Cooking with Katy!

Ollie - live on stage with Katy (well the top of his head anyway).

One of the undoubted highlights of our trip to Butlins was the live show of I Can Cook. Every Wednesday, Katy Ashworth comes down to Minehead for an hour long "I Can Cook - Live".

The show was free but you had to queue to get tickets for it - which I did - halfway around the Skyline Pavillion, shortly after breakfast. We managed to get tickets for the morning showing, and so, just before 11am on Wednesday we entered "Reds" the large venue in which the show was being held and looked for somewhere to sit - not that easy among hundreds of adults and children. Fortunately there was an area down by the front where the kids were sitting on the floor, so Ollie and I made our way down there, and found a place on the extreme right of the stage.

As it turned out this happened to be precisely the best place to go, as right where we sat down was what appeared to be a portable sink unit. More of that later.

So 11am arrived and on cue, on to the stage, in the flesh was the fantastic Katy Ashworth. And the show began, with all the usual songs and Katy plus some guests - including a pantomime baddy dressed as a salt cellar whom we had to boo every time he appeared on stage.

Once we got on to the core part of the show, Katy asked for volunteers to take part. Cue hundreds of children clamouring for attention. As I mentioned we were standing in just the right place by the sink as the first 4 children picked had to come over to was their hands with "slippy dippy soap", as the song goes. Katy had asked the children to show their muscles as she wanted strong children to roll out the pastry. Ollie was still enthusiastically showing his, and he caught her attention - and mine, commenting on what a strong little boy he was. He was dead chuffed - as we know Ollie's quite little really. I had her attention at this point and could have made flirty comment during that brief second of eye contact, but quite frankly every comment I could think of involving showing my "muscle" sounded like some some terrible old cheesy double entendre from the carry on film days, so I restrained myself. Besides - there is something about chatting up children's TV presenters that just seems wrong.

Anyway, whether it was my charm or Ollie's that worked, I don't know, but amazingly, she picked him and up he went on to stage, beaming away, to take part in the show. As you can see from the picture at the top. He had to help roll out the pastry for the tarts they were making and then help her put it in the oven.

But first - there was a little interview. Each child (there were 4 of them) was asked what their favourite food was. The other answers were reasonably sensible - one said pizza, another said sandwiches. But Ollie's interview went like this.

Katy interviewing Ollie

Katy: "Hello, and what's your name?"
Ollie: (pause) "Ollie"
Katy: "And what's your favourite food, Ollie?"
Ollie: "Smarties!"

This got a big laugh and a cheer from the crowd. I could not see very well from where I was what was happening but it was all being filmed and shown on the television, so I could see he was doing well. Katy came over to help him and he looked so happy - and also engaged in what he was doing, which as you will know if you are aware of his issues, is really good for him.

Once the food was in the oven there were more songs and stories, and then they all had to go back up on stage to try the finished article which was a king of cheesy choux pastry thing. When asked on the mic what he thought of it, Ollie's answer was "I think it's very the best!"

Sampling the fayre.

After the show we got to meet Katy and she gave Ollie a big hug, as you can see in the picture below.

Cuddles with Katy

It was a fantastic day, and Ollie has a great claim to fame, he's been on I Can Cook and met Katy. And i got to chat to her briefly too, so I was happy :-) He's looking forward to telling his friends at school all about it.

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Jason xx