58 replies to this topic

[VNutt]

Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribue TV critic, talked a little about the show on her blog....

ETA: (the article contains some spoiler-y info......)

Edited by VNutt, Sep 18, 2007 @ 10:28 PM.

[ProfCrash]

There are some spoilers in the article posted above. Good article though. It does a nice job of pointing out the differences between the BBC and FOX versions of the show.

[reinoe]

I think I'd like the BBC version better.

[inny]

Here's a little more 'not so good news' from the LA Times.

I'll admit that as charmed as I was when I first saw the UK version (in all of its unedited glory), my expectations for this one aren't that high. It is Fox, after all.

Edited by inny, Sep 19, 2007 @ 5:10 PM.

[slyest romantic]

Because this episode is next week, I thought I'd bring up the lawsuit former manager of Dillion's filed against Gordon. Still no word on the outcome.

[ProfCrash]

I just read the article. My money is on that the owners were hoping that the lawsuit would stop the epiode from airing because they are going to look awful in it.

[reinoe]

Lawsuit: Celeb chef Gordon Ramsay faked reality show

A reality show? Fake? Say it ain't so.

[HoopsPrincess]

I am almost positive the lawsuit was thrown out in the beginning of August.

[Thena]

NY Post reported that the lawsuit was thrown out of court in August and sent to arbitration between the parties.

[potoroo]

Ramsey's reaction on the lawsuit:

Forty-year-old Ramsay added: "Trying to say I set up a wobbly chair - this is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, not the most pathetic."

Edited by potoroo, Sep 23, 2007 @ 12:45 PM.

[Rosanella]

Let's see, he's devious enough to come up with the secret evil plan of planting a wobbly chair and hire actors, yet he neglects to put a stunt man in said wobbly chair?

Case dismissed!

Edited by Rosanella, Sep 24, 2007 @ 6:18 AM.

[slyest romantic]

Forty-year-old Ramsay added: "Trying to say I set up a wobbly chair - this is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, not the most pathetic."

God, I love him.

And I give him credit for not just simply settling these things out of court as most high-profiled people would. He doesn't feel he's in the wrong, and fuckin' hell, he's not going to let someone say he is when he isn't. Regarding the same kind of lawsuit he faced with Bonaparte's, he said, "I won't let people write anything they want to about me." (He won the case AND a £75,000 libel payout.)

[dreamy]

From cnn.com. Gordon talks about witnessing domestic abuse as a child; in advance of his appearance on Larry King Live tonight.

[potoroo]

Chef Gordon Ramsay writes of seeing his father abuse his mother; today Ramsay fights domestic abuse.

Hmm. Based on his show behavior, he seems like a poster boy for abuse.

[Ima Pilgrim]

Hmm. Based on his show behavior, he seems like a poster boy for abuse.

Verbal abuse, yes, but most of the time (as opposed to Boiling Point where he was just out of control) it's deserved and controlled. I loved how he handled the idiot manager telling him off shouting while he stood six inches from him and whispered in his ear, instead of losing his temper and acting like a jerk. At least he seems to have learned from BP, and how he crossed the line. Given what he's been through as a child and dealing with a brother who is apparently an unredeemable addict, I'm impressed with the tenderness he shows his kids, he never seems to raise his voice at them but they are all so dear and well behaved.

[Fiddler1]

Here's a transcript for GR's appearance on Larry King. (Scroll down past the first interview with Warren Jeffs.)

[potoroo]

Verbal abuse, yes, but most of the time (as opposed to Boiling Point where he was just out of control) it's deserved and controlled.

Verbal? Didn't you see how he slammed a plate of food on the chest of some poor chefling on HK last season, or read about the rumors that he had hurt another's ankle in the first season?

[slyest romantic]

Didn't you see how he slammed a plate of food on the chest of some poor chefling on HK last season, or read about the rumors that he had hurt another's ankle in the first season?

But weren't you the one who said in another thread (re: KN people):

These are real people not some pathetic HK contestants-famewhores.

Can one sympathize with someone AND call them a famewhore at the same time?

I don't think this is ever going to be a debate that will convince anyone to change their minds, regardless of what position one takes. I will say from my own experiences of working in a slightly upscale kitchen that yelling, swearing, and yes, bashing around plates and utensils when things don't go absolutely perfect are the norm. Does it happen in every single kitchen? Of course not. But do a bit of reading by anyone who has lived their lives in a kitchen (Anthony Bourdain); read Marco Pierre White's "White Heat" where he kicks out customers for complaining to the waiter, where he gets into a fist fight with one of the chefs in his kitchen; find out what Mario Batali went through to learn under MPW (hell, ask Gordon how MPW made him cry in the corner); read Bill Buford's "Heat" and discover how a sous chef- angry because Bill was in his space- splashed him with hot oil and before Bill could answer the question of, "Did I just splash you with oil", did it again; look around blogs of folks who are graduating culinary school, and you will find what may be considered inappropriate behaviour in any other industry (besides the military, I suppose) is not only expected in the kitchen, but accepted.

Ramsay made a good point in the Larry King interview, and in fact said it twice- "mommy-ing" doesn't work, not only in the high-pressure environment of the kitchen, but with these restaurant owners who are completely oblivious to the cockroaches in the basement, the fact that they're running the business into the ground to pay for a wise-guy lifestyle, etc. We've become a society where criticism is simply not uttered anymore. God forbid someone's feelings get hurt or you offend someone by popping their self-inflated ego bubble and bringing them crashing down to earth. Are there better ways to criticize than yelling? I'm sure for some people, there are. But let's cut through the bullshit, let's get to the heart of the problem, let's fix the problem immediately, then we can move on. And if widdle Billy can't suck it up, maybe he's in the wrong industry.

[Raguel]

Amen. To everything in this post. People take criticism as an attack, but there are fields wherein unless you are critiqued--sometimes harshly--you can't make it in that field.

[potoroo]

Can one sympathize with someone AND call them a famewhore at the same time?

Sure one can! I don't think anybody deserves plates of food thrown at them or other bodily harm done. Just my humble opinion.

We've become a society where criticism is simply not uttered anymore. God forbid someone's feelings get hurt or you offend someone by popping their self-inflated ego bubble and bringing them crashing down to earth. Are there better ways to criticize than yelling? I'm sure for some people, there are. But let's cut through the bullshit, let's get to the heart of the problem, let's fix the problem immediately, then we can move on. And if widdle Billy can't suck it up, maybe he's in the wrong industry.

Interesting philosophical ideas about teaching, and I agree with you that sometimes it is better to "cut through the bullshit." I have been in the teaching field for decades, and I absolutely understand the value of straightforward talk and direction. But I still consider that most of this show (at least the two episodes of the US version, the British version was radically different) just takes advantage of these poor dumb people (who in case of Hell's Kitchen, at least, also sometimes had real talent) and insults them with no reason other than higher ratings.

[Fiddler1]

Well, whip me with a wet noodle and call me a donkey.....I just opened today's local Sunday paper and found that one of the restaurants to be featured in KN is minutes away from me! I'm not sure if I'm more bothered by the fact that a local place
qualified as a 'nightmare' or that GR was here and I didn't even know it. (OK, it's the second....)

The article makes a few interesting points, and since I'm not sure what's allowed as far as bulk quoting goes, I'll mostly paraphrase:

The article mentions how GR will no doubt sweep in, identify and fix all the problems in a flash, and leave a happy prosperous restaurant behind, because 'that's how reality TV works.'

They said filming took place over two days in which GR oversaw 'significant changes' to the restaurant and then presided over a grand reopening. "Producers packed the restaurant with VIPs, including local politicians."

The owner of the restaurant says that things happened so fast...that in the real world these things would take weeks and months. "There was no time to think I was fundamentally changing certain ways I was operating my restaurant. I was just doing it, going in whole hog."

It ends by saying they're in better financial shape than they were and that the changes have mostly held. And that he's especially fond of an off-camera moment that took place towards the end of filming where he got to see "the softer, more nurturing side of Gordon Ramsay."

Well, I can't wait for this one.....it's Campania's Restaurant, but there's no air date given yet.

[dreamy]

That's cool. For research purposes only, of course, are you thinking of visiting the restaurant?

[Rosanella]

Oh my GOD, Fiddler1, you so have to go there for us!

[Fiddler1]

I think I want to make sure WHY it was chosen first! Though according to the article it was more a matter of management than bugs or anything gross. The owner said the place was busy, but he was constantly losing money because of food and labor costs. That may make an interesting (and different) program....one where GR will focus on actual management and menu problems. Of course, once it airs, it may come out entirely different.

I think I'll definitely have to take one for the team, though, and give it a visit ;)

ETA: I had to go to a nearby store today, so I drove past the restaurant. It was part of a small row of rather run-down looking shops....I believe a dry cleaner and something else. The restaurant itself looked nicer than its neighbors, however. Definitely going to have to check it out, maybe for lunch.

Edited by Fiddler1, Oct 2, 2007 @ 2:01 PM.

[mysticowl]

I'm not sure where to ask this, but since the question stems from an article, I guess here.

Before this show aired, an article was written in the New Yorker which mentioned that Ramsay got food poisoning in April in one of the KN restaurants. Has there been any mention anywhere of which restaurant it was? If it's one of those aired by now?

[Raguel]

Saw at variety.com that it's been renewed for next year. We'll have Gordon year-round! Kitchen gets another order

[GraydonCarter]

Ten new episodes!

Has there been any mention anywhere of which restaurant it was? If it's one of those aired by now?

Could it be the one where GR is shown vomiting? Just a guess.

[TWoP Nikita]

The Questions thread is the best place for general questions that don't seem on-topic elsewhere.

[mysticowl]

Thanks, TWoP Nikita.