A dear friend alerted me to the fact that Gordon Ramsey has in fact a home cooking channel. At first I thought that strange. It’s hard to shake off his onscreen persona in Hell’s Kitchen as a kind of lean-mean-nasty-machine and on his home cooking series, he actually appears, well, affably nice. You see him in action at home, with his kids (he’s got 4) looking every part a relaxed and doting dad who cooks (bonus points) darn well (superbonus points). No wonder he’s got 15 Michelin stars to his name. So off I went to watch him in “Home’s Kitchen” and saw him work his magic on this charming soup, perfectly warm for a blustery day.

His recipe is titled “smokey-bacon-sweetcorn-and potato soup”, which I think doesn’t quite do justice to the star of this creamy broth which apart from the corn, HAS to be the leek. The kids have not been real hot fans of leek primarily because of its chewy texture but they’re since converted as the leek is melted down soft in the smokey bacon and sweet corn broth. And as you know, any recipe that gets my kids to eat leek without saying “eek” is a winner.

Make some: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/gordon-ramsays-home-cooking/articles/all/smoky-bacon-sweetcorn-and-potato-soup-recipe