Jeremy Vine guest Narinder Kaur was brought onto the morning show after her X post in which she slammed Italian food after a week-long holiday in Sicily went viral.
Stand-in host Rob Rinder explained to viewers: “Just to be clear, her Twitter went viral this week for complaining about the only food available on her holiday in Sicily being Italian.”
“Tell us what you actually tweeted,” the TV barrister and media personality requested.
“I tweeted something like, ‘Oh, my goodness. I’m sick of eating pasta and pizza,’ but what I should have added was I wouldn’t have minded if it was good. It just wasn’t good food,” Kaur replied.
Summarising, Rinder commented: “So you go to Italy? On holiday, a beautiful part of Italy as well, and you complain because…”
“It was just the same old pasta and pizza – and it felt like it was just reheated,” Kaur critiqued. “It was toddler slop. I’m sorry, when I go on holiday, a big part of my holiday is the cuisine. I’ve been very lucky to go to lots of parts of the world.”
As some photos of pasta dishes were shared, Kaur fumed: “Oh, my God, look at that. It was pesto pasta. I mean, I’d give that to a toddler! We were in Taormina and it’s expensive, and you expect good food!”
“Why did you order pasta?” Rinder quizzed, to which Kaur replied: “Every restaurant you went to, and we went to a lot – we were there seven days, three restaurants a day, and I’d open a menu, and I’d want to cry. I’d be like, ‘Oh my god, spaghetti.'”
Broadcaster and GB News regular Carole Malone disagreed, sharing her own experience of the area.
“I had some of the best food of my life,” she argued. As Kaur began to protest, Malone fumed: “Let me speak, and I’ll tell you!”
She continued: “So my husband and I, at lunch hours, we sourced the places that local people go because it’s good when you do that, and it was some of the best food I’ve ever had. How can you say it’s all pasta when there’s fish, there’s -“
Before Malone could continue though, Kaur interjected: “Fish, yes, but we had to go high end! Look, I’m not going to spend thousands and thousands – in Thailand and India and Mexico, you can get great street food for two quid.
“Italy is the kind of country… they are so proud of their cuisine. Sorry, Italy, you let me down, and I’ve been to local restaurants.”
“I think you were badly advised,” Rinder theorised, to which Kaur responded: “No! Seven days – badly advised?”
As Malone argued with Kaur, she hit back: “I know good food. Maybe you do not know good food,” prompting Malone to maintain that she does indeed know good quality food.
Malone showed some footage taken from a trip to Italy in which an array of different foods can be seen, sparking Kaur to assume: “That must have cost an arm and a leg.”
“No, it did not that’s – that was cheap!” Malone stated. Later, Rinder decided to pull up some stats that left Kaur red-faced.
“You were there for about a week, right? Now, you could have gone to presumably, other cuisines,” he pointed out.
Kaur doubled down as she insisted: “I mean, actually, that’s the other point. Now, when people choose come to London, we don’t offer them fish and chips for the entire week…”
“Well I just wanted to check this, but you might be right,” Rinder commented, asking again: “There were no other international cuisines? It was pasta or pizza?”
He then took out some cards containing the number of different cuisines available in Sicily, which indicated there were at least 17 Indian restaurants, 21 Mexican establishments, 102 Japanese eateries and even 42 McDonald’s restaurants on offer.
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“Not in Taormina,” Kaur shot back, but she was left humiliated as Rinder then showed her the same stats for the hilltop town.
“I put this to you – there you go,” he argued, showing how Kaur could have picked from three Indian restaurants, seven Mexican, five Japanese and one McDonald’s.
Kaur quickly rushed back to her initial argument about food quality, stating: “I do like to go to the cuisine – in Thailand, I could have eaten Pad Thai every day, because it’s good.
“The point is Italian food, in my experience, was not good. I’m sorry to Italians, I don’t mean to offend you, you’re good-looking people, you’re very stylish and you’re very kind and welcoming but your food is pants.”