Jeremy Clarkson has branched out into the world of farming in recent years and tried to teach himself how to cook – but he admits Chinese cuisine is ‘beyond’ him
Jeremy Clarkson has confessed that a common skill may be “beyond” him as he opened up about his “struggles” at home. The 65 year old shot to fame due to his time on the BBC’s Top Gear.
In recent years, he’s ventured into farming after buying a 1,000-acre plot in Oxfordshire. What was once known as Curdle Hill Farm has now transformed into the wildly popular Diddly Squat Farm. Jeremy’s journey of learning how to farm is documented in the Amazon Prime Video series, Clarkson’s Farm.
Whilst he seems to have got the hang of many aspects of rural life, there’s one domestic skill Jeremy confesses he grapples with.
The television host admits he’s not a proficient cook. Nevertheless, he recently decided to teach himself the “rudiments” of cooking, revealing that his foray into farming means he has “excellent ingredients quite literally on my doorstep”.
Jeremy shares that he decided to whip up a bechamel sauce. Whilst his first attempt went “surprisingly” well, his second resembled “an amputated testicle”.
Initially blaming the Diddly Squat Farm Aga, Jeremy eventually conceded that the issue might lie with him. Writing in The Times, he said: “Could it be that some people simply can’t cook? I know I can’t do DIY or gardening, and I’d have no clue how to mend an engine, so maybe the dark art of making food hot is just another one of those things that’s beyond me.”
This prompted him to purchase a rib of beef from his neighbourhood butcher and make his way to The Farmer’s Dog pub, which he launched in 2024, to see if he could manage cooking in his professional kitchen. He subsequently explained that he opted to prepare the beef in his “£20,000 Rational oven”.
Following the beef emerging “perfect,” Jeremy quipped that all he required was a “foolproof oven”. Nevertheless, he has since disclosed that he’s successfully created a pho with star anise, a bruschetta, and a pork and black pepper dish.
There remains, however, one type of cuisine that continues to perplex the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? presenter. He added: “But I do struggle whenever I try to make something Chinese. I watch the recipes on TikTok and buy high-quality oyster and soy sauces. I even have an expensive wok, but whenever I try to stir-fry slivers of beef, they always come out of the pan looking like burnt matches.”
Jeremy jested that he did try to locate someone capable of teaching him Chinese cookery, but described the Cotswolds as “famously racist”. Meanwhile, Jeremy has recently enjoyed positive news regarding his pub following the submission of proposals to utilise an adjacent field as additional car parking.
West Oxfordshire District Council has reportedly approved temporary consent for the land to serve this purpose, whilst Historic England praised the television personality for participating in conversations concerning a nearby barrow.
The statement read: “Having previously engaged in discussions about the car park and the barrow, we are pleased to see that an application has now been submitted. This is a positive step in finalising discussions around parking for the pub.”
