Anyone watching Hell's Kitchen?

[slappy4428]

It's not quite as ridiculously easy as last season, when Roc was like four times better than anyone else, but it'll be the two blondes and Bobby in the final three, and I think Corey probably wins. (I haven't even seen Tuesday's yet, so I'll feel dumb if one of them got booted already).

What's disappointed me the most is the way they've done almost nothing new this season. Same challenges, same rewards, same drama. And you could eliminate 80 percent of the elite culinary wizards halfway through the first episode. It's basically "The Real World" with the word "risotto" thrown in every 20 seconds and more trashcan-kicking than most shows. But hey, I still watch.

Boy, are you gonna feel silly...

 

[JoelHammond]

21, thank you!!

And, I was obviously being a little sarcastic about it being "fake." Obviously, it's fake.

I expect a little editing, but this JP thing in this episode was crazy! I thought I was seeing things, so we rewound it during. Sure enough, multiple different outfits.

Thanks again, 21.

 

[Msaint]

Aside from my inability to cook, I'd last about 10 minutes on that show. One fit of histrionics from that pissy ***** Ramsey, and I'd level the ****er. Criticism? Fine. His brand of insulting, belittling **** -- like Cowell with PMS -- and he'd be eating knuckles.

I watched last night, and there wasn't a whole lot of that... which surprised me. Every other time I've checked in, he's been throwing one of his tantrums.

What's funny about Ramsay is that on his BBC show "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" (others have referenced) he's actually a VERY funny, quick-witted, and often very compassionate guy...while also being, of course, brutally frank and getting in peoples' faces when they need it. He doesn't put up with any B.S or laziness in a kitchen and will skewer anyone who's dragging the place down, but he really does care about saving these restaurants that are on the brink of closing because he's failed in the past -- Argan Cafe, La Noisette, Pengelley's -- and feels their pain.

Also, he's great about spotting culinary potential in even the roughest line cook and mentoring them...in one episode, this pampered, lazy (and probably drug-addled) English daddy's girl and her clueless friend (two tarts with nothing more than waitress experience) were using daddy's money to run a Parisian vegetarian restaurant into the ground. Ramsay came in, cleaned the place up, got it heading in the right direction, convinced lazy, stubborn daddy's girl to stop dicking around in the kitchen and hire a potential head chef -- a young woman from Scotland, like Ramsay, who moved her entire life to Paris, eager as hell to learn in the city where Ramsay honed his chops. After going back to Scotland to uproot her life, she returned to Paris, only to discover that daddy's girl had run the place into the ground & closed up shop without telling her, leaving her unemployed and abandoned in a strange city. But Ramsay thought she had rough talent and drive, and immediately offered her a job training under one of his exec chefs back in London, paid for her to move back, put her up until she got on her feet, etc. Thought that was a class move.

I guess my point is, FOX, who knows that "compassionate mentor" doesn't sell, has clearly told him to be a sadistic douche and yell & scream because that's what we slackjawed Americans enjoy/relate to, but he's a much better guy than the Hell's Kitchen folks would want you to believe.

 

[Huggy]

The FOX Kitchen Nightmares was a joke, way over the top, it was the same ****ing thing every week: resturant in chaos, incompetent staff and management, total lack of cleanliness, Ramsay does a quick survey of the neighbourhood, figures out what kind of place in missing, redoes the menu, transforms the staff and next thing you know the Michelin people are at the door to hand out stars.

But the BBC one, as Msaint says, was so much better. Ramsay actually works with these people, showing them what to do in the kitchen (something he does very little of on Hell's Kitchen) and how to help their restrunt (as he pronounces it) succeed.

 

[mediaguy]

The thing about "Kitchen Nightmares" is that he also spends a ton of money cleaning the place up. It's amazing how much better a restaurant can do with a brand-new kitchen and a major makeover out front. It's not like he just tweaks the menu and -- voila -- there's a magical turnaround.

 

[JackReacher]

About this season's Hell's Kitchen.....I can't see either of the two finalists being able to become an exec chef at one of Ramsay's joints. They barely look competent enough to run a Waffle House.

 

[bagelchick]

I'm just so happy they finally got rid of that Jen....god she was irritating.

It took me a while to get used to the "yes Chef", "no Chef" crap. I couldn't believe they actually talked like that in the kitchen. I do like Top Chef much better, although the gratuitious product placement really irritated me this season.

 

[JackReacher]

And the contestants just aren't that good this season. During last season, I could have definitely seen Rock as an executive chef at a big time restaurant. This season? Not so much. Half the time, they can't even cook salmon without burning it.

That said, I gotta go with Petrozza.

 

[mediaguy]

OK, so Corey's out. I cannot fathom Petrozza winning. He just doesn't project the kind of image you want in a successful restaurant.

 

[Huggy]

So, Hell's Kitchen comes to an end with Christina a lukewarm winner.

But now it's been replaced by - WAIT FOR IT - yet another Hell's Kitchen starting next week (here in Canuckistan anyway) without Gordon Ramsey but with this guy:

http://www.citytv.com/micro/hellskitchen/chefs.asp

Yes, the tyrannical Marco Pierre White, "London's rudest chef", and Ramsay's mortal enemy. Cage match, anyone?

 

[JR]

So, Hell's Kitchen comes to an end with Christina a lukewarm winner.

But now it's been replaced by - WAIT FOR IT - yet another Hell's Kitchen starting next week (here in Canuckistan anyway) without Gordon Ramsey but with this guy:

http://www.citytv.com/micro/hellskitchen/chefs.asp

Yes, the tyrannical Marco Pierre White, "London's rudest chef", and Ramsay's mortal enemy. Cage match, anyone?

Hey, thanks for the heads-up on this one.
Should be lots of fun.

 

[JoelHammond]

That sounds awesome. ... Agreed on Jen, and I'm glad Petrozza didn't win; all he did the whole season was the garnishes!!

Christina's freakout over the dining room was good TV, also.

 

[Huggy]

Not sure if that new Hell's Kitchen is on south of the 49th....check your local listings!

 

[Singapore Slim]

I don't know if I'd call Marco Gordon's "enemy." They've disagreed on (silly) stuff, but the respect I'm sure is there on both sides.

Mpaint's been nailing it. The UK version of the show is some of the best TV you'll ever see, and the FOX versions are so much worse it's shocking. In the UK, Ramsay redoes the menu, works with existing chefs, and makes a difference (sometimes) from the inside-out. In the US, FOX buys a brand new kitchen for them to work with.

The only time I saw something like that was in a recent UK version, where he bought a new kitchen setup for a cutlery that wasn't used to cooking to order.

I learned my lesson this season, and only watched half of the penultimate episode of Hell's Kitchen, and the final. That's it. And all the FOX edits (which are way more obvious on their version of Kitchen Nightmares, by the way) were all over the place. A cook (that's what they are, let's face it) is screwing up the fish station, Ramsay/another cook will snap at him over it, and then there's a quick shot of the cook whining under his breath about needing to be left alone.

Is the cook at the fish station? No, he's working on risotto. They have to splice the bitching in with the moaning to make the entire night look like one big ***** and moan fest.

Don't get me wrong. I've worked in kitchens. I grew up around chefs. It is a ***** and moan fest. But the edits on that show are just infuriating at times.

Last year's group, every damn week, would screw up the same three dishes: beef wellington, scallops, risotto. Same dishes. These are cooks, barely.

I'm not much of a Top Chef fan, either. These chefs are quite talented and obviously informed, but they haven't learned that simplicity is what the Michelin people are after. Basically because they're insecure. It takes a real odd mindset to want to be on TV, competing and living in a condo with 11 other people, and putting up with pathetic product placement "challenges." And that mindset usually leads to insecurity and a lack of confidence despite plenty of outward bluster, which leads to 49 extra ingredients on a plate.

 

[Huggy]

Hey I didn't call this Marco guy Ramsay's enemy, the promo people did. I'd never heard of him. And the premise of this show - turning celebrities into chefs - may be even more ridiculous than the Hell's Kitchen FOX shows.

I am a big fan of the UK Kitchen Nightmares. Ramsay cares a whole lot more than he does in the FOX version, where you're right, they just give the place a makeover and be done with it.

 

[Singapore Slim]

I was quibbling with the promo, not you.

And I'm wrong anyway (or closer to it). I forgot about the wedding deal with Ramsay. I thought it was more in reference to Marco putting that picture of Ramsay in his book, and those two going back and forth over the merits of a Whopper.

 

[Huggy]

Ah, there you go. So we're in agreement the promo people are out of it here.

Does anyone really care about feuding chefs? Not exactly Hulk Hogan - Macho Man Savage...

 

[ScribePharisee]

There are five left, and last night, each had their own station. One of the cooks was struggling on fish, and seeing that, Jean Phillippe, the host guy, tells all his waiters and waitresses to start pushing meat.

But when he was at "the pass" and when he turned around, he had two different suits on!!

Is it possible Hell's Kitchen is as fake as "The Hills"?

Please tell me someone else saw this.

I want to eat Satan's food. That man demands my money's worth.

 

[CNY]

Salon.com had an interesting <a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_drink/2007/05/22/pierre_whiteqa/">interview</a> with Marco Pierre White last year.

Ramsay's <a href="http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/f-word/">F Word</a> show in England also is very good.