Letters to the Editor
-
FOX vs. BBC
The point that seems to be lost here is that the star of these shows is Gordon himself. So, regardless if he's on FOX, he's in control of how he's behaving. If his behavior is wildly different on the FOX show from the BBC show than shame on him. It would benefit him to understand that the same Yanks who are watching his program on BBC would watch the FOX version - if it weren't for his overly-abusive and offensive behavior.
-
@tango
It may be useful to consider that Fox wouldn't air "Kitchen Nightmares" if it was closer to the BBC version. I think your point is valid, however. Perhaps the appeal of reaching a larger audience on an American broadcast network has led Mr. Ramsay to sell his soul--but I like "Hell's Kitchen" and the BBC version of "Kitchen Nightmares." He can still be pretty abrasive either way.
-
Please don’t compare Ramsay to Oliver. And he's not British. He's a Scott.
Real life top chefs are usually not warm cuddly people, especially in the kitchen. The stress of maintaining, one star, not to mention three stars, is the stuff of tirades at the least and suicides in the worst case scenario. People unacquainted to the realities of high octane professional kitchens merely see Ramsay as a blowhard rather than one of many hot tempered kitchen gurus.
Fox doesn't even really have to try to incite conflict because professional kitchens are a breeding ground for discord by their very nature.
Jamie Oliver is gifted in his own right, but he doesn't have the breadth of knowledge, skills or accolades that Gordon Ramsay earned all on his own. Someone saw early on how marketable Jamie Oliver could be while at that age Ramsay was still putting in hard times with the famously furious Marco Pierre White.
-
I wonder
if all the people who are OMG shocked!!!1! about that mean Mr. Ramsay cursing and shouting at the hapless would be equally horrified if there were a reality show featuring a drill sergeant cursing and shouting at the hapless. I doubt it; everyone's seen "Full Metal Jacket" by now.
I chalk it up to general ignorance about what working in a professional kitchen entails. Chefs yell. They curse. They berate and abuse. It's just what they do, with few exceptions. Customers never see this, and most have allowed themselves to be duped into believing that restaurants are classy, tasteful places. (Charlie Trotter's kitchen in Chicago, through which all comers are marched after dinner, is like unto a reading room at a medieval monastery in its reverent serenity. But then again, Charlie Trotter got sued for skimming his employees' Christmas bonuses. Coincidence, or not?)
Anyway, y'all might want to scrape the sand out of your vaginas and go read "Kitchen Confidential" already.
-
Transcendant Eggs?
Yes, until about 5pm or so the same day, when the e.coli kicks in. Perhaps I just missed something due to the editing, but those eggs looked woefully undercooked. Ramsay's whole "the heat's in HERE" schtick is flat wrong. The heat is on the flame, thank you. The trick to making great scambled eggs is a good eye. Light yellow with spackles of white. Then, check the texture. It should be *genuinely* fluffy (his looked sodden). I'll grant him the rest.
As to his behavior, alright, I'll buy the fact that professional kitchens are pressure cookers (no pun intended). But I have a friend who used to work as a sous chef who witnessed a head chef, enraged, throwing a scalding-hot plate of something into the face of another sous chef. The other sous chef ended up with a personal scar. I asked my friend if the head chef had been arresed for assault and battery. He looked at me like I was nuts. But I'm sorry, assault is assault. "It's my job"-"It's the nature of a kitchen" just doesn't cut it. Being an asshole isn't illegal; wounding someone IS.
-
Agree - 'Kitchen Nightmares' is far better
It's a show that seems deliberately designed to waste Ramsay's considerable talents both as a chef and as a television personality by having him send inexperienced, talentless cooks through a particularly dull meat grinder
I agree. The show is the same ol' each time around now. a bunch of loser saps are rounded up from the backwater dregs of Amerikka and asked to perform this or that cooking task - which Ramsey finds objectionable most of the time.
Eventually, after n weeks, a final "winner" emerges, who achieves the prize of Voila! - getting to work as a sour chef in a "top line restaurant"- like the Red Rocks in Vegas. Ooo yeah!
The show is a waste, and 'Kitchen Nightmares' is far better. There you get to see Ramsey actually doing various communities a favor by exposing restaurants that ought to be comdemned for the standard of food, serving, and environments portrayed. But, at the end of the program, Ramsey has succeeded in notching the earlier 'nightmare' into a decent place, where people can actually consume whatever....without worrying about salmonella.
Anyway, since the wife likes 'Hell's Kitchen' we will watch it though I will be paying more attention to my new book, The Atheist Manifesto, especially the current chapter 'Bonfires of the Intelligence' - documenting how stupid religions are.
-
but.. that's not even true!
Ramsay's whole "the heat's in HERE" schtick is flat wrong. The heat is on the flame, thank you.
Um. A heavy-bottomed saucier, which is what Mr. Ramsay made his eggs in, holds a tremendous amount of heat. That's kind of the point of using a pan like that; it's what they're designed to do.
If you don't buy it, and are still convinced that the heat magically disappears once the pan is removed from the burner, try this: heat a saucepan on the stove, take it off, wait about fifteen seconds, then hold the bottom of the pot to your forehead. See that? Heat.
-
Wait a sec...
You mean...
Reality TV...
isn't...
REAL?!?!
Ohmigod.
I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.
-
the real Hell's Kitchen
begins when they get down to 4 ppl or so. Half the contestants they bring in don't have any real chance of cutting it and are just setups; but once they get down to the people who can actually cook (in a restaurant), you start to see Ramsay nurture them and offer more constructive criticism...though that's not to say the ass reamings stop, far from it. But that's par for the course when working in a kitchen.
On Kitchen Nightmares (especially the BBC version), you really see his eye for talent. He can spot a line chef (or even a kitchen porter) w/ potential from a mile away. He'll work hands-on w/ them to build their confidence and skills, and you can really see Ramsay's genuine affection for these guys. It's the same w/ Hell's Kitchen, you just have to get thru all the chaff first.