Featured together in a new promotional campaign, renowned TV personality and Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay, with home-grown celebrity Nataniël on hand to monitor his occasionally steamy language, sampled two new speciality meat cuts which until now were not widely available locally.
The fun and very entertaining TV campaign that began airing at the end of July, features the unlikely duo testing some of the new fare the chain has on offer.
The new ranges include the Steakhouse Classic rump known as Picanha, its Brazilian name, which is the most highly sought-after beef cut in Brazil.
Also sampled was a Farmstead premium pork rump that is often hard to track down, and according to Ramsay ‘it’s one of the most difficult cuts for a butcher to master’.
The chemistry on set was sizzling – and the language at times rather saucy – as Ramsay explained how to prepare and cook the meat; dusting it with salt and pepper and searing it fat side down in a scorching hot pan while Nataniël smirked behind him and chirped in with a tongue-in-cheek Afrikaans comment: “My tannie lê so as die stoep warm is.” (My aunt lies like that if the stoep/patio is warm.)
Ramsay, known for telling it like it is, makes the point that he was surprised to find such select cuts in a supermarket environment and, impressed by the quality, notes how the chain’s meat offering keep getting better.
Asked about his co-star, he said he found Nataniël ‘hilarious’ and ‘quirky’, while Nataniël in turn quipped, “He’s not used to sharing his spotlight and neither am I.
“We were like two circus lions, not sure who was going to jump through the hoop and who was going to eat the other one.”
Declared Nataniël at the end of the shoot: “Siestog, hy’s toe nie so erg nie!” (Shame man, he’s not that bad!)
Neil Schreuder, marketing director of Checkers, said: “We work incredibly hard to offer world-class products and to have someone of Gordon’s calibre endorsing Checkers is an absolute privilege.”
The chemistry between the two seems to be very successful and is part of an ongoing campaign for a new range of products being introduced by the store.
