soccr

A tad surprised no one has mentioned the "reality" TV show on which Ramsay was judge and the surviving aspiring chef won his own restaurant -- or, rather, a chance to go work with Ramsay to London, as it turned out.

Anyone watch this? Anyone know what happened to the winner, after all?

Patrick

I tried to watch it a couple of times and found it incredibly boring. The one night he made everybody switch positions and do tasks they had never done before. All I could think was "I'm glad I'm not paying to eat there tonight!"
I know it's a tough business, but he made some comments that struck me as being so rude and uncalled for to some of them. He was downright nasty!

Barbara

Probably nobody's mentioned it because it doesn't involve travel.

Patrick

OK, this is a stretch, but Gordon Ramsey's name does come up from time to time on posts about travel to London and dining at his London restaurants, particularly at Claridges.

soccr

Yeah, I thought about how much it involves travel before I posted -- but Ramsay is a renowned UK chef, and the restaurant "Hell's Kitchen" was located in Calif, had discussion of various cuisines (the final epi had to do with LA vs. NYC cuisine and tastes, and in fact, the diners who judged the NYC meal had been flown in from NY), and yeah, Ramsay took the winner to London -- implication: he couldn't do better anywhere else in the world, never mind the US.

Yeah, a bit of a stretch, but.... I have seen Ramsay named here and wondered how good his restaurants actually are. And although I agree most was boring (I love having DVR to fastfwd through it all), I learned a certain amount about how worl-class restaurants work, and the finale was almost interesting. Like Bourdain better, but was curious to find out if the 27-yr.-old wunderkindchef actually did go to work in London (he'd have to travel to get there ;-) ).

If they do a new one, let's hope it's not in LA -- maybe in Europe (is this a spin-off of a similar show in Europe, btw?).

richardsonsnm

I own several restaurants, and this guy is an embassment to the industry, flat out bull___.

alya

Richardsonsnm

I’m sure there are many chefs who are better that Gordon Ramsey - It’s all about publicity!

He may be an embarrassment – you own several restaurants but have we heard of you?

Personally I preferred ‘Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares’.

sheila

I didn't watch any of Hell's Kitchen, but I did like Kitchen Nightmares. One thing I thought iffy about it was how he sometimes seemed to be saying something reasonably diplomatically to people on camera, but his voice over was totally different in tone- like they weren't going to see it.

I was impressed by his man management in Kitchen Nightmares; and he's clearly a talented chef. This guy has 3 Michelin stars (and at least one each in 4 other restaurants0. They don't give them away free with Cornflakes, you know.

Even if he is a Hun!

alya

shelia

I thought he was Scottish

sheila

He's not Scottish. He played football for Glasgow Rangers professionally. Rangers supporters in Scotland are known as Huns (not affectionately)

alya

shelia - are you sure?

Quote from:
http://www.tv.com/gordon-ramsay/pers...biography.html

"Scottish by birth, Gordon was brought up in England after his parents moved south to Stratford-upon-Avon."

Also from:

http://www.myvillage.co.uk/pages/cel...rdonramsey.htm

"Biography
By rights Scottish born Gordon Ramsay should have been a professional footballer but injury cost his career with Glasgow Rangers FC."

I'm confused - but that's not hard

AR

Richardsonsnm - Sounds like professional jealousy to me.

As Gordon himself would say - "How many f*&%!@g stars do you have?"

Geordie

AR, well said

We may not always like the way he acts but I have heard that he commands incredible loyalty from his staff as shown by the fact that he has the lowest turnover of staff in the business.

In the UK you hear all of the swearing that goes on but I would imagine the show in the US would be pretty boring with an entire hour of beeping

Geordie

Kate

Gordon Ramsey isn't just a TV personality, he's a spectacular chef. One of the world's best. Some people don't like his abrupt approach, but his staff are fiercely loyal and he's actually very fair, when you get past the shouting. I think he's ace.

He's right up there with our other best chef, Heston Blumenthal (Fat Duck). If you ever get the chance to eat as his flagship restaurant, Gordon Ramsey in Chelsea, do it! (oh, and remortgage your house to pay for it).

sheila

I grovel. You may well be right. Indeed you certainly are. I had assumed from his accent..........

schnauzer

We went to a dinner that Gordon Ramsay was co-hosting with an australian chef at a well known restaurant in Sydney. He gave a talk afterwards, the food cooked by Matt Moran to Gordon's recipes was fantastic but Gordon's talk was so awful. Yes the swearing was all too much, but the incredible patronising way he spoke to the guests (paying big bucks guests) was just the worst. He was down right rude and ignorant, telling some lady she looked like she had had a boob job etc etc. Stay in the kitchen Gordon where you belong. and ps do something with your hair!

Kate

...but what I love about Gordon is that he doesn't give a sh*t. He doesn't need to grovel because he has talent. I think he's rather sexy - you just know he'd spin you round like a rag doll. Grrr

SiobhanP

I thought he was the most obnoxious person in the world until I saw his Kitchen nightmares. This was the real life of reataurants and he was helping ailing restaurants try to sort themselves out and avoid going out of business. You can see when he like someone and does not like them. The best one was with an african American woman in Brighton with a soul food restaurant who was in tears afraid of losing her business....he was never rude to her and you could see that he wanted her to make it. What he did for here was a few simple changes and publicity (a bbq on Brighton Boardwalk)and she is doing well. Her name was Mamma ....something. Real old fashioned motherly person, had something like 20 foster kids over the years and not someone you would be rude to because she was a great person.

I think its all an act and he probably bad mouthed but not that scary outside the kitchen. Most chef's are bears in the kitchen

Intrepid1

Face facts: if the food is good nobody cares about the other stuff.

SiobhanP

There are some places here in Dublin that I will not eat in no matter how good the food is (Ok it not Michelin Star places!) because of how they treat staff or run their business. Its up to me as a customer if I want to support their business and two in Particular I choose not to.