London restaurateur Gordon Ramsay has called for fines on restaurants that use food that is out of season.
The notoriously foul-mouthed television chef, told the BBC that he had spoken to prime minister Gordon Brown about imposing penalties on restaurants that use imported food.
"Fruit and veg should be seasonal," he said. "Chefs should be fined if they haven't got ingredients in season on their menu.
"I don't want to see asparagus on in the middle of December. I don't want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown."
He added that if out of season produce were banned, chefs would find higher "levels of inspiration" and work with what was available instead of being "lazy".
Ramsay recently opened the Maze Grill, which features Wagy, a Kobe-style beef from pampered Japanese cows.
The former footballer and Michelin-starred chef was recently surprised when his own children came home using the sort of language he uses in his rants on television.
After his son asked him what a "w*****" was, he figured out that school children were deliberately teaching him a new swear word every day.
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