A fitting end for Chalky

Unbelievably, the number one most emailed story on the BBC News site today was "Celebrity Chef Stein's Dog Dies", the celebrity chef being Rick Stein, and the dog being Chalky, his faithful 17-year-old Jack Russell. "It's a source of puzzlement to me that he never knew how famous he was," said his owner. There's nothing puzzling about it Rick, it's because he was a dog.

Rick continues, "We knew him at home as rather an unassuming, diffident dog, who was never greedy, pestered you a bit for walks but not too much and kept reasonably quiet."
Hmm, quite a character then eh? Fascinating stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I like dogs, and I'm sure Chalky was a fine example of man/chef's best friend, but no way worthy of the fame that's been heaped upon him by his celebrity owner. It seems to me that a much more fitting end for Chalky would be if he was flipped on his back and sliced open, his innards systematically scooped out and pan-fried in a fine Rioja and served up in his hollowed-out corpse with a side order of sweet potato and roasted shallots in the brutal culinary style for which his owner is so famous.