If you read the rest of the posts, you will see that I did say he had talent. He does when he is not running his mouth.
It is not his talent for cooking that has made him famous (I dare you to name 1 non celebrity chef off the top of your head), it is his temper and mouth. It is the basis for his shows (Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares…) is drama and conflict based in a food industry backdrop. People dont watch it to see fine cooking, or skills, they watch it to see Ramsay ream people out.
His show could be ‘Hell’s Oil Rig’ or ‘Hell’s Gold Mine’ or ‘Hell’s Crab Fishing Boat’ and he goes around yelling and screaming at good solid people for the entertainment of the masses. Different backdrop, same crap.
You ever worked in kitchens with the talented narccisits? I have. Anyone who can take them down a peg is doing the world, and their families, a huge favor.
I have known Chefs (or architects, doctors, pilots, athletes, bloggers, etc…) that act in daily life like the star of their own series. When it works, great!. When it does not, and when people are really failing and the death spiral has begun for the business family, then why not bring in a bigger asshole (one who does possess empathy) to contrast with the asshole with no empathy.
They’re both going for reactions, ramsay and his opponent. But only one of them has an actual view on what is best for the business family. I think this format could work with any business, but food is more accessible and fun to watch. And lots of folks have no idea what goes on behind the scenes in restaurants.
Bring in some success with a big name and a new menu, and see if taking some of the pressure off the staff can change that which was manifesting as a proper personality disorder (Amy’s, and many other venues) and coax it back to just annoying personal tendencies. Reduce the heat and see if maybe the chef (or whatever personnel are creating chaos) can see how valuable they are (or aren’t) to the -team- and try to behave like an actual human being in the new circumstances. Some can. Some can’t.
And it makes good TV. Your taste may vary, but who has the michelin star?
Yes, I have worked with talented narcissists. I have had them as bosses, actually forced to call them ‘king shit master of the universe’. Those are the people who cause fights, walkouts, people to quit, and their talent is far offset by the chaos and discourse caused by a swollen head. Playing kitchen is a team sport, and like any team, no matter how good the super star is, if they cant be part of the team, the whole thing goes to shit.
You dont convey empathy and compassion by being a dick. No, that is not what ‘Nightmare Kitchens’ is about, it is what Ramsay is about. Just because his current show has him mellowed out, he has already show his stripes. People’s true colors come out under stress… so either Ramsay is truly the dick he shows on TV, or it is an act, which is even worse.
Bob forbid you’d address the topic of the OP (Kitchen Nightmares).
It’s also pretty funny that you think a person watching junk TV means a they aren’t also reading books or building things. Just like we can watch a shitty movie and enjoy it, so too can a person watch mindless TV.
Fox=Bad? I think you’re confusing Fox News with Fox, which has produced a ton of well made entertainment as well as a ton of shit entertainment.
He certainly was a nasty piece of work back when he was more just a chef, not a TV star (there was an expose of both him and Marco Pierre White back in the 90s with some appalling footage of them both physically attacking their staff).
Were there settlements with his staff? Arrests? Convictions? Any behavior more damning than the sort depicted and excoriated, weekly, as the terrible sort of normal behavior by chefs and restauranteurs which has to change?
As to how he treated his own staff 20 years ago, please link to such footage/accounts. They likely do exist, but I would like to compare apples when possible, and first hand.
I’ll try & dig 'em out if I can. It was a show called the Cook Report IIRC. And howay, no there were no arrests, or it would have stained his career (and White’s). There’s footage though, but it’s hard to find, by the looks of it. I remember watching it at the time & being shocked by it though (and yeah, I know, television). I’ll see if I can dig it out, but a quick google/youtube hasn’t found it, unfortunately.
As for the point that it’s normal behaviour in many, many restaraunts, yes, that’s what I’m saying. Despite his indubitable culinary skills, a great deal of his TV persona is a sanitised version of his previous behaviour, and I dislike him for that. The entire culture of viciousness that surrounds prestigious chefs (and the ones who assume they are) is one of the reasons I don’t do that kind of work anymore. Well, that and the fact it’s basically as stressful as trench warfare, only involving sausages even on a good day. A friend of mine came up with a beautiful description of it: “Kitchen people are like a different tribe; if you’re not one, you’ll never understand, but you’ll probably have a lot less cuts and addictions”.
It’s hard back there, man…
[edit to add:] it’s pretty common knowledge here in the kitchen world as well. Though, again, that’s apocryphal…
Seems like the show might have been called Ramsay’s Boiling Point which documents him opening a new restaurant. It’s his earliest listed TV appearance on imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0950342/ and there are a bunch of episodes on youtube.
I’ve just skimmed the first episode and he does come across as a self-righteous asshole who is unnecessarily mean to his staff. I’d not seen that show and my primary experience of him has been Kitchen Nightmares and occasional appearances on Australian cooking shows in which he certainly seems to have chilled out, at least to his underlings.
I’m obviously not comparing the guy to Steve Jobs, but Steve copped a bunch of criticism for his management style - pushing people beyond what most consider reasonable and berating anyone who he perceived to be “fucking up his company”, irrespective of whether they’d done anything wrong at all.
There is a school of thought that pushing your staff and berating them when they don’t meet your unreasonably high expectations is a way to achieve great things and foster skills and self-confidence in your staff as it shows you expect them to be awesome. I’d never run anything like that because IMO if someone is doing their best and their mistakes are earnest then that’s cool. If someone really sucks or is truly lazy you fire them.
No, it was before that, I’m sure. I remember the boiling point one. It’s annoying me now, it was hidden camera footage of someone who’d gone to work for him, so like I said, most likely the Cook Report.
