A Holy Lunch with Greek Nuns at Meteora for Gordon Ramsay

 The Greek adventures of Gordon Ramsay have now led him to the spectacular site of Meteora — where he enjoyed a lunch with Greek nuns. It was the latest cultural adventure in a series of such during the shooting of his television show “Gordon, Gino & Fred Go Greek.”

Ramsay and his two colleagues continued their culinary adventures in Greece in the second episode of their show, making a pilgrimage to Meteora, the site of a stunningly beautiful rock formation in central Greece that is home to one of the largest complexes of Orthodox monasteries in the world.

While at Meteora, the chefs met Greek nuns who introduced them to the majestic landscape of the region over a healthy, locally-sourced monastic lunch. During their ascent to the monastery at Rosannou, Ramsay warns Italian chef Gino D’Campo to behave when they meet the nuns.

Ramsay asks Gino to button up his shirt in deference to the ladies. A flustered D’Campo agrees, before asking: “What do you call a nun on a bike?” Ramsay and Fred shake their heads in dismay as D’Campo answers: “Virgin Mobile.”

Gordon Ramsay and co. at Meteora monastery in Greece

When they finally reach the Meteora monastery, they are greeted by three nuns. They are then escorted to a table overlooking the valley below with a majestic view, leaving Ramsay and his fellow chefs speechless. “This is beautiful!” Ramsay says in wonder.

Gordon, Gino and Fred stand politely opposite the nuns, who are, as hosts, waiting for their guests to sit. “Would you mind sitting first, my mum would kill me (otherwise)” requests a polite Ramsay, who as a gentleman was taught to allow women to be seated first.

During lunch they are introduced to a dark honey that intrigued and fascinated Ramsay. “This honey looks amazing,” Ramsay enthuses as one of the Meteora nuns explains its origin and production process.

Ramsay requests a visit to the Meteora monastery’s beehives, to see the work in action and taste some of the honey at its source. The nuns bravely display the beehives, much to Gino’s distress, as he appears to be the target of attacking bees.

ITV’s “Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip” offers foodie viewers a refreshing change of scenery. It has departed from the often-featured UK and US-based settings, heading into the heartwarming landscapes of Greece.

Gordon Ramsey’s Greece tour full of incidents

The Greek edition of the series was forced to stop production following an outbreak of Covid-19 in Egypt while filming, according to Fred Sirieix. He was speaking to Lorraine Kelly on ITV1, ahead of the return of the popular foodie travel series.

“We were in Egypt and had a bit of a Covid-19 scare. It was a bit of a difficult situation so we had to come back. It was a bit of an emergency flight we had to take, sadly,” he told her.

The encounter with the Meteora nuns was just the most recent adventure — some of them quite hilarious — in the chefs’ trip to Greece. The funniest of them all, perhaps, was when a Greek yiayia in Santorini disapproved of Ramsay’s culinary skills.

Then there was Ramsay’s souvlaki duel with Greek chefs in downtown Athens. Two “judges” of the dueling souvlakis gave Ramsay the thumbs down. A third taster preferred his souvlaki over that of the Greeks. Meanwhile, there were epithets of “pizza boy” and “Kebabs” thrown by the chefs at one another as they dueled for culinary supremacy.