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Hell's Kitchen Season 5

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marigold:
From EW:

Rage Before Beauty: Reality TV's 19 Biggest Blowups



EVERYTHING RAMSEY SAYS AND DOES ON HELL'S KITCHEN

We were going to try to single out a specific moment of anger from the cooking reality show, but let's face it:

disregarding the celebratory final minutes of the finale, the entire series capitalizes on rage.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

We fully enjoy watching Gordon Ramsay berate his cast of f---ing donkeys, who are seemingly incapable of producing a bloody quality risotto.

Just as long as he never comes to dinner at our house.

Link to the article: http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20254644,00.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

Ramsay still sizzles, grilling chefs in 'Hell'

Maybe this year's chef hopefuls on "Hell's Kitchen" are more deferential than past participants.

Or maybe, and more likely, Chef Gordon Ramsay's reputation is so well-established after the show's first four seasons that all new contestants are fully intimidated before they start.

If you're going to end up in the woodchipper anyway, at least Ramsay's verbal woodchipper, you look less silly if you don't strut onto the show talking about how you rule the kitchen.

Whatever the psychology, "Hell's Kitchen" seems to have all burners firing as it launches Season 5, where first prize is a head-chef gig at Atlantic City's Borgata.

It has earned its place as one of the top guilty pleasures on TV, and Ramsay has managed not to become Donald Trump.

Where Trump's deliberately annoying commentary wore thin after a year or two of "The Apprentice," Ramsay has managed to keep his abuse fresh.

One of the contestants this year, Colleen from Nebraska, runs a cooking school. Ramsay takes a bite of her "signature dish" and asks, more than once, if she really charges money to teach people to cook like that.

It's not a clip she'll put on her promotional reel. But she smiles and soldiers on. This is a show, after all, where her rival Carol refers to Ramsay as "the greatest chef in the whole wide world."

Later, during the first round of cooking, Colleen puts sugar into a dish when she was supposed to be adding salt. It was white granules, she explains later, so she just assumed it was salt.

In general, the show soon settles into familiar patterns. The chefs are divided into two teams, both of which screw up. Customers wait hours for food that may or may not ever arrive.

As it becomes clear that the flustered chefs are rolling snake eyes, Ramsay gets angrier. That doesn't help the customer, but it's a real treat for viewers.

He hollers out an order and no one responds. He repeats the order. This time they all shout in near-unison, "Yes, Chef!"

You half-expect he'll yell out next, "Heel! Roll over!"

But right now, "Hell's Kitchen" is hot enough so he doesn't need to. He can keep that one in reserve in cases things cool off in Season 7 or 8.

Link to the article: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/01/28/2009-01-28_ramsay_still_sizzles_grilling_chefs_in_h.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

Local chef descends into `Hell'

You have to have a pretty tough skin to take what Gordon Ramsay dishes out. That's OK: Paula Da Silva's one cool cucumber.

That's probably why the chef de cuisine at 3030 Ocean restaurant in Fort Lauderdale was picked as the latest victim on Season 5 of Fox's Hell's Kitchen. The show dips 16 wannabe chefs in the pressure cooker with the potty mouthed (some say passionate) Scot as they vie for the big prize -- their own restaurant.

As for Ramsay, he may be getting back some of the bad karma he's passed around. Word is he owes back taxes, and his restaurant empire is in trouble. Good thing HK pays well -- $250,000 an episode.

We chatted with SoFlo's newest reality star, who will be working a party in her honor Thursday night for the premiere at 9 p.m. There will be complimentary squash soup shooters (which the Coconut Creek resident, 29, made on the first show) and $5 Cuba Libres, the Brazil native's favorite cocktail.

How did you like Gordon?

He's a very intense guy. What you see on TV is pretty much the way he is. Of course, when he's in the kitchen the pressure is turned on immensely. Outside of that, he's just a normal guy, a big kid.''

Would you ever do a cooking reality show again, like Top Chef ?

Oh, God, I don't think so. This is probably the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, mentally and physically. I guess you could say it was a little like boot camp. You get so worn down from the lack of sleep and change in routine. You never knew what was coming at you.''

Did you learn a lot?

I learned that I can handle a lot and put up with a lot. I'm stronger than I thought. As for cooking, Gordon told me all chefs should have a signature dish, but I still don't. I work in a seafood restaurant, but in my private life, I stick to the basics, like chicken and rice and beans.''

Where do you eat?

Unfortunately, good places are very few and far between. I wish our dining scene was more like New York or San Francisco, but it is what it is. I go to Azul at the Mandarin -- Clay Conley is great. Also, Michael's Genuine and Todd English's place [Da Campo Osteria in Fort Lauderdale].''

Why did you decide to do the show?

'I had watched it before, and I thought, `These people can't cook. They're pathetic! I should really try out.' Plus my staff was really pushing me. They wanted to see me on the end of the stick!''

Link to the article: http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/people/story/877478.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

TV show to confer Borgata chef hat

A New Jersey contestant won't say how long she lasted inside Hell's Kitchen, but by the time she left, the acerbity of chef Gordon Ramsay -- not to mention the TV show's trademark fire and brimstone -- had her smoking.

"Yeah, I lit one cigarette up," says Ji Cha of Palisades Park. "I felt like I was going to break down at one point."

Cha, 35, was among 16 contestants vying for the reality show's top prize: a head-chef position at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.

Taped in 2007 at a Los Angeles studio kitchen, the FOX reality show's fifth season premieres at 9 tonight and many, including the contestants, will be watching.

"Honestly I don't remember everything that went on because it was a while ago," says Andrea Heinly, a 33-year-old chef from Reading, Pa. "I am pretty anxious to see the show myself, how they edited it and what really happened."

The winner, who doesn't take the Borgata job until the season finale, would join the resort's stellar lineup of chefs including Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck and Michael Mina.

South Jersey's already the home to one TV-anointed celebrity chef -- Aaron McCargo Jr. of Camden, Season 4 winner of "The Next Food Network Star," and now host of "Big Daddy's House" on the Food Network.

For more than a year, each Hell's Kitchen contestant has been under contract to swallow the name of the show's winner, having dodged questions from family, friends and journalists.

"I haven't told anyone," says Heinly, who recently quit a job in Las Vegas to watch the show from home. "They (producers) just say, "Go about your daily life.' "

The field is broken into even unisex teams this season. Each week, the teams serve guests and the best member of the losing team nominates two fellow teammates onto the chopping block; Ramsay does the chopping, the tormenting and, for one chef, the hiring.

Heinly and Cha were aware of the show's format, but both were jarred by the cutoff of outside communication once taping began.

While public information was inaccessible, their everyday lives were captured.

No matter if she cuffed her clip-on mike, Heinly says she's sure her in-house secrets will start revealing themselves tonight.

A moonlight model, Cha is used to cameras and to cattiness. However, she'd learn quickly that this wasn't "America's Top Model."

"It's like boot camp, it's so crazy," Cha says.

Cha has been on the flip side of the yelling exchange, picking up the nickname "Hitler" by culinary co-workers for her insatiable desire to control the kitchen, something she's done since age 14 at her family's Korean restaurant. But the private caterer and cooking instructor realized who runs the kitchen from Hell on Day 1.

"(Ramsay) gave us one night to prepare for this, to know the menu, to be behind the line and ready," she says. "You're put under pressure once you get there."

Link to the article:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20090129/NEWS01/901290348/1006/RSS01

crazychef2009:
Brief article about Wil

Northwest Herald

It’s very likely that world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay will scream at a Cary man on this season of the TV show “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Wil Kocol, a local chef, was selected to showcase his prowess in the kitchen on the fifth season of the Fox network’s reality cooking competition program. “Hell’s Kitchen” follows 16 budding chefs as they try to impress the short-tempered Ramsay and win “a life-changing culinary prize,” according to the show’s Web site. That usually means a position as a head chef at a restaurant of international repute.

Kocol, 28, stood in line for more than eight hours with hundreds of other would-be contestants at a casting call  for “Hell’s Kitchen” last summer in Chicago, but never thought he would get a chance to be on the program.

Kocol starting cooking at age 6 and was described as a culinary “whiz kid,” on the TV show. A graduate of Cary-Grove High School and Elgin Community College’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Institute, Kocol has run several restaurants.

He served as the regional chef for Red Star Tavern, head line cook for Pina’s Place du Marche in Fox Lake and line cook at Red Light in Chicago. Kocol even did a stint as general manager at Arby’s.

Shortly after the casting call, Kocol got a call-back, went through a series of interviews and photo sessions and then thought it was over. But Kocol was shocked when he got a call from show producers while working at the Red Star Tavern in Geneva. 

He the took a hasty vacation, flying out to Los Angeles to meet the producers. Still, Kocol wasn’t convinced he had a chance.

“I never thought I would make it on the show,” he said.

Then in October, he got another call from the producers asking him to be on the show. After making arrangements with his restaurant, he again took off work and went to California.

“It was surreal,” he said. “A car picked me up, I flew to LAX and then the fun began.”

When Kocol told his mother, Chris, that he was going to be on the show, the reaction wasn’t positive.

“She said ‘Why are you going to put yourself through that?,” Kocol said.

Regardless, Kocol thought it would be fun and earn him so exposure on the national stage.

When asked if he caught any of Ramsay’s angry outbursts, Kocol said: “Everybody gets yelled at - it’s like death and taxes.”

Kocol wouldn’t reveal any details of what’s to come on the fifth season of “Hell’s Kitchen.”

“You’ll have to tune in to see what happens,” he said.

Still, Kocol said being on the show was a “life-changing experience.”

Now back in Cary, Kocol is looking for work. The Red Star Tavern where he had been working has since closed its doors.

“I want to find a job,” he said. “I’d love to get back into the kitchen.”

http://www.nwherald.com/
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