Gemma Bissix Interview
05 August 2009
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Fuelled by the success of TV shows like Come Dine With Me the trend to host dinner parties is back with a vengeance, with more of us inviting our friends round for an evening of socialising, food, wine and conversation. But what do we look for in our ideal dinner companions that will keep us enthralled in them from the first chink of the wine glasses through to when the last taxi arrives?
Hollyoaks actress Gemma Bissix, has the glamour and brains to grace any dinner party, though her evil alter-ego Clare Devine might be less welcome! Gemma’s recent experiences on Master Chef also stand her in good stead as an authority on how to socialise in style without necessarily cooking up a seven course meal. I caught up with Gemma to find out how to impress my guests.
Hey Gemma, what are you up to at the minute then?
Well the reason I’m here today is because I’ve been doing some research with Echo Falls wine who sponsor Come Down With Me and they’re focusing on this new craze that eating in is the new eating out!
We’ve been doing all these surveys to find out the top dinner party typologies, for example the top celebrity guest and things like that, it’s been really interesting.
Well I love wine and I love Come Down With Me! So, you’re doing this and we saw you earlier this year in celebrity MasterChef, are you a bit handy in the kitchen then?
Well I wasn’t until I signed up for MasterChef and then I started having dinner parties and invited my friends round to test my cooking ability. We’ve always got together me and my friends but they were always the ones who cooked! I wouldn’t say I’m an expert because I only got to the quarter finals in Master Chaf so I wasn’t that great…
Oh well, so what do you think makes the idea dinner party?
Well personally for me it’s the guests, and that’s what we found in the surveys as well. The guests we far more important than things like presentation - which come right down at the bottom! - I’d probably disagree with the top celebrity guest though…
Ooh, what were they?
Well, nationally, Stephen Fry came out at the top by far. I mean I’d talk to him, but for me it would be Johnny Depp for all intellectual reasons of course. Then I’d move on to people like Jennifer Aniston and Jeremy Clarkson because I love Top Gear…. Get me in the reasonably priced car and then come have a dinner party.
Ooh, good idea, I’d invite Jenson Button or Sebastian Vettel I think, I hear the way to a mans heart is through his food… But who came out as the worst dinner party guest?
Well, obviously I don’t want to put the negatives in, but the bottom guests were Victoria Beckham, [FF: Well she probably won’t eat much!] well that’s what someone else said to me, it’s not my opinion but I’d like a meat eater at my party, I’m not into the old veg and steamed fish. I don’t think Cheryl Cole or anyone on a diet would be interested in my party because it will be full of cream and fat!
Yumm, I love it!
Oh, Katie Price also came down the bottom as well.
Now I can’t cook to save my life, how can I pull off a great evening without serving up fancy food?
If you cant cook? You’d probably be better off getting a takeaway!
Brilliant advice! So, although we’d all like to share a bottle of wine with a successful actress like yourself, we all know you as nasty Clare Devine in Hollyoaks, how did you find playing that role and did you ever get people screaming at you in the street?
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