FOOD TVSam Fox

12:00 AM - Wednesday 7 July 2010

Samantha Fox discusses doing battle with Janice Dickinson on Celebrity Come Dine With Me and her huge American portions, plus an irresistible Asian recipe...

Sam Fox could never be described as a wallflower. Along with Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana, she was possibly the most photographed British woman of the 1980s in her glamour-model heyday, known for being bubbly and chatty.

But even Sam was railroaded by the force of nature that is Janice Dickinson….

Janice, the often-outrageous, self-proclaimed ‘world’s first supermodel’ whose caustic tongue caused a stir on 2007’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, is on fine – if sometimes cringeworthy – form as Sam’s fellow guest on this week’s Celebrity Come Dine With Me.

"I’m a chatterbox, but even I couldn’t get a word in edgeways with Janice around," laughs Sam. She talked over us, even when I tried to butt in, it was ridiculous!

"Janice is like Marmite: you either love her or hate her. I’d watched her in the jungle and thought she was great doing all those trials. She’s a woman who says it like it is which makes me laugh."

This week’s other two guests, TV presenter Jeff Brazier and playboy Calum Best, look mostly bemused by Janice, particularly Calum (or ‘Gollum’ as she kept calling him), whom Janice took a shine to.

"She kept jumping on him and was really flirty and I could tell he was getting fed up because he was taking the competition seriously," says Sam, who was often the one left to try and calm Janice down (no mean feat).

"Filming took for ever because Janice kept swearing. The director kept yelling, 'Cut!' because they couldn’t do so much bleeping!"

The former Page 3 star-turned pop star had her own patience tested when Janice attacked topless modelling.

"I had to tell her that Page 3 is an institution; it’s fun and makes people smile and I changed the face of it and showed personality and brains too, says Sam, who made a cracking meal of Malaysian chicken satay with peanut sauce (see recipe), Thai beef massaman curry and a Vietnamese fruit salad.

"I tour in Asia a lot and love their food, says Sam, who starred in last year’s I’m A Celebrity…! "No one cooked a bad meal. I ate better than when I was in the jungle – at least there were no beans!"

She did annoy Janice for not eating all her fish and mushroom main course.

"It was typically American huge portions," explains Sam, "and I’m 5ft 1!"

But in the end, she says the two women bonded and are even talking about setting up a modelling agency together. "If I can get a word in edgeways that is…" she sighs.