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Hell's Kitchen Season 5
marigold:
Video:
:hearts: Gordon Ramsay on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZRfnwXAqUI
marigold:
Another radio interview:
Gordon Ramsay on EZ Mornings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3TmRuKbWiw
marigold:
An interesting article:
'Hells' Kitchen' Insider: Lazy Lacey, Skivvies and Scallop Juices
Originally from Philadelphia, Corey Earling is best known for making it to third place on the fourth season of Hell's Kitchen. She started working in restaurants at age 14, where she realized that her strong willingness to work hard would take her farther than her SAT scores would. She made it her hobby to save large amounts of money and decided to follow her lifelong dream of travel. At the age of 15, she took her first trip to Ireland and England. She has now visited over 18 countries and has no plans of stopping. She currently resides in NYC where she is still saving money for future trips.
By Corey Earling
Corey here, from Hells Kitchen Season 4. I guess since I was on this past season of Hells Kitchen, I should be expected to have some type of sympathy for the current contestants. Well, let's just say, I feel their pain!
Can we just start with Lazy Lacey? I think most of us know why we are cast as contestants on this show, to bring some type of dramatics and excitement to the set. But Lacey, is to me, like the female version of Matt from my season. You're not sure why they are there, but they are extremely annoying and unnecessary. And she works as a banquet chef. I can only imagine how much pain and anxiety her co-workers go through working with her. It gives me a panic attack just thinking about it.
Speaking of panic attacks, watching the chefs get woken up at 6am after going to bed at 2:30am was excruciating. Then, standing outside in their pajamas was just awkward, and I know how they feel. I could care less what anyone else thought, but standing in front of Ramsay un-showered and with bad breath just feels wrong. And there are some people on this season who who you just don't want to see in their skivvies. I couldn't have laughed harder when Colleen fell face first into the cold scallop juices....but at the same time I felt really bad inside. What are you to do at that moment besides cry?
So the morning debauchery continues as usual back in the kitchen when the cheftestants had to compete for the reward by opening fresh scallops, which of course no one knows how to do. I'm pretty sure I could have figured it out. Let's face it, in this season, there is a food court chef, a cooking school operator, what's next? A cocktail waitress? Sure these are all respectable extensions of the food industry but when it comes to having the common sense of a chef, you either got it or you don't.
Ji really screwed herself literally, slipping before service even started. I knew it was over for her right away. There is so much pressure on the set, especially right before for dinner service, sometimes I wonder if sometimes the chefs purposely try to injure themselves, I know I thought about it a few times!
As for dinner service, both teams really showed their weakness. Hell's Kitchen is definitely one of the most stressful situations you can put yourself in. Why we do it? I'm still not quite sure. But it's really tough to try and relax and do what you know how to, which is cook, when you have Chef screaming at you that "you cook like you're in a coma." Yeah, that was me. I totally can understand why Carol acted the way she did, a total spazz case, when she was getting yelled at. She really didn't understand why it sucked. Hello, it's called Hell's Kitchen for a reason. The boys' team won, so of course Ji sent herself home. How can Lacey even sleep at night?
Corey is living and working in NYC. She got married this summer on the beach in Maryland and hopes to start a family in the next few years. She is currently freelancing as a chef while studying travel/food journalism. She hopes to start a new career in television with a strong focus on food, travel and culture.
Link to the article: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/hells-kitchen/hells-kitchen-insider-26291.aspx
marigold:
An interesting article:
Gordon Ramsay Shares His Healthy Appetite For Good Food
It's hard not to get caught up in Gordon Ramsay's spirited passion for cooking and good food.
The many-Michelin-starred chef, known for his fiery temperament in the TV shows Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, insists there's no excuse for eating poorly at home with the family. In fact he's spent the last 18 months authoring a cookbook with nutritious eating in mind.
It's called Healthy Appetite, and as Ramsay is quick to point out, it's not a diet book. Rather the uncomplicated recipes are a reflection of how he eats when he's at home with his wife Tana and their four children: plenty of fish and lean meats, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
"The biggest challenge to healthy eating is finding the balance," Ramsay explains to CityNews.ca in a recent one-on-one interview. "I don't want to feel guilty about what I want to eat. So, finding that balance. Very little cream, very little butter. And a really nice way of showing different techniques, whether it's stewing, steaming, braising, pot roasting, broiling, and more importantly getting humble ingredients and turning them into something quite glamourous.
"Healthy Appetite was a way of showing how I eat, down time, how I spend time with the family at weekends. It's healthy because it makes me healthy. I run, I work hard, I work long hours, but there's no excuse. You can go into a kitchen and cook something delicious within 20 minutes."
Ramsay started writing his latest cookbook before the global economy took a nosedive, but he suggests the timing of its publication couldn't be better. The challenge now is to use fresh, local, budget-friendly ingredients, he says, and he's bringing that approach to not only his cookbooks but his restaurants as well.
"Looking at the ingredients coming through the kitchen in the last six months, even in my professional kitchens, young chefs are starting to work with swedes and turnips, making a caramelized turnip soup, or a wonderful swede soup, or braising oxtail," he describes. "These were unfashionable ingredients, nowhere to be seen two, three years ago on menus. But now it's pretty apparent because of the downturn, everyone's feeling the pinch."
Among the recipes in Healthy Appetite: roast lamb with paprika and oranges, baked sea bass with lemon couscous, and spaghetti vongole. But there are also suggestions for healthy snacks and kid-friendly dishes. And yes, there are desserts, though Ramsay notes dessert is an occasional treat at his home. As for the common complaint that there's simply not enough time in the day to cook healthy meals, Ramsay won't hear of it.
"I guarantee you I can cook something in 15, 20 minutes, a lot quicker than it would be defrosting a ready-made meal or cooking out of a microwave. That kind of stuff is down-to-the-last-emergency sort of glitch, only. It may save you time but what does it do for you, in terms of benefit? Constant intake of that processed food, six, seven months down the line you'll start to see the effects," he opines.
"Whether you're making the most amazing roasted vine tomato soup or putting together a simple tuna pasta salad, it becomes lazy if you can't get off your butt and spend 20 minutes in the kitchen. It's not intimidating. The ingredients are mainstream, I think, and I've tried to focus on using local ingredients without becoming organic. We don't need an obsession with organic to make us feel better because it sounds better on the school playground. That's pants."
Ramsay is as famous for his food as his is for his foul mouth and fits of rage on Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, but he makes no apologies for cutting the aspiring chefs under his tutelage down to size. The culinary maestro knows a thing or two about the restaurant industry after 21 years, mainly just how unforgiving it can be.
"Disciplinary action is in the process of learning. You can't read a cookery book and all of a sudden become a talented chef. To become a great chef you have to work for great chefs. There's no shortcut to that, let me tell you that. Having been at the coalface now for 21 years, trust me, I can spot a talented chef within 30 seconds in front of me. When someone's bull****ting or trying to pull the wool over my eyes, I can smell them out, big time," he remarks.
"I chose to work at the very, very top, and I push myself to the extreme. To become a chef, from a footballer's point of view, you want to win a FA Cup winner medal, if you're an actor you want an Oscar, if you're a chef it's a Michelin star. I got one star, I dreamt of two stars, then I dreamt of three stars. Once I won three stars, I won another three stars. I'd be a lot easier, and high-fiving, happy-go-lucky, but you know, it's Gordon Ramsay, I'm not the head chef at T.G.I.Friday's."
He explains that if he's especially tough on the Hell's Kitchen contestants, it's because he's personally invested in the outcome.
"I have a significant prize to give away, that I'd look stupid if I didn't find that right chef. Of course they're going to cast muppets and donkeys. Sadly 50 percent of the brigade are talented, the other 50 percent couldn't get a job at Dunkin Donuts coating the donuts in icing sugar or even making holes in them, depending on how big they are," he notes.
"The role of the chef today is far greater than it ever was before, and the demands on a chef are far greater. So the quicker we get off our asses and realize the pressure involved to make it in this industry. Tough, tough, tough job. So I expose my guys and girls, and I drop them into the deep end, for one reason: it's make or break."
So what are the chances we'll see a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Toronto? The chances are good, the esteemed chef says.
"Doing a restaurant in Toronto means a lot in terms of not just the draw but the support we have here. If I do it I'll put money in, and take out an independent lease and run it as a proper business," he explains.
"Being at George Brown (Chef School) this morning, listening to the young chefs, and meeting them all and seeing that level of ambition and what they've got to do to become successful in this industry was great. A chance of drawing from talent like that and then utilizing the purveyors locally. I was in Whistler two weeks ago at the Araxi restaurant, which, the new winner of Hell's Kitchen gets a job there - they source everything within 100 miles. The food, the wine, and everything, all sourced locally. It's amazing. That's a template for every restaurant to follow. So, the chances of opening up in Toronto are pretty high, just have to find the right site."
Link includes a video interview: http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_32017.aspx
marigold:
An interesting article:
Ramsay eyeing two locations for T.O. restaurant
Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef famous for his hot temper, foul mouth and tasty recipes, confirmed he is looking at two sites for a possible Toronto restaurant.
Ramsay is in the city this week promoting his new book "Healthy Appetite," and was also here in April while on tour with "Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food."
The visits fuelled rumours that Ramsay was looking to open a restaurant in Toronto.
During a promotional stop to Toronto in April, Ramsay admitted he is "heavily considering" marking his culinary stamp on Canada's largest city, "especially if it's the right place."
This week, his publicist told CTV that Ramsay is looking at two sites in Toronto, but will not commit until he finds one that is a perfect fit.
Ramsay is as well known for his foul language on his shows "Hell's Kitchen," "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" and "The F Word" as he is for his cooking skills.
He has restaurants in across the U.K., U.S. and Asia, but so far none in Canada.
Word emerged Wednesday that Ramsay's culinary resume is about to get even fatter -- with France's Michelin guide reportedly about to award two stars to his Trianon restaurant in Versailles, which has been operating for less than a year.
The honour, likened to an actor or director winning an Oscar, is almost unheard of for such a young restaurant.
Ramsay currently holds 10 Michelin stars, and ranks third in the world in terms of Michelin stars, behind Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse.
Link: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090211/ramsay_toronto_090211/20090211?hub=Canada&s_name=
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