4401 replies to this topic

[jennifuh]

This sounds like another one of those shows where they came up with the title before the concept.

[basso]

Anyone watching the new UK Hells Kitchen (with the gorgeous french chef)? Brilliant...

[Melk]

I hope he curses in this one as much as he cursed in the original British version. I believe he set the British record for the highest number of uses of 'fuck' and 'fucking' in a television programme. A couple of hundred in one hour I think it was.

[skeevo666]

Maybe he can get a guest spot on Deadwood :-P

[tonkacat]

This show sounds delightful! I'll be there in the front row. Bring on the snark.

[Shanimal]

Crap. I was actually beginning to consider myself something of a foodie, and now I don't even know who this guy is. How are y'all catching him on the British version? Maybe it's just my part of the country, but try as I might, I've never found anything that captivating on BBC America.

[PornQueen]

I admit I squealed with delight when I caught the commercial for this. Gordon Ramsay makes good (profanity laden) tv, at least what I have seen on BBCA. I'm so all over this.

[NYGirl]

I saw the commercial twice this week and I am so looking forward to this. It looks like a trainwreck. My favorite kind of Reality TV.

I'm still missing Wickedly Perfect. Why? I have no idea!

[ChocolateCherry]

I'm gonna drink every time they bleep him. I'm gonna be so toasted.

It's ok NYGirl because Gordon will kill all the memories of Wickedly Perfect by telling poor defenseless cooks that they have bollocks for brains and shit for ears. Great now I'm imagining what Wickedly Perfect would have been with Gordon instead of Bobby Flay.
Is it wrong that I'm anticipating an uncensored DVD even before the show starts?

Edited by ChocolateCherry, May 12, 2005 @ 11:52 AM.

[PetuniaP]

I just watched a couple of episodes of Beyond Boiling Point on BBC-A and by crikey! To be very British about it, Gordon Ramsay might be the biggest wanker I've ever seen. I read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain so I know that kitchens are among the most stressful, profanity laden, and abusive places to work but Gordon Ramsay takes it to a whole new level. On the epiodes I saw, his entire purpose in the kitchen seems to keep up a scorcing diatribe of vitriol directed at his staff. He threw a fit over some beans that had been boiled 5 days before and just laid into everyone like a hot knife into butter. How his employees could stand it, I'll never know. I would have burst into tears and fled the room.

I look forward to watching Hell's Kitchen but I have a feeling I will feel very, very sorry for the contestants. I wonder if they had any idea what they were getting themselves into.

Edited by PetuniaP, May 12, 2005 @ 3:51 PM.

[bluegirl]

I'm glad Im not the only one who watched beyond boiling point and thought Ramsey was an ass. The whole program was just one giant ego stroke. It was all about how great he is. No one had a problem with his abusive behavior and he was just the kindedest most greatest chef that ever lived. Ugh.
It's okay to take out your anger on your employees. he didn't get his star because he wasn't the best. He didn't get it because the judges are biased. They don't like him because of his show.

I kept waiting for one the employee's to step up and tell him off. Or atleast get smart and scarastic but I had to settle for the waitress giving him attitude. Highly disappointing.

Anyway I will probably watch atleast one episode.

[miss tuliplee]

I watched the first two episodes and they are insane in the membrane. Ramsay is a complete nutter -- I remember seeing him on the BBC show "Faking It" hen he trained some bad-toothed temp to be a real chef, and the guy ending up winning this bogus competition, and G.R. was a jerk and a half then. But he's truly the meanest fucker on the planet.
Twelve Americans who range from a guy who keeps calling himself an "executive chef, to Ramsay's extreme annoyance, to a morbidly and blubbily obese "baker" and Southern mama's boy to housewives who cook pretty well for their kids are the contestants. First, they have to whip up their "signature dish." Some lazy bitch makes a salad because she "loves endive." The chefs are excoriated in a scorching wave of f-words for having no palate, making food that looks like a "dog's dinner" and generally being fucking wankers. Interestingly, the housewives do rather well, making simple dishes that please the master. Then they're told that Hell's Kitchen, the restaurant, is open and they'll be cooking for real people -- real stupid people, it turns out -- as of ... NOW. Red Team vs. Blue Team as in The Biggest Loser.
Ramsay pulls shit like yelling "Get back to your station!" at one poor girl, who elaborately shrugs as she heads back to her station, only to be pulled back into the madness as G.R. bellows "What! What's this?!" [exaggerated shrugging action] and then "I told you to get back to your station!!!!!" I hate people like that. They all weep and claim that "Chef" only wants the best from them blah de Stockholm Syndrome blah. But there's a lot of funny stuff. The scene from the ad in which he holds a plate perpindicular to the floor and screams "What's this?!" is magnificent -- it's the grossest plate of risotto ever, in fact, and does not budge a millimeter no matter how he manipulates the plate. I mean, come on, people.
He throws out tons of food, which broke my flinty Presbyterian heart -- lobster and Beef Wellington and salmon. What a disgusting waste. The idiots who came for their (has to be free) meal wait for hours and hours and then tramp into the kitchen to moan, and Ramsay is merciless. He tells the maitre d' to escort three bimbos "back to plastic surgery" and insults everyone who comes near him asking what happened to their Caesar salad.
As in all reality shows, "Hell's Kitchen" toys with your snap judgments -- obvious losers who slide through prove to be valuable and sensible, good folks fuck up big time. There's about as much backstage interaction as in American's Next Top Model, so you get to see some heinous shit on the part of the would-be chefs. But they have to bleep -- no lie-- probably a third of Ramsay. He can't fucking stop fucking swearing you fucking useless wanker.
It's riveting. I'd kill bunnies for one of those kitchens.

[vallegirl]

I've watched enough Gordon Ramsay, beginning with stumbling upon his appearance on So Graham Norton to know I'd probably utterly despise him if I had to work anywhere near him, but when he's not in his own kitchen and around his own employees, his brutal, hateful narcissism is fascinating.

I couldn't watch either Boiling Point series because his behavior was beyond reprehensible, but oddly enough on Kitchen Disasters his very same arrogance and know-it-all belligerence was completely watchable. Since he only has to make "entertaining television" and not get another Michelin star, I'm expecting the KD Gordon, not the BP one. And if the censors just let one "twat" get through, I'll laugh myself silly.

[lilyblue]

[...]but when he's not in his own kitchen and around his own employees, his brutal, hateful narcissism is fascinating.

That's it exactly! I know I could never work for him, but I know that I find his behavior intersting.

[catnip]

I couldn't watch either Boiling Point series because his behavior was beyond reprehensible, but oddly enough on Kitchen Disasters his very same arrogance and know-it-all belligerence was completely watchable.

I think that one important difference is that in Kitchen Nightmares, he seemed to be sincerely trying to help the restaurant owners, which somehow made up for his obnoxiousness. Plus he had less actual power over the people he was yelling at (for example, he seemed to fire people all the time in Boiling Point but couldn't actually fire anyone in Kitchen Nightmares).

[lilyblue]

I'm watching Boiling Point now and he is really awful. It's like he hates bullshit yet deals it out all the time. I don't know if I could handle watching Hell's Kitchen.

[BrandyAlexander]

I love the man. Seriously, he is utterly watchable. In the first Hell's Kitchen it was made up of celebrities and i will never get over him calling Edwina Curry [ex government minister] a "dried up old bitch". Plus we don't get our bad language bleeped. He did indeed set a new record on the number of times he said "fuck" on British telly.

However in saying all this, all the money in the world couldn't persuade me to work for him.

[vallegirl]

catnip it is the complete lack of real power over people (KD) that made him watchable on that series, and why I think he'll be just as watchable on Hell's Kitchen. The BP series had a little too much "reality" to them which made his meanness too much to bear. But when he calls someone else's 23-year-old "head chef" a twat, well, it's funny.

He does have a passion for cooking, and at least seems to demand the same standards of himself that he demands of others. I will give him that. Plus, just watching him lean into that guy who says "I'm not a quitter," (how wonderfully, cluelessly, clichely American of him) and hisses "You're not a cooker, either," makes me giggle.

Edited by vallegirl, May 30, 2005 @ 9:09 AM.

[AlmondEyes]

Hey, if it helps to ease my 24 withdrawal - 24 used to air at the same time - it works for me. And if it's trainwreck tv? Most assuredly, that works for me.

Never heard of this guy. One of my best friends is an apprentice chef in NYC, and she had some serious horror stories from working in different kitchens. No offense to any chefs out there, but they seem a bit . . . intense and driven, shall we say.

I did read Kitchen Confidential, and if this guy brings the crazy like Anthony Bourdain did in KC, I say bring it on. I love GR's method of "motivating" his chefs. Because having someone call me a dumbass on national tv would, like, totally inspire me to do my best.

[ChocolateCherry]

Dear Central Casting,

Next time we ask for "regular" extras please send us the most average looking people you have. We had a problem when we sat 4 blondes together at one table because they couldn't act upset to save their botoxed, tanorexic, bleached asses. Hopefully no one was paying attention, but do better next time.

Signed,
Fox

Lady 1: You hurt my friend's feelings. You told her to fuck off
GR: Tell her I meant it.

If I hadn't watched Kitchen Nightmares and part Boiling Point and 3 minutes of Beyond Boiling Point I would think Gordon was putting on an act. I don't know why I like his assholery, it's probably because I don't have to deal with him and I myself am evil 36.8% of the time.

[DCCrackMonkee]

Yeehoo! I have a Summer Show!

Loved it. Love him. Love the skinny tattoo guy. Love the bleeps. Love the drah-ma.

What an absolute ass. He's amazing. Between him and House, I have two nights a week with my asshole boyfriends for the summer. Fabulous!

"Blueberry?" Bwah!

[NYGirl]

That was so brutal but I loved every minute of it. I absolutely LOVE summer reality programs. I felt like I was watching Jerry Springer with all of the beeping out of GR's statements. I could hardly figure out what he was saying.

As soon as Elsie told Dewberry he would be safe I knew he was a goner. I thought for sure he'd be booted first. Didn't Carolann look like a poor man's Stephanie from Survivor?

The only thing I didn't like was the actresses used as customers. I can just imagine GR cursing at a regular customer like that. Their acting skills were just meh and they were only added to create drama. P.S. I didn't work.

All in all I'm definitely going to keep watching.

[valny]

Just finished watching the first episode and it was perversely entertaining but, is this Ramsay guy for real? Is the SHOW even for real?- because that was some twisted hour of programming. The part with the blonde "bimbos" as he called them was a WTF moment. Was that staged? Because I don't think anyone who owns a restaurant and wants repeat customers would talk to people like that.

I kept waiting for one the employee's to step up and tell him off.

I know! He needed someone to kick him in the nuts!

And I knew Elsie was going to call out Dewberry(heh!Dewberry) as her second choice, even though she told him he wasn't going anywhere. This show was too twisted for her NOT to be chosing him.

Weird,infuriating show, but I'll check it out again.

Edited by valny, May 30, 2005 @ 9:12 PM.

[lawyerlit]

i watched this show somewhat reluctantly, and I am not sure if I will watch it again. It just seemed so staged, what with the contestant's reactions and the melodramatics.

However, although I have never heard of the Chef guy--jeez, I have forgotten his name--I kind of liked him. It's good to see from other people's comments that he, at least, is acting naturally.

[Pomone]

I really feel for those people. I'm entertained by them, but I feel for them. I work the front of the house in a resturant, and it can be so stressful. I can't even imagine doing the cooking for a menu you've never seen before and being expected to do it for a bunch of people.

I've worked in both a locally owned resturant, and a chain resturant, and I can tell you, if it isn't a locally owned place, there probably isn't some executive chef in the background. Its more likely that your food was made by someone who doesn't speak english as their first language. (In the US anyway). They are damn good at it too. A lot of being a cook (not necessarily a chef) is just making the same thing over and over. If the guys on the show are doing the same thing again in Hell's Kitchen maybe they will get better at it.

They shouldn't ever let Ramsey speak to customers.