Amy's Baking Company, The Revenge

boing
21

Okay. I took a deep breath and actually watched the video.

Whole. Eeee. Shit.

Based on the original episode, I suspect they are deeply leveraged and/or horribly in debt and are in denial. The husband obviously doesn’t communicate with the wife about the business. He seems to be the principal investor and he can’t even tell her when food gets sent back.

I think ABC is going to hit the bottom of the trough sooner or later. I can’t say I’ll be sad about it, based solely on how they took employee tips. Unfortunately they won’t learn a damn thing and go to their graves swearing they were victims of a plot.

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22

You don’t have to be licensed to be an architect. My neighbor has a masters in architecture but doesn’t have her license. A licensed architect has to sign off on her work.

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23

Isn’t that like having graduated law school but not passing the bar exam? You may call yourself an architect or an attorney, but you can’t sell your professional services without a license.

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24

You can’t legally call yourself an architect without your license. You’re just a designer.

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25

Wasn’t the general idea that Amy’s husband was financing the place as a vanity business and/or money-losing tax dodge?

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26

Did he say that? Sounded more like he was condeming Ramsay for giving these douchebags an audience.

27

I have to say though, I like this quote of hers:

I think it takes a very special kind of person, it’s called a eunuch, to be able to call someone and bully them over the phone or through the internet when you don’t know who they are

Maybe we could have ‘eunuch’ replace ‘trolley’…that might cut a bit more.

28

If your definition of revenge is pouring endless cash into your trophy wife’s failing business because you don’t have the balls to tell her it’s shit and so is she.

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29

Hmmm… wanna ask Jenny McCarthy how bad publicity has turned out for her? She’s been reduced to an anti-science punchline.

30

Word. Hate him as you may @Oroka (he does deliberately create tension for the show to have drama) Ramsay is an extremely successful restauranteur whose show is about going into commercial restaurants, showing us places we could only see by working there, and railing on people for selling frozen or processed foods for massive markups instead of working to sell good food.

The proof of his talents is in how he transforms restaurants and the people working there to give a shit about the stuff they’re feeding people.

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31

Being successful by pandering to the lowest common denominator is nothing to be proud of. Watching a ‘successful’ man scream, swear, and belittle people is not a form of entertainment. Just because a mass of people enjoy something does not make it okay, and that says a lot about society. Before you know it, we will be tossing men into an arena to beat the shit out of each other… oh hang on. At least we are not feeding christians to lions (yet).

These budding sous chefs are being set up to fail, then be torn a new hole because they did exactly what was designed to happen is morally wrong. They are baited to trip up, then abused for entertainment.

I worked in a kitchen for nearly 10 years, and no, not fast food, but a very busy bar and grill. We were rated one of the best steak houses in Canada. We had kitchen managers try to pull that Ramsey bullshit. There were fights, people walking out in the middle of dinner rush, people just quit on the spot. I ran that kitchen for 3 years myself, without ever belittling people, calling names, singling them out, and it was the smoothest that place ever was while maintaining quality and speed. Adding pressure to an already stressful situation is just stupid and causes more problems than issues.

The situations set up are designed to cause failure. In a real restaurant, you dont freak at your cooks when your orders are backing up because wait staff are taking them too fast, there is a line at the door, and someone just burned the shit out of something cause they were trying to do 8 other things at the same time. You knuckle down, get more staff on the line, start cooking large batches of popular menu items, tell the wait staff they are going too slow, and you smash orders out the window. When it is all over, you recap the night with the staff, thank them for a damn fine job, then buy them a round of drinks because every one of those hard ass F!ckers deserve it. Rinse and repeat.

So yeah, maybe there is some personal issues with it. Cooks and chefs are some of the hardest working people on the planet, doing one of the most ungrateful jobs, usually for way less than they are worth. I get mad when some high and mighty d!ck thinks he is all that and can act like the line god. Gordon Ramsey is good, but not the best. He is popular because of his mouth and temper. Again, nothing to be proud of. I have never been a MMA fighter, but I have issues with that too. Entertainment shouldnt be at someone elses expense, willing or not.

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32

…OK?

You seem to think Ramsay goes in and shouts at the staff of these places. This, combined with your inability to even spell his name, makes me wonder if you’ve ever watched the show or you’ve just made up your mind based on the click-baity (or is that eye-baity?) format of the show’s promos.

He’s universally nice to the staff, unless they’ve also got their heads up their asses (which is rare). He confronts owners on the choices they make that make their staff unhappy. The show spends a mint on refurbishing their often awful-looking restaurants and the owners who were at the start annoyed by Ramsay’s blunt assessment of their product are usually extremely grateful and pleased with the outcome of implementing Ramsay’s suggestions.

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33

Given that Amy’s is in Scottsdale, AZ, then I think it’s worth mentioning that the Nello’s you mention is not the Nello’s Pizza that has four fine locations throughout the Phoenix metro area. It’s been about six years since I lived there, but that Nello’s made a nice affordable pie.

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34

Probably it’s true she can’t officially take the title of architect. However, in her case at least, she has been working as an architect for decades and works on very high end projects. She showed me her portfolio and there was one staircase for a pool house she designed that cost more than my entire house. She has a masters in renovating older homes and has done things like added a new wing to old masions. Money money money! She works with a firm and someone who has the license signs the plans that she designs. Apparently the architecture test is a series of, I think 5 tests - a lot of money and time to study for and take. She’s a bit of a crazy nutjob so I’m not sure if she is just overwhelmed by the process of all the studying/money or if she doesn’t have good study skills or what. Her portfolio is nice if you love things that look like a lot of money but to my eye they seem very heavy and formal.

35

I agree with Oroka’s assessment of Ramsay in his own kitchen(s) and I do think that carried over into his behavior on many of his shows, but I think he has mellowed over the years and I agree with you that in “Kitchen Nightmares” he seems to be able to keep his temper down (mostly) when talking to the staff who are just trying to make a living working around the particularities of their bosses. In fact, in this particular episode I think he did a spectacular job of reining in his fury to point it like a laser beam solely at the couple.

There’s something about actually working in a kitchen with a staff that brings out the worst in him: if he can keep himself as an outsider looking in, he has much better self control.

36

I dunno - I find him motivating. I’d love to have him follow me around pushing me all day.

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No reasonable people, but there are plenty of fawning weirdos on social media.

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No, I dont watch Kitchen Nightmares simply cause I cant stand Ramsey from his older stuff. I never specifically mentioned Kitchen Nightmares, my problem is with Ramsey.

Ramsey thrives (and profits) on conflict. A smart person works to defuse a situation, but that is not good TV. The people at Amy’s Baking Company could have been handled much more non confrontational, but that is not what Ramsey is about.

There are several other shows that do the exact same format, go into a failing restaurant, find the issues, fix it. I enjoy watching Restaurant Makeover. Lynn Crawford is one of my favourite people to watch on TV.

I mean, come on, his crap airs on Fox… some serious quality entertainment there. Blends in with their lineup quite well. When Ramsey is done being a dick you can tune into Here Comes Honey Boo Boo on ‘The Learning Channel’, then go watch Storage Wars on A&E, with enough time to catch Gold Rush on ‘The Discovery Channel’ (seeing how American Chopper finally got canned).

This drama ‘reality’ bullshit on TV is garbage. It is the new soap opera format. For gods sake, go read a book, learn something, build something with your hands, go cook something rather than watch a douche bag chef scream at people.

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Increased traffic with no interesting buying anything isn’t the same as increased business.[quote=“Oroka, post:31, topic:28482”]
I ran that kitchen for 3 years myself, without ever belittling people, calling names, singling them out, and it was the smoothest that place ever was while maintaining quality and speed. Adding pressure to an already stressful situation is just stupid and causes more problems than issues.
[/quote]

I think that is an excellent point. There is no reason why “chefs” should be given a free pass to be assholes to their staff just because asshole chefs are a tradition, like asshole coaches. Employees in every field, especially one as demanding, hazardous and unrewarding as working in a kitchen, should be entitled to be treated like human beings, with respect. As with coaches, chefs seem to get away with it because they are considered so much more important than the people they manage. That and deference to the status quo.

My issue with your earlier post wasn’t your criticism of Ramsay’s trademark bellicosity but rather that it seemed to be posted to excuse the bellicosity and plain crazy of Amy’s Baking Company.

40

You say he has little talent and just goes around insulting people?

I can see how that would really get to you.