On Monday, 5/30/05, Fox premiered another reality show. This one is called Hell's Kitchen. Which is a restaurant in Hollywood that the finalist will win if said finalist makes it through twelve elimination rounds. One such elimination happened in the first episode.
The show relies a lot on Chef Ramsay, a nasty fellow who is the arbiter of all things food. There's a lot of The Apprentice on this show in that contestants are eliminated on a weekly basis and after some sort of challenge. Contestants are also split into teams and there's the drama of the interaction, one such interesting drama that will set the scene for weeks to come occurred last night in the premiere episode.
As best I could I collected the names of all contestants, following:
Jessica-headhunter
Dewberry-baker
Andrew-office assitant
Wendy, account manager
Elsie, administrative assistant.
Mary Ellen-bartender
Michael, Chef
Jimmy-purchasing supervisor
Ralph, chef
Jeff
Carolann, administrative assistant
Elsie
And then there's Jeanne Phillipe, the maitre d' imported from London for class and color.
As for Chef Ramsay, it isn't lost on me that his nastiness is supposed to be part of the fabric of the show. If last night was any indication, this man is totally not believable.
Someone needs to tell Fox that the secret to developing a harsh persona into a character of interest is by putting something loveable in the character. Simon, on American Idol, is such a character. Dr. House, on Fox's show "House" is another.
Both of these characters are harsh, strange and often critical. But each also has a softness that can be mined from time to time. So far, Chef Ramsay has demonstrated no soft side. If Fox thinks those little vignettes where Ramsay discusses the videoed events, when he states firmly that to go easy on his charges would be to help create a chef destined for failure and yes, the great chef cares too much, makes up for his dumping food on the would-be chefs or unceremoniously throwing it in the trash, then Fox needs to think again.
Although the producers think it is just these incidences when Ramsay is angrily berating his charges or thrusting a plate full of food on their body that will most enthrall viewers.
Article comments
1 - Richard
I don't know how viewers can trust Fox with another elimination/reality show after they yanked Big Fat Obnoxious Boss midstream. They didn't even bother to run the remaining episodes on one of their many cable outlets such as FX.
2 - Brent McKee
Oddly enough, the Gordon Ramsay that you saw on Hell's Kitchen is exactly like that in real life. He is (a) a former Glagow Rangers soccer player, (b) a perfectionist, (c) the guy whose reputation gets trashed if the food doesn't match the standards of a three star restaurant. Somewhere out there are a couple of documentaries on him done by British Television The Boiling Point and Beyond The Boiling Point but in North America he's probably best known for the series Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares where you see him improve a restaurant's kitchen. Oh and as for having an idea of how to run a restaurant, he runs four of his own and has three others with partners. All have at least one Michelin star and his name restaurant "Gordon Ramsay" has three, which is as high as you can get in the most important restauant guide in the world.
3 - Eric Berlin
That's very nice for Ramsay and his wallet and his patrons... but that doesn't necessarily equate to good television.
4 - Dana Blankenhorn
Two minutes of Googling would have revealed that Gordon Ramsey indeed has his bonafides in order.
What I couldn't hack was he had the restaurant open two hours after these poor victims arrived. When was the prep done? Who had time to take care of their mise? You don't do a risotto from scratch in a real restaurant -- you take a big batch most of the way there, then just finish it for service.
But, Granada, a British company, put this together.
5 - D. Seddon
Didn't like the way Ralph had an excuse for everything that didn't go his way. He is so confident that he will win, he's cocky.
6 - Anita
I can't believe Ralph. I really can't. The Blue Team's menu was NOT a group effort, and he let Andrew take the blame. WRONG. Maybe if Ralph hadn't been such a controlling jerk, they wouldn't have lost. But, Andrew and Jessica should've spoken up when Ralph took over. And Jessica shouldn't have nominated Andrew when she knew it was Ralph who needed to go. But, I'm glad Ralph lost. I thought it was very sweet of Andrew (who is my favorite chef) to help Ralph, the guy who lied to Chef Ramsay and got him wrongly eliminated, even after cutting his finger open, and getting stitches. How cool is that?
7 - George
It's crystal clear Ramsay has a "thing" for Virginia. He ordered them to nominate and then He comes up with his own decision knowing that the vote is 2 against his girl. STUPID