Source - Huddersfield Examiner 18 December 2009.

He may have narrowly missed out on being crowned TV’s F Word winner.

But Huddersfield chef Barrington Douglas is still celebrating after being presented with the shirt off celebrity Gordon Ramsay’s back.

The top chef was so impressed with the effort Huddersfield Caribbean restaurant Discovery Bay put in on his Channel 4 show this week, he handed over his cooking whites as a memento.

And with a record 187 restaurant bookings within an hour of the show being aired, owner Barrington Douglas is enjoying the taste of his success.

There was also a similar story of fame for the El Gato Negro restaurant, from Ripponden, following their success on the show.

Douglas, 42, and his sous chef Lashawn Price, cooked up a three-course Caribbean feast on the programme.

The pair were competing against Argentinean restaurant Santa Maria Del Sur, of Battersea, in the Americas section of a contest to find the nation’s best local restaurant.

Each team was scored on how many diners were willing to pay for their meals. Discovery Bay performed well with 23 out of 25 paying for their starters, 30 out of 50 shelling out for their mains and 22 out of 25 putting their hands in their pockets for their dessert.

Sadly, they missed out on a place in the final after being pipped to the post by their rivals.

Barrington was disappointed that his rum pork main course was hampered by plastic cooking tongs melting onto some of the food, which was sent back by several diners.

The Fartown man said: “I feel as though I was a winner to have got that far.

The competition was tight, and if we had been up against anyone else we would have won.

“Gordon said we did brilliant and he gave us his whites there and then. We’ve framed them for the restaurant.

“At the end of the day, I feel we did Huddersfield and Yorkshire proud.”

Discovery Bay was chosen out of 10,000 restaurant hopefuls.

After spending a month travelling around the Caribbean with celebrity chef Gary Rhodes for UKTV, Barrington is now hoping to appear with Jamie Oliver.

He added: “I have put my life on the line for my restaurant. Watching the show at home with friends, I couldn’t believe how far I’d come.”

Calderdale restaurant El Gato Negro won the best local Spanish restaurant in Britain on the show.

Owner of the Ripponden tapas bar, Chris Williams, told the Examiner it was like Christmas had come early.

He said: “It has been amazing.

“I just took a call now from a young woman in Barcelona who actually watched the programme over there with her parents.

“And she’s just called up now to book her parents in for a special treat.

“We’ve had people from all over calling and making bookings – from Cheshire and Liverpool and Headingley.

“Some people have been booking out the local bed and breakfasts just so they can come and eat here.

“On the night of the show I just sat next to the phone for three hours taking non-stop calls."