Blueberry tart

Meringue tart

A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard. Tartlet refers to a miniature tart.

The categories of 'tart', 'flan', and 'pie' overlap, with no sharp distinctions, though 'pie' is the more common term in the United States.^[1]

Early medieval tarts generally had meat fillings, but later ones were often based on fruit and custard.^[1]

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart, of apples, other fruit, or onions.

Savoury tarts include quiche, a family of savoury tarts with a mostly custard filling; German zwiebelkuchen 'onion tart', and Swiss cheese tart made from Gruyere.

A tart can also be term for a prostitute or a promiscuous woman.^[2]

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tarts

Look up tart in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Bakewell tart
• Butter tart
• Custard tart
• Egg tart
• Gypsy tart
• Manchester tart
• Neenish tart
• Treacle tart

References[link]

This article's references may not meet Wikipedia's guidelines for reliable sources. Please help by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. (December 2011)

Karl Pilkington
Pilkington in 2008
Born	(1972-09-23) 23 September 1972 (age 39) Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, UK
Occupation	Television personality, actor, former Radio producer, podcast presenter, author, broadcaster
Partner	Suzanne Whiston

Karl Pilkington (born 23 September 1972) is an English television personality, actor, author, former radio producer. He gained prominence as the producer of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's radio program on XFM. He appeared on The Ricky Gervais Show, presented the Sky travel series An Idiot Abroad,^[1] and made his acting debut on Gervais' 2012 comedy-drama series Derek.

Early life and education[link]

Karl Pilkington was born and grew up in Trafford, Greater Manchester. He was educated at Ashton-on-Mersey School, receiving just one GCSE, an "E" in History.^[2][3] Pilkington only became aware of his GCSE results after Gervais and Merchant contacted the school after a conversation during their XFM show. Pilkington was surprised and upset at his results as he recalled sitting through several other GCSE exams, as well as sending in a "little clay man" for Art. A failure to register for the exams was offered as an explanation by Gervais and Merchant for his lack of other grades.^[4]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Pilkington relocated to London to work with XFM as a producer and after several years he began work on The Ricky Gervais Show, broadcast on Saturday afternoons. Initially Pilkington was solely the program's producer. However, as Gervais and Merchant began to invite him to make the odd comment, Pilkington's persona came to light and his popularity increased. Pilkington was eventually included as a main element of the broadcasts, with large amounts of airtime often given over to his thoughts on various subjects, or various childhood stories. In December 2005, Pilkington stood in for two BBC 6 Music shows for Nemone, and co-presented the shows with Russell Brand.

Celebrity[link]

Pilkington's presence on The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts significantly increased his popularity. He has often been mentioned in interviews given by Gervais, and is often the butt of Gervais' practical jokes. After saying "I could eat a knob at night" on the podcast (in relation to I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! contestants eating a kangaroo penis), Gervais encouraged his listeners to sample the sound bite and mix it into dance songs for night clubs. The phrase spawned several dance music mixes, T-shirts and merchandise. Many of Pilkington's quotes have since gained publicity, particularly on the Internet. Reuters, commenting on this issue, described Pilkington as a "phenomenon" who had made "Internet history".^[5]

On 23 November 2010, while appearing live on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 Live afternoon show, Gervais surprised Pilkington with an on-air phone call. This led to a conversation where Pilkington, who claimed to have been interrupted while grouting his kitchen, said he had not yet been paid for his work on An Idiot Abroad and concluded the interview with an off-the-cuff link into the hourly news.^[6] Pilkington has worked independently of Gervais and Merchant on a number of projects. He appeared as a guest on the shows Flipside TV and The Culture Show,^[7] and appeared in several short films as part of the Channel 4 initiative "3 Minute Wonders".

Merchant and Gervais themselves have repeatedly denied claims that Pilkington's comic persona is their creation. In an on-air response to similar claims made by Chris Campling during a broadcast on XFM, Merchant stated that he would be "ashamed" if the radio show were scripted, adding, "If we had created Karl, I would not have squandered a character that good on this poxy radio station".^[8] Gervais concurred, pointing out that writing a single series' worth of half-hour episodes of shows such as The Office and Extras took the two up to a year. An interviewer for The Daily Telegraph concluded that Pilkington's persona is genuine.^[9]

Television and DVD[link]

In September 2010, Pilkington featured in a television series produced by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant called An Idiot Abroad on Sky1.^[10][11] The series documented a global adventure by Pilkington instigated by Gervais and Merchant in order to take Pilkington out of his comfort zone.^[12] The series consists of eight 45-minute episodes tracking Pilkington as he negotiates the Wonders of the World in an attempt to broaden his horizons. The series is accompanied by a book published by Canongate and co-written by Gervais and Merchant.^[13]

Series 2 of An Idiot Abroad debuted on 23 September 2011 on Sky1. The series involved Pilkington trying cross items off a list of ultimate things to do before you die.^[14] In June 2011, Pilkington won The Best Presenter Award for An Idiot Abroad at the Factual Entertainment Awards.^[15]

Pilkington appears in a twenty-minute interview on Gervais' live stand-up comedy DVD, Politics. The DVD of Gervais's film The Invention of Lying contains a short film called Meet Karl Pilkington, entirely devoted to documenting Pilkington's humiliating non-speaking caveman role in the DVD extra feature The Dawn of Lying. He was also invited to be an extra on the final episode of Extras. Pilkington has also performed voice-over work for such clients as One Stop Office Shop, FreeView, Vodafone, HMV, Sony PSP, W H Smith, Wickes, and Unilever. Pilkington made his acting debut on 12 April 2012 in the Channel 4 comedy-drama Derek, portraying caretaker and bus driver Dougie.^[16]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Film[link]

Audio[link]

Bibliography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Karl Pilkington

• Official website
• Karl Pilkington's Profile on Xfm.co.uk
• Karl Pilkington's An Idiot Abroad
• Pilkipedia, the only online encyclopaedia and community based around Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais.

Michel Roux

Born	(1941-04-19) 19 April 1941 (age 71) Charolles, France

Michel Roux (born 19 April 1941) is a French-born chef and restaurateur working in Britain.

Born in Charolles, Saône-et-Loire, Roux moved to Paris with his family after the war, where they set up a charcuterie (delicatessen). At the age of fourteen he became a patissier (pastry chef), and later followed his elder brother Albert back to Paris to work as a chef.

When Albert moved to London, Michel again followed him, and in 1967 they opened their first restaurant, Le Gavroche, which became the first restaurant in Britain to gain one, two and then three Michelin stars. In 1972 they opened the Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire.

Michel was awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France for patisserie in 1976 and an honorary OBE alongside his brother in 2002 and is the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

In a poll of UK chefs carried out by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine in 2003, Michel and his brother Albert were voted the most influential chefs in the country. Michel Roux's son, Alain Roux, currently runs the Waterside Inn in Bray.

In July 2008, Roux announced that he would move permanently to Crans-Montana, Switzerland, citing concerns about the state of public safety in Britain.^[1]

References[link]

• "I love ze soufflé...", The Observer, Sunday 11 July 2004
• Profile of Michel & Albert Roux, CatererSearch]

Footnotes[link]

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