They only left for the venue 3 hours later which meant the chef was done with work and they weren't serving food.
The thing is that someone working on TG should have ensured there was someone available at the hotel to provide hot food if there was any kind of overrun, or that there was some way of getting hot food if the hotel could not. This sort of thing will be part of someone's job description on that programme; it is really basic stuff.
What I find somewhat amusing (and very telling) is that Clarkson apparently turned up at 9.30pm and the hotel chef had already gone home. 
When I was young, I worked restaurants in semi-rural areas for years and I cannot remember a chef being able to get away before 10.30pm, even on a slow night. Even if your last sitting is at 9pm, how does your chef wangle leaving 30 minutes later?
And then it turns out the hotel wanted to cut the power at 9.30am the following morning "for maintenance" and BBC staff had to beg them to leave it on for another hour so Clarkson could have a hot breakfast.
At which point, I do have to ask ... who the hell booked this hotel? And does no-one on that programme do any kind of contingency planning?
One of my friends is film crew a grip/gaffer/dolly/focus puller something and works a lot of location shoots. He has always said the most vital part of a location shoot is the catering. If the catering screws up, production screws up. You cannot expect people to work long days if there is no hot food. He once told me that he worked a location shoot in Eastern Europe where they lost a day's filming in some remote location because the tea urn broke and the crew just wouldn't continue.
That is the reality of that kind of work, and I just think the BBC looks pretty incompetent.