Well, sorry for not posting in so long. I was on a great 8 day winery tour of northern Italy which I will begin to share this week once I get my thoughts and notes together. What I wanted to talk about now is Hell's Kitchen which I watched at a few points during the show although hard to stomach.
I used to be a fan of the show. I liked the competition and it was entertaining. Now I just see it as a show that sheds a bad light on chefs. I do not know how they choose the competitors but they do not seem to be all that sophisticated socially or personally. The thing that drives me the most crazy is how out of shape this batch of contestants appear to be -- more so than any other. I do not like it all that much when watching them chain smoke in their personal time which is not good for their sense of taste and the tongue is perhaps a chefs most important piece of cooking equipment. Or they are drinking. Then there are the fights that erupt between competitors during the various competitions between teams, during service and in their private quarters (of course not so private since filmed). Even more of a puzzle is that they cannot cook the simplest of dishes during service this time around like pork, chicken or a steak for goodness sake. Not good! I wish they would show some of them doing something constructive like having an intelligent conversation about food or heaven forbid, going for a run in the morning or doing some kind of exercise.
So I am now boycotting watching the show but will use it as a teaching tool to show students how NOT TO BEHAVE as hospitality professionals. There is just no place for bad attitudes, limited intelligence, anger management issues, chain smoking, bad hygiene, drinking to handle stress, petty bickering and the rest. Worse still is that the show has Ramsay play the role of a fire breathing asshole chef for the American television viewer when he indeed is not portrayed this way at all in Britain. How sad.
I hope you will do the same. Tell students that the behavior on display on Hell's Kitchen is not cute or entertaining. I will be doing so when teaching the restaurant class again this fall and leading by example!
3 comments:
mick,
i am asked all the time by my students to name my favorite kitchen reality show. and i tell them none of them. i used to think that ramsey's on screen persona was made for tv but if you watch his bbc shows it's obvious what you see is what you get. i share with my students that i don't watch the Food Network anymore because it is just entertainment and that all the so called reality shows are in the same category.
I think I like to be shocked, but in no way do I expect that any of Gordon’s shows represent the “real” chef world. I do know that excellence is important, and in the past I’ve worked some line cooks and chefs who believe that excellence should be at any cost. Those are far and few between though, (if you truly do a good job and work hard). Still, I watch the show for the shock value, and now that I watch commercial free with my PrimeTime Anytime recordings, I can watch both shows in one night. One of my Dish co-workers suggested MasterChef too, and now I’m hooked on that too. I just find the ability to watch more TV because of Auto Hop to be invaluable, and the shows remind me of my cooking days.
I appreciate your point of view that the competitor not seem to be all that sophisticated socially or personally. and a chefs is the most important piece of cooking equipment.
Thanks for sharing such nice post...
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