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Hell's Kitchen 8
apskip:
ugot2bekidnymeny,
I would not put much credence in the belief that Ramsay's bad behavior is in any way linked to the death of restaurant owners featured on Kitchen Nightmares. The facts are that the restaurant business is highly competitive and about 85% of all restaurants fail within the first 5 years. Think of the enormous stress that process unfolding would have on those owners for an extended period of time. What could be more depressing than having your life savings invested in a failing enterprise? That condition exists before Ramsay ever gets involved with a restaurant owner in Kitchen Nightmares.
I believe that Ramsay's contract with FOX gives him free rein on expressing himself however he sees fit. After all, FOX knew before signing him what kind of behavior to expect. They are getting what they paid for in high ratings partially due to Ramsay's bad behavior.
On the issue of Ramsay owing a lot of money to purveyors in the New York city area, I believe that is true. The London restaurant has been hemorrhaging cash since it opened in 2007 with the U.S. recession affected high end dining. Manhattan diners are resisting the 3 course prix fixe price of $80 which would assure a profitable operation with sufficient volume. Ramsay has had to support it with cash from his British operations
ugot2bekidinmeny:
Ramsey is devestated that this man commited suicide.. this man's business improved once on the kitchen night mares.. i have friends that not only go there but knew him and his family.. the man started doing drugs.. or continued and then his wallls started coming apart.. seperation from family, cheating on his wife.. all this information is 3rd/4th hand to me.
at any rate.. Repirt and some other high ranking chefs have several controversial twitter statements that have mentioned thier dislike with how he works on this one particualr show.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/30/eric-ripert-vs-gordon-ramsay-twitter_n_742340.html
In all of the other shows i have seen.. The F Word in particualr(4 seasons of it i have seen, need to catch season 5) he's super nice.. super geniune.. and caring.. along with compasionate.
http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/159/index.jsp
http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/f-word/series-5/
I think his hell's kitchen performances are over the top just for the ratings..
apskip:
ugot2bekidnmeny,
You are right that Ramsay is over the top in his zeal for ratings and that he is really a peach of a guy when not on camera. However, his preference for the "F" word was developed during his difficult childhood. I have bought a lightly used copy of the book Humble Pie, Ramsay's autobiography, and you can too for about 1 cent plus $3.99 from BN.com used books (it ships from England). You can read pages 9 to 78 to get a flavor for what Ramsay's first 21 years were like that created the character that he is today.
apskip:
HK8, ep. 5
In the prior episode, the Challenge was won by the Blue team in a close contest with Trev’s dish providing the margin of victory, but Trev coming away with the belief that his teammates had little regard for his talents. During dinner service, Melissa and Jillian were major under-performers for the Red team. Boris got himself exiled from the kitchen. When the Red team finished when Blue had 7 more tables left to go, Ramsay ordered the Red team to help the Blue team out, but this worked so poorly that he closed the kitchen to all competitors and he, Scott and Andi finished the last meals. The nominees for elimination were Sabrina, Melissa, Boris and Louis. Ramsay eliminated Louis.
The challenge was to design menus for the Beverly Hills High School prom. A committee of 3 students running the prom was linked by video connection to provide input about what they personally liked (fusion, seafood, steak and chicken) and disliked. My impression was that no coherent menu could be developed from that. Ramsay asked each team to create a menu of one appetizer and two entrees and then serve it to a panel of judges who would decide the winner of the challenge. The judge turned out to be the prom committee. The presented dishes and judging results were:
Sabrina (Dungennes crab w/ sautéed shrimp) vs. Vinny (crusted tuna) Red 1 Blue 0
Red (Pan-seared ribeye w/minor raw tuna) vs. Trev (halibut over light broth) Red 1 Blue0
Emily (pot stickers) vs. Rob (pan-seared rib-eye) Red 1 Blue 0
For the first time I can remember, a challenge (with Ramsay not involved, which makes a huge difference) had resulted in a clearcut 3-0 decision. The Red team won the special reward of a visit to Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park for the day. The Blue team had to setup tables, fold linens, and then cater to the whims of the prom committee on setting up decorations. This caused a lot of friction and conflict between the prom committee and the Blue team.
Ramsay stressed the need for teamwork as he opened Hell’s Kitchen. Vinny and Nona were asked to help Ramsay at the hot plate to plate dishes as they arrived from the teams. Emily on Fish had trouble with soggy crabcakes until Gail helped her out. Boris on Fish was cooking scallops way ahead of the need for them, which meant they would be wasted and there could be raw material consequences later. Ramsay told him unequivocally that he must cook to order, not batch them ahead: “it’s not an option; one table at a time.” This also applied to Melissa, who had pre-cooked 21 steaks ahead of time when there should be no pre-cooking at all. Sabrina’s appetizers were getting accolades from Ramsay. Boris was having trouble with halibut, but then he gelled and worked in concert with Russell on Meat to get the halibut and meat required synchronized. Nona observed that Emily could not consistently deliver Fish on time. Russell got on a roll and was singled out by Ramsay for exceptional performance. Melissa made a mistake slicing meat at the wrong time, before it was tested for doneness. Ramsay started to direct the entire group how to handle this situation, but he was interrupted by Nona. He asked Nona to give the speech that he was going to, but she declined and let him get back into his accustomed role. She reflected on her role in this with “Open Mouth, Insert Foot.” The Red team rebounded. The Blue team continued their teamwork through the completion of dinner service.
Blue had clearly won and Russell was giving the deserved accolades. Sabrina was named “Best of the worst” by Ramsay and that was resented by Nona, who can see nothing positive whatsoever about Sabrina. The obvious nominations are Melissa and Emily. Ramsay eliminated Emily. However, that was not all. Ramsay placed Melissa on the Blue team to give her a chance to recover. He took Trev from the Blue team and designated him as the new leader of the Red team. With the prima donnas on the Red team to manage (Nona and Sabrina in particular since Gail and Jillian are notorious for their low profiles so far in the competition), Trev has a huge challenge to get Red to be productive through teamwork. .
HK8, ep. 6
The challenge was to create an entrée salad good enough to be featured in Bon Appétit magazine. Senior editor Sarah Tenaglia is present to judge the challenge. The pairings of Red against blue and dishes are:
Gail (?, scallops) vs. Boris (grilled ?) Red 1 Blue 0
Nona (2 quail on bed of wilted greens) vs. Rob (pan-seared scallop, vinaigrette) Red 0 Blue 1
Jillian (fruit) vs. Vinny ( ? ) Red 0 Blue 0
Sabrina (applesauce and pork) vs. Russell (?) Red 0 Blue 1
Trev (apples, pears, pork, strawberry vinaigrette) vs. Melissa (duck, rocquefort cheese) Red 1 Blue 0
Total is Red 2, Blue 2 so Ramsay used the best dishes head-to-head as the tie-breaker. Those were Gail’s scallops and Rob’s scallops. Rob’s were judged superior and he got the win for Blue. The reward was a special meal at the incredible Getty Villa in Malibu, which is one of the finest museums in the world (and one everyone should visit if they can get reservations when they visit the Los Angeles area) with Rob getting makeup to prepare for his photo shoot with Bon Appetit that afternoon. The punishment for Red was cleaning and prepping both kitchens.
Dinner service started with VIP Tables set up in the Red kitchen and the Blue kitchen. The VIPs were the parties of TV stars (Kelli Williams of Lie to Me for Blue and Mo Gaffney and General Hospital star Nancy Lee Grahn for Red). Those VIPs got exposed to the usual range of Ramsay tactics to elicit good performance from the under-performing teams, but they did have the Salad station people (rob and Jillian as their waiters). Russell had nice meat ready to go, but it needed to be combined with Boris’ shrimp to be allowed to be served. Rob and Trev were on the Salad station for each respective team. Rob needed Melissa to deliver scallops for combinations to get other meals out. Nona did raw scallops and had to refire them multiple times without success. Trev was ordered by Ramsay to get it done fast and right and Trev delivered. Melissa ended up wasting 10 pounds of scallops that she had not been able to cook properly. That meant blue ran out of scallops, so Ramsay ordered the menu to switch to raw shrimp in its place. I believe James was sent out to notify affected diners. Gnocchi was a problem for the Red kitchen. Ramsay initially focused negative attention on someone else, but it was Sabrina’s responsibility on the Garnish station. Boris on the Garnish station barely got mashed potatoes ready in time to not screw up a large order. Vinny got accolades form Ramsay for perfectly cooked lamb. Trev got the same for his perfectly cooked Wellingtons. Ramsay told Sabrina to keep her head down and shut her mouth when Sabrina was mouthing off.
Ramsay’s conclusion was that neither team won. Each had to nominate one individual. Due to political factors rather than actual performance, Boris and Sabrina were the nominees. Ramsay was having none of that. He insisted that Nona and Melissa also deserved to be there (even though he had insisted on one nominee from each team, not 2). Melissa was selected by Ramsay for elimination. Ramsay’s summary of her time in Hell’s Kitchen was “red jacket, blue jacket, no jacket.”
ugot2bekidinmeny:
OH BOY! Sabrina may just win this one with the way she fights fights fights! I dont trust nexts weeks coming attractions.. they are awlays miss leading!
I really hope that if this is on for another season he gets some really talented chefs like we had in the past.
The rewards used to be something that the chefs can use for thier future now its amusement park rides? :groan:
Please please let this show pick up to a better level! :lol3:
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