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Hell's Kitchen Season 5

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marigold:
An interesting article:

Ramsay dishes on 'Hell's Kitchen'

There's nothing like a fresh batch of Hell's Kitchen contestants to get Gordon Ramsay's bleepin' blood boiling.

While the expletive-spewing chef raved about some of the impressive talent on the fifth season of Fox's reality TV cook-off during a conference call on Wednesday — he also didn't fail to mention the many wannabes he had to strain out first.

"I go through that s--- fight over the first six or seven weeks where I get rid of the donkeys and (then) I focus on the talent," he said.

Ramsay dismisses the first ass on Thursday, when Hell's Kitchen premieres on City and Fox. Episode one sees 16 cuisine-savvy contenders step to the stove for a shot at the grand prize: A $250,000-a-year head chef position at Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel. Word has it a fight breaks out before dinner service even gets underway and one chef puts Ramsay in a very effing bad mood. More shockingly, several of the hopefuls actually manage to please the boss with their signature dishes — something he has his underlings whip up at the beginning of every season.

As it turns out, there's plenty of promising talent in the latest bunch, which Ramsay admits is the strongest in Hell's Kitchen history.

"The top four contestants this year could have easily won any of the previous years," he said. "It's very exciting."

Yes, the word "exciting" did pass through the f-bomb dropping lips of Gordon Ramsay — a man infamously known for his fiery temper on Hell's, along with his restaurant makeover show Kitchen Nightmares and various British series like The F Word and Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live. The Scotland-born, England-raised chef — who played soccer (sorry, football) before becoming the restauranteur and TV star he's known as today — especially directs his praise towards the females in the Kitchen.

"The ladies this season have been phenomenal. The guys have been sort of grumpy, arrogant, and they take longer to learn."

In addition to mad cooking skills, either sex must possess a desire to be entrepreneurs, cannot be on the show for the wrong reasons ("I want them to use this platform to develop and not get caught up in the TV world," Ramsay said) and for gawd's sake, they absolutely mustn't screw up the Beef Wellington like so many before them have done.

A pate-coated tenderloin baked in puff pastry, Wellington is a comfort dish Ramsay craves when he's away from home — and one even his children know how to prepare. Why he's had no luck training his Hell's Kitchen staff to get it right is beyond him, and he's about ready to take it off the menu.

"I am so frustrated. That dish cooks itself!"

Link to the article: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Entertainment/2009/01/28/8182421.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

Gordon Ramsay is done being nice on 'Hell's Kitchen'

There's not a lot of sympathy for contestants on the world's most punishing job interview -- a.k.a. Fox's “Hell’s Kitchen.” After all, they volunteered to be Gordon Ramsay's abused acolytes in the race to win a $250,000 prize and a job working for the Michelin-starred, foul-mouthed chef. But if you tune in tonight as Season 5 gets underway, you'll see one contestant who might be getting more than she bargained for: Watching Colleen, the Nebraska cooking instructor who charges $300 per lesson, is like watching a career go up in flames. Her dismal performance includes an inability to tell the difference between sugar and salt. Without giving too much away, at the traditional first challenge, seen in tonight's premiere, contestants are asked to prepare their signature dish, so Colleen made chicken enchiladas. Ramsay said they looked liked diapers on a plate.

"You seriously charge $300 to teach people how to make that crap?" he asked. "Yes, chef," she answered. Then he tasted them. And, in an insult that only Ramsay could deliver, he suggested . . . how do we put this delicately . . . that he could use a diaper of his own.

That aside, Ramsay said this crop of contestants is the strongest and most talented yet, which means he "can start really turning up the heat on them for the first time in 'Hell's Kitchen.' "

That's right. He claims he's been taking it easy so far.

"The better they are, the more pressure they can take," Ramsay said during a recent telephone interview. "I've never really been able to intensify the pressure in the past. They haven't been able to take it."

Try keeping this in mind as you watch snippets from past seasons, when many of the contestants are driven to tears by the pressure.

While other competition shows tweak their formats here and there to keep things fresh -- "American Idol" has added a new judge, for example -- Ramsay said he was happy to stick with the tried-and-true job interview routine.

After all, the "Hell's Kitchen" winner will help run the kitchen in Ramsay's new restaurant in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.

"It's an amazing platform for any chef, I would have given my right arm to have been given that prize when I was coming up," he said. With a laugh, he added, "Now, if only 'Top Chef' would stop stealing our ideas."

Link to the article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/01/gordon-ramsay-i.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

Fox plans Gordon Ramsay cook-along

Network plans live special starring the 'Hell's Kitchen' chef

No F-bombs allowed. How will he do it?

Fox is looking to do at least one live special where "Hell's Kitchen" star Gordon Ramsay shows viewers how to make a dinner.

The program will urge viewers to make a three-course homemade meal along with the world-famous chef.

"It has been picked up, and I can't wait for it to go live," Ramsay said Wednesday. "My frustration is that most cooking shows don't really cook ... their ingredients are prepped earlier, that's not cooking ... it's nice to show the journey from live ingredient to (finished meal)."

No air date has been set for Ramsay's modern-day take on Julia Child, though the network is eyeing spring or fall. If the one-off is successful, the network hopes to do more specials, though it doesn't see the format as likely working as a weekly series.

The format is based on the chef's U.K. version of the project called "Cook Along," which prompted thousands of viewers to hold cooking parties along with the show. Viewers are told which ingredients they'll need ahead of time and then are breezily led through the cooking process. Fox plans to intercut shots of a few families cooking as well.

Last year, Fox gave Ramsay a blind commitment for an as-yet-unannounced new series and the live special as part of a new overall deal with the chef.

Link to the article: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3if62038d8254ace278841261ec0ce2583

marigold:
An interesting article:

‘I wanted him to yell at me'

Lacey D'Angelo of Charlotte so adores Gordon Ramsay, the volcanic chef at the center of Fox's “Hell's Kitchen,” that she'd just love to get yelled at by him.

D'Angelo is one of 16 contestants on the show's fifth season, debuting tonight, and says she didn't really get her wish fulfilled.

“He wouldn't yell at me. I wanted him to yell at me,” says D'Angelo, 25, a cake decorator at a Charlotte bakery.

“I've been a huge fan of the show since the beginning, and I thought it would be fun to be there and get yelled at. Because Gordon is a really funny guy.”

D'Angelo tried out for the show at a casting call in Pineville in 2007. Three other Charlotte-area chefs – Ben Caylor, Dominic DiFrancesco and Louis Petrozza – were picked for last spring's show from that gathering, and she was told she was still in contention for another season. This year she got the call and went out to California in October and November for the filming.

“I enjoyed it,” she says. “It may not look like it. I've seen some of the commercials where I have these looks on my face. … You're basically going out there to be abused. It's so surreal. He's over 6 feet tall and he's in your face. I couldn't believe I was really there.”

D'Angelo and her family moved to Charlotte from South Plainfield, N.J., when she was 9. She went to Vance High School, graduating in 2001, then tried studying graphic design. She hated it.

“My mom said, ‘Well, you're always watching the Food Network – go to culinary school.'”

She did, enrolling in the culinary program at Central Piedmont Community College. There she found her calling, graduating in 2004.

Like anyone on a reality show, she's not sure how she's going to come off.

“I have no idea what they're going to show or not going to show. It's going to be a surprise even to me.”

Link to the article: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/179/story/501607.html

marigold:

 :hearts: A really long interview with J Maxwell on the link below

I am loving this season cast they are ALL awesome  :wohoo:

Link to the article: http://timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=764582&LinkFrom=RSS

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