you think you are.’ “I found this quote very interesting. It made me think a lot when I read it.”
He further explained: “It’s true that there is pressure because people see you from a certain angle. When they meet you on the street, if they approach you and maybe something has happened and they have no idea, it can turn it on and give people that impression.”
“But I also think people understand that you’re human, and today it’s not a TV show. It’s me on the street. I’m walking the dog or I’m just going to do my shopping and buy a sausage at the local store. And I think people know that and understand the difference. But I think what we need to be is every “We should always be the best versions of ourselves, not for others but for ourselves. I want to be the best I can be for me, not for anyone else.”
Rise to fame
Sirieix said he was “grateful” to find fame later in life. The TV presenter shared her experience of “gradually” becoming famous and how her career in the food world brought her to the forefront. “I guess it wasn’t overnight fame because when I first went on TV I was 39 or 40, now I’m 52,” he said. “But before television, I was very well known in the restaurant industry because I had been in the neighborhood for a long time. I always worked with the best people in the restaurants Premier League, the hotels Premier League.”
He added: “Although it wasn’t mainstream, I was well known in the restaurant world. Television came into being almost by accident because of the charity work I did. The work I did was appreciated by the BBC. That program eventually became Service, which I did with Michel Roux Jr, and that happened very gradually.” .”
In the bright lights of fame, Sirieix remains grounded and grounded. She explained: “I’m so thankful for that because I wasn’t born famous or became famous in my teenage years. I know what life is like outside of television and being famous because I’ve been that way my whole life.”
“I’m so grateful for that because I can see how some people can transition if you don’t have your feet on the ground and your head on your shoulders. It’s just about understanding reality and grasping reality. I’m very realistic.”
Season Two of World Cook – Stream starting March 2024 only on Prime Video.