TV chef Gino D’Acampo has been caught by Border Force attempting to fly into the UK with cannabis.
According to The Sun, the celebrity chef was caught by sniffer dogs attempting to bring cannabis into the country with him after landing in the UK alongside fellow TV hosts Fred Siriex and Gordon Ramsay.
Having landed at Farnborough Airport, Hampshire, the trio had arrived in Britain after spending time filming a show in Spain.
However, upon touching down Border Force dogs reportedly began circling the famous Italian chef as he arrived at the Hampshire airport.
Officials then stopped and held all three for ‘some time’ whilst Gino tried to ‘laugh it off’, but in the end it became ‘clear who the dogs were after’ and GIno’s luggage was searched.
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Gino pictured with Fred Siriex and Gordon Ramsay. / Image: Gino D’Acampo
TV Chef Gino D’Acampo. / Image: Gino D’Acampo
Officers then found a small box containing the Class B drug inside the Italian Escape presenter’s bags, before letting the tv chef go with a caution.
Gino was officially given a warning and a fine for carrying a prohibited substance, but the TV personality was not arrested. He has since said that he was smoking the drug to help with back pain.
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Speaking on the debacle, a source told The Sun that both Fred and Gordon were ‘pretty cross’ after being held alongside Gino for some time.
“Gino and the gang had been filming in Spain, and flew back home on Gordon’s private jet. When they landed, out of nowhere sniffer dogs suddenly started circling Gino.
“Gordon, Fred and Gino were all held for some time by Border Force, as Gino initially tried to laugh it off.
“Eventually, it was clear who the dogs were after, and Gino went away with uniformed police for questioning. It was Gino’s bags that were stopped and searched, and a small box with some weed inside was found.
“Neither Fred nor Gordon, nor anyone else on the jet, had a single trace of anything suspicious.”
The source continued: “The next day Gino called Gordon and Fred.
“He said he was smoking it to help his bad back, and he had been released by cops without issue.
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“Both Fred and Gordon were obviously pretty cross at being caught up in the drama. Gordon, especially, has always been very vocal about his anti-drugs stance.”
It’s not the first time that the trio has been caught up with cannabis, having all previously sampled some THC-infused food together on their show Gordon, Gino & Fred: American Road Trip two years ago.
Whilst in San Francisco, Gino took his fellow TV chefs to a restaurant that specialises in cannabis-infused dishes – most specifically, ‘High Tea’.
TV chef Gino hasn’t had the best luck of late, having recently been forced to close his Alderley Edge restaurant Luciano just 12 months after it opened.
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Gino only launched the restaurant a year ago, taking over the space formerly home to Piccolino.
The restaurant has now been taken over by competing Italian restaurant group San Carlo, which has just announced plans to close the restaurant for an extended time in order to complete a £2m redesign.
Featured image: Luciano
TV & Showbiz
Legendary Bury Black Pudding reveals secrets – including powdered blood
Daisy Jackson
Bury Black Pudding is one of Greater Manchester’s most famous and excellent exports, creating a breakfast staple that puts the borough on the culinary map.
This familiar sight on a full English breakfast has been being made using a traditional time-honoured recipe for generations.
And while this delicious blood sausage might not be to everyone’s tastes, Bury Black Pudding is the king of them all.
It’s the leading brand in the UK, with a gold medal-winning recipe dating back more than 100 years, and has a whole variety of flavours including chilli, gluten free, vegetarian and white pudding varieties.
Recently, Bury Black Pudding revealed some of its secrets, allowing the BBC unprecedented access into its factory in Bury for an episode of Inside the Factory.
The series, hosted by Paddy McGuinness and Cherry Healey, went beneath the surface of this heritage brand, from production all the way through to packaging.
Viewers have been stunned to learn what goes into Bury Black Pudding, and it really isn’t as much of a bloody mess as your imagination might’ve led you to believe.
In fact, most of the ingredients are cereals – only 5% of it is blood.
And the blood in the blood sausage? It’s powdered.
Bury Black Pudding on BBC’s Inside the Factory. Credit: BBC
In the episode, production director Richard Morris (who has worked for Bury Black Pudding his whole life, following in his grandfather’s footsteps), said: “There’s no big tubs of blood.
“To actually transport it, it needs to be dry. And there’s also no bacteria in it, so we can use this over a 12 month period.”
Inside every delicious slice you’ll also find oatmeal, pearl barley, rusk, onions and pork fat.
Another surprising thing is the sheer size and volume of the black puddings before they’re portioned and packaged for our homes.
A 600kg batch will make about 3,000 black puddings, with the mixture added to a vacuum filler before being pumped under high pressure into recyclable plastic casings.
Hundreds of these tubes are cooked into a steam oven for an hour and 20 minutes, then sliced into the black pudding we recognise in an ultrasonic slicer.
3,000 sticks a day, five days a week, are sliced up for the shelves into around 120,000 slices.
Speaking of the opportunity to appear on Inside the Factory, brand and marketing manager Matthew McDermid said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the heritage and passion that goes into making our black pudding.
“We are incredibly proud of our history and our role in bringing this traditional product to consumers, we can’t wait for the nation to see how the UK’s leading brand of black pudding is made.”
Manchester streaming platform StreamGM unveils four-part creative industry careers podcast
Thomas Melia
A new four-partpodcast by StreamGM featuring some of Greater Manchester’s top creatives has launched with the aim of powering creative careers.
Produced by Rebecca Swarray, a.k.a. ‘RebeccaNeverBecky’ – the founder of the Manchester events and arts collective – this podcast is designed to “ignite and elevate creative careers in music.”
Swarray deep dives into the current Manc music scene and beyond with the help of fellow insiders who vary upon each episode.
There are four parts in this latest series and there’s lots to cover, especially in an industry that’s ever-changing and ever-challenging.
Some of the guests and speakers you can expect to listen to on ‘ICAM’ (In Conversations and Masterclasses)Credit: StreamGM/The Manc Group
Listeners can expect to learn all about ‘Women Behind The Music’ as part of the In Conversations and Masterclasses series with Sophie Bee, Sara Garvey and Kat Brown.
The next episode delves into another key music industry area, ‘Promoters, Venues And Events’, which is broken down by Baz Plug One, Strutty, Tashadean Wood and Liv McCafferty.
‘Artist Development And Management’ features Karen Boardman, Karen Gabay, Damian Morgan, and Via Culpan deep in discussion.
The final episode in this four-part series is ‘Videography And Photography In The Creative Industries’, which sees Johan Reitan, Alice Kanako and Ahmani Vidal talking all things visual.
These four features will be an incredible resource for any creative talents as it put together by professionals for upcoming professionals of any age from any background, race, gender and walk of life.
After all, that’s what is all about, right?
Abbreviated to ‘ICAM’, the podcast is certainly one to check out, with for aspiring artist managers, producers, photographers, promoters—anyone driven to make their mark in music and events.
These podcast sessions understand industry challenges, explore career journeys, creative influences, crisis management and lots more creative field concerns.
You can find the first episode in full down below:
The first episode of the new limited StreamGM podcast.
This run of shows is the second instalment by StreamGM: Greater Manchester’s phenomenal streaming platform dedicated to all things music, nightlife and culture.
Whether you’re a budding creative arts talent or just curious to find out insights into this wonderful innovative industry, you can listen to all the episodes from the series directly on StreamGM HERE.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester music news, another very special event is kicking off very soon:
Georgina Pellant -
3rd April 2023 
