Topic: Hell's Kitchen Season 5

[marigold]

An interesting article:

Gordon Ramsay Lines Up Live Cooking Show: ‘No Cursing, That’s The Deal!’

Gordon Ramsay is gearing up for his biggest challenge to date – a live show.

The foul-mouthed chef has been given the go-ahead for a live cooking show on FOX, he confirmed during a media conference on Wednesday.

“The live cook-along, yes, has been picked up and I can’t wait for it to go live,” Gordon said.

And, the chef, who is known for regularly calling “Hell’s Kitchen” contestants “donkey,” and finding other adjectives he uses for contenders bleeped out, revealed he has been given an ultimatum before the live show happens.

“No cursing, that’s the deal. So I’m f***ed,” he exclaimed.

But before he gets to the live show, the fifth season of “Hell’s Kitchen” kicks off on Fox, this Thursday.

And, Gordon said he’s getting rid of one of the dishes that has become a regular on the show – beef Wellington.

“I’ve taken it off now,” Gordon said. “I’ve thrown the towel in. I’m so frustrated. That dish cooks itself… It’s cooked … It’s a joy. I’m going to admit defeat on that front and take off the beef Wellington.”

Link: http://www.accesshollywood.com/gordon-ramsay-lines-up-live-cooking-show-no-cursing-thats-the-deal_article_13309

[marigold]

Did we post this one already I apologize if we did    .... an interesting article:

Marina café hosts reception for Hell’s Kitchen contestant, Destin Chops 30A chef

Marina Café in Destin will host a reception to celebrate Destin Chops 30A’s new executive chef, Giovanni Filipponi, during the season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen, FOX’s culinary reality show, where Filipponi was a contestant. The event will be held in his honor on Thursday, January 29, 2009 from 7 to 9 p.m. The FOX Channel will showcase world-renowned Chef Gordon Ramsay as he returns for a fifth season of what the show’s web site calls “a sizzling and unscripted series.”

Born and raised in France, Filipponi came to the United States to train at The Culinary Institute of America in New York. He auditioned for the show in Orlando last year on a whim and was selected to spend six weeks in Los Angeles to film the fifth season. Thursday night he will view the premiere for the first time with the other partygoers. With 20-plus years of experience, some of his recent credits include serving as executive chef at Café Rendez-Vous in Seaside, Tim Creehan’s Copper Grill in Miramar Beach, Marina Café and Destin Chops (at its previous location overlooking the Destin Harbor).

Jim Altamura, owner and proprietor of both Marina Café in Destin and Destin Chops 30A near Rosemary Beach on Scenic Highway 30A, welcomes Filipponi as he prepares to reopen Destin Chops 30A just in time for Valentine’s Day. “The added quality that Chef Giovanni will bring stirs the anticipation we already feel about this reopening,” said Altamura.

With 30-plus years in the industry, Altamura continues to be one of the most well-respected entrepreneurs in the region with an aptitude for selecting exquisite talent and maintaining a high standard of excellence. His Destin restaurant, Marina Café, has been named one of Florida Trend’s Top 500 restaurants for 15 consecutive years and received both the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence and the Distinguished Restaurants of North America Award of Excellence for 10 consecutive years.

His newest venture, Destin Chops 30A, which opened in May 2008, has already been awarded Wine Spectator’s prestigious Award of Excellence. The impressive wine cellar boasts top domestic wines from Napa and Sonoma Valleys, as well as several rare reserve finds from Australia, Italy and France. In addition to their prime steaks, Destin Chops 30A serves up one the area’s top sushi menus.  The urban-beach-chic contemporary steakhouse is sure to be a great fit for the culinary arts of Chef Filipponi.

Link: http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/marina_7784___article.html/contestant_30a.html

[marigold]

An interesting article:

Hell's Kitchen' Season 5: Conference Call with Gordon Ramsay

He’s got a library of books, multiple television programs, and a worldwide empire of fine-dining restaurants under his name, which likely makes Gordon Ramsay one of the busiest men on the planet, not to mention one of the most accomplished chefs. He’s certainly one of the most intimidating, as Ramsay is known for his confrontational (and profane) style in the kitchen. But today he took time out to talk with the press about his most popular American series, the high-stress and high-stakes cooking competition Hell’s Kitchen, which returns to FOX for its fifth season this Thursday, January 29 at 9 pm.

This year’s grand prize for the winner is bigger than ever before: the top contestant will take on the role of executive chef at a brand new restaurant in the high-class Borgata resort in Atlantic City, along with $250,000. Last season’s winner was awarded the executive chef position at Ramsay’s new restaurant, The London West Hollywood. This time around, Ramsay noted, the top chef will get to help design an entirely new restaurant, including coming up with the menu, which Ramsay hops will provide “perfect platform” to showcase the winner’s skills and creativity in the kitchen.

As for picking the chefs for Season Five, Ramsay promises that his foremost concern was skill. Thanks to the growing popular of the show, the application process was the most competitive yet. But Ramsay is a chef who knows and demands the best, so a chef’s talent is far more important to him than whether they will make dramatic prime time television. More visibility and tougher competition means more pressure and scrutiny for him as a host, but it also makes his job “ten times more exciting” with each season.

As the stakes get bigger, it’s even more important to find contestants who are not only talents, but who stay calm through the most stressful situations, and use those conflicts to develop as chefs. And it sounds like he found the right bunch: this year’s top 4 contestants “could have easily won previous years,” Ramsay noted.

The Season 5 chefs were once again split up into male vs. female teams, and Ramsay noted some interesting differences on how gender affects the success the Season 5 teams. The women learn quicker as a group, Ramsay said, and as a whole are “phenomenal” chefs, but they are also quicker to get upset with each other when something goes wrong. The men, on the other hand, seem more aggressive and arrogant, but also more bonded as a team. There’s one aspect that doesn’t differ by gender, though: each chef’s drive to win.

But even this crop of top chefs has its share of big mistakes this season, and Ramsay will be there to tell them off in his signature manner. “I scream for perfection,” he said.

Hell’s Kitchen fans know that Ramsay’s favorite beginning test in the Grand Reopening challenge is Beef Wellington. Not only a personal favorite of the host, Wellington also requires perfect timing and trust on the part of the cook. Well, it sounds like the Season 5 chefs, who prepare the dish during tomorrow night’s premiere, may have butchered the job beyond repair: “I’m throwing the towel in,” Ramsay said in disappoint. “Hands down, no more Wellington!”

One thing every chef in Hell’s Kitchen can expect: “You’re always going to get confronted, you’re always going to get on-the-spot scenarios,” Ramsay says. “That stuff goes on in every kitchen.”

What Ramsay hopes all his chefs learn this season is that when the pressure hits, “you can’t just throw in the towel.” Even if he’s screaming in your face.

Link to the article: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/hells-kitchen/hells-kitchen-season-5-confere-25997.aspx

[marigold]

An interesting article:

So what is Gordon Ramsay really like?

We sat down with Colleen Cleek, owner of the Classy Gourmet and a contestant on the coming season of "Hell's Kitchen," to get some details on her appearance. The outcome, of course, is a secret.

Q: What was your biggest concern going in?
A: Ruining my name and reputation at the Classy. I'm not a little (Gordon) Ramsay (the show host), but I'm a lot like him. I don't treat people like he does, but we still have type A personalities. I wanted to do my best and not embarrass myself.

Q: Did you succeed?
A: I know I did. . . . There's only one thing I wish I'd have done differently. But I gave it my all. I was the oldest; I was not the slowest.

Q: How do you think you will be portrayed? Was age a factor?
A: He (Ramsay) plays up my age and the fact that I'm a cooking instructor, a mom, and that I don't have a culinary degree. . . . He'd hold up his hand and whisper: "You're too old, Colleen!" My comeback: "I'm as old as you."

Q: What's Ramsay like?
A: He's a lot like he is on television. He has a reputation of . . . being a hothead, an aggressive but passionate man. I believe all those things to be true. . . . I'd like to get beyond the hothead. I saw parts of a tender person.

Q: Was there some cursing? Did it rub off on you?
A: For a mom, I curse more than most. But I came back with the most filthy mouth! I've been working on that with my kids. Every time I curse I have to throw a dollar in the cursing kitty. Share Our Strength got a check for 50 bucks last month.

Q: Were you starstruck?
A: Not at all. I went there to learn. My attitude was to be a sponge, to learn from every aspect.
Q: What did you learn?
A: I'm one tough broad. And we're so open and fun in Nebraska. We're not so big that you're one of nobody.

Q: What was the most fascinating aspect for you?
A: I've never been on a line or part of a brigade. I'm used to cooking it all on my own. So being thrown into a restaurant that seats 50 people in 30 minutes was the most fascinating. I couldn't understand a word he (Ramsay) said. And do you want to go up there face to face with Ramsay because you were too stupid to hear what he said? It was fascinating to see how it worked and awful to see how it failed and — just the whole process. I was in awe.

Q: What do you hope this national exposure will do for you?
A: I hope it raises the awareness that we have to get back in the kitchen and do cooking for ourselves and our families. . . . I hope it propels the Classy Gourmet and other chefs and changes the way the world eats. . . . And if I can capture enough people, this will roller-coaster for the next 10 years with books, another show.

Q: How are you feeling as the premiere approaches?
A: I was very nervous. . . . But it's almost like a pregnancy — it's coming really soon, but you want it over, too.

Link to the article: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3945&u_sid=10546756

[marigold]

There is another really long article with Colleen on the link below:

Link: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3945&u_sid=10546755

[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]

  A really long interview with J Maxwell on the link below

I am loving this season cast they are ALL awesome 

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

[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/
"Click on Sidetracks"

[marigold]

Kocol said: “Everybody gets yelled at - it’s like death and taxes.”

  That's funny

Thank you crazychef for the article I really enjoyed reading all about them.

There are some really incredible stories and I am glad they shared it with us.

  I can only imagine the stress J Maxwell was under and his little boy sounds adorable

Chef Ji you almost cracked  oh no I don't like to hear that

  Yippie it's finally Thursday 

[marigold]

Gordon Ramsay in tvguide:

The Most Evil Reality TV Villains



Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen

Loud, violent, and curse-word-infused insults are best served warm, and the flames are always high in Ramsay's kitchen. This is one cooking show that is most definitely not about the f---ing food.

Link: http://www.tvguide.com/PhotoGallery/Evil-Reality-TV-1001885/6.aspx

[marigold]

An interesting article:

INTERVIEW: GORDON RAMSAY PUTS THE HELL BACK INTO FOX'S "KITCHEN"

After four seasons of chef contestants being put though the ringer under the tough-as-nails tutelage of Chef Gordon Ramsay on Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," has the Chef softened? Judging from the mood that one of the 16 new contestants puts Ramsay in during tonight's fifth season premiere, the answer would be no. The short-tempered Scottish chef talked about the new season as well what bugs him about Bravo's "Top Chef" and his rumored feud with "Iron Chef" Mario Batali.

The competition is hotter than ever with the new season, according to Ramsay. "I will stick my neck out on this one and say the top four contestants this year could have quite easily won in any of the previous years so that's what I'm faced with in terms of talent." However, as fans of the show know, part of the fun is witnessing Ramsay to discard the less talented contestants and get to the winner of the competition. "I go through that **** fight for the first six or seven weeks and then I get rid of the donkeys and I focus on the talent," he explained, "but it's getting more and more pressurized because the talent is becoming far greater which really puts me under scrutiny but, more importantly, helps to make my job truthfully, ten times more exciting."

One reason for the heightened sense of competition is that the Grand Prize is the Head Chef position at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. "[The winner is] going to take up the role of Head Chef at the Borgata Hotel Resort," Ramsay said. "It's going to be a fine dining, unique, nouveau, great interior, intimate setting and, more importantly, a perfect platform. I'm very excited about it. It's one of the best prizes we've ever had so far. Having been [to the Borgata] on a dozen occasions the place is sort of, I suppose, the closest to Vegas this side of New York. Exciting, fun, and [the winner] will even be a part of the design of the restaurant and, more importantly, putting the whole menu together."

Proving that Ramsay is more than a television chef, he explained that one of his restaurants, The London West Hollywood, didn't take long to begin winning top awards. "We were very lucky to win that Michelin star within three months of opening and we had a difficult opening because it's adapting to the climate, which is not like cooking in Europe." Ramsay voiced his pleasure at being able to coach some of the contestants during the course of the competition and utilizing his restaurants. "There is a down time period when the stakes get higher in Season 5 and the prize is incredibly significant in terms of where they go and how much we coach them... I've got the backdrop of having a professional kitchen and giving them access to my set-up over here whether they're on the East Coast in New York or here in LA and so they get a considerable amount of coaching."

Between the men and women chefs this season, which gender makes the better contestant? "I have to be honest," Ramsay offered, "there's a level of competitiveness that they're equally matched but there's quite an exciting, refreshing attitude to the girls. They seem to learn quicker. Where they may sort of bitch and get upset with each other internally, that has nothing to do with me. I don't want to have problems down in my kitchen. Whereas the men become more sort of aggressive and far more bonded in a way with less barrier but they learn slower... the ladies this season have been phenomenal. The guys have been sort of grumpy, arrogant and they take longer to learn [but] I can deal with that crap, trust me."

All that said about the men, one of the new contestants, Chicago native, Ben, made an impression on Ramsay. "Ben is extraordinary and, again, tenacious and very, very flamboyant... Ben is like having a rhinoceros in the kitchen. He's non-stop. He's energetic. A powerhouse. The fascinating thing is when you discipline a young chef it's the response that tells you how long they've got in this industry and Ben's attitude was 100% professional."

While cooking reality competition shows are currently popular with audiences, Ramsay had a few words about "Top Chef," which he acknowledges as having "done phenomenally well on Bravo but what I find my frustration is with 'Top Chef' is that a challenge is a challenge. I put my contestants my chefs, I hate that word contestants - in the world of cooking like they're running a restaurant because I'm giving a restaurant away... I put them through the paces and understand that it's more of an entrepreneurial skill, as well, not just dealing with the kitchen, the management, the delegation, the level of professionalism... chefs today have got to better than just cooks."

Ramsay has also been in the news lately for a rumored feud with "Iron Chef" Mario Batali. Any truth to the rumors reported by the London Guardian that Ramsay has been banned from Batali's restaurants? Ramsay suspected the source of the rumor. "I've never met Mario Batali," Chef Ramsay said. "Obviously the man is a very talented chef... I had dinner with Bill Burgin from the New Yorker a couple of years ago and the food was embarrassing so Bill got upset and sent the food back; his sea bass because it was off. I wouldn't send any chef an off sea bass but, at the end of the day, I respect [Batali]. He's an amazing chef but, as far as I'm concerned, I haven't been banned from his restaurants. Listen, at the end of the day, we're all in this looking for the same customer so if we can't get on what's the big deal but I don't have any problem with Mario Batali."

Besides "Hell's Kitchen," cookbooks and his many restaurants, a future project on Fox is a live cooking event, which has Chef Ramsay excited to no end. "I can't wait to go live. I suppose the frustration in the cooking shows on the air currently [is that they] don't cook. It's the one that will prep earlier like some home economist behind-the-scenes and that's not cooking. Cooking is a passion and it's live and it's really nice to show that journey from the raw ingredients to an hour later something finished." He quickly added, "for me, the confidence level goes up ten fold, a thousand percent because you're following it and it's changing its textures and the flavor is getting better... I'm really excited that Fox is excited about this live show and it's something I can't wait for." However, there's one catch that may disappoint fans that love nothing more but seeing Ramsay spew a string of expletives. "No cursing. That's the deal so I'm ****ed."

The new season of "Hell's Kitchen" kicks off tonight at 9:00/8:00c on FOX.

Link to the article: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rant.aspx?id=20090129_hellskitchen

[HKfan5]

http://thetvaddict.com/2009/01/29/ji-whiz-chef-says-%e2%80%9cto-hell%e2%80%99s-kitchen-with-it%e2%80%9d/#more-4695

more on Ji

[HKfan5]

Here's an article on Ji and Andrea.

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

[marigold]

http://thetvaddict.com/2009/01/29/ji-whiz-chef-says-%e2%80%9cto-hell%e2%80%99s-kitchen-with-it%e2%80%9d/#more-4695

more on Ji

"Huh. And you still went up for it. Masochistic much?
(Laughs) Hell, yeah! But it wasn’t that I wanted to be subjected to pain or humiliation. I just wanted to kick ass and get the prize! And on top of that, my drive is still to become successful in the culinary world, and to prove to myself and my father that I’m hot s— in the kitchen."

  That was awesome to read thank you HKfan5

I think this is why I admire Ji so much I love her drive it's inspiring and it will take her to places because of it

She rocks  :sucks

[marigold]

Just thought I would share .... Citytv has some cool info and neat little pictures of the cast I haven't seen yet

Link: http://site.citytv.com/hellskitchen/index.aspx

[TARAsia Fan]

It's on! Chef has a lot of colorful characters this season. Ji rocks!

 

[TARAsia Fan]

Lacey whines and plods along. Not good.

I would like to see her out tonight. Please. 

[TexasLady]

Lacey whines and plods along. Not good.

I would like to see her out tonight. Please. 

Same here! Whiny, useless are words that come to mind.