A chef is a mentor, and teacher, this asshole is neither. Food must come from love and that love of food will shine in the food. I put 4 decades in the food industry, I never once raised my voice to an employee, ever. If angry is in the food, I don’t want it, and you shouldn’t either.
P.S. I wouldn’t let Gordon wash my pots. So say I.
Best joke on BB in some time, but keep the day job Dude / Dudette, just in case.
And by all accounts the raging screaming curse monster is an act for certain shows.
In RL and in the kitchen he is NOT like that according to those who have worked woth him. The character that Cooper plays in a chef is Ramsey when in the kitchen.
That’s fine. And I love and admire Eric Rupert far more than I do Ramsey for the exact reasons you are stating.
HOWEVER as I said in response to @orenwolf don’t confuse Ramsey’s TV persona for how he is when running a kitchen. All accounts by those that worked with him are that he’s actually very exacting and requires perfection but he doesn’t act like you see on Hell’s Kitchen.
I’d also argue against what your defining as a chef as not an absolute. A chef CAN BE those things. Just as a sports Star CAN BE an idol or hero to a kid. But that is not the only thing they are not should they be defined by what someone else says they should be.
Some chefs are like Rupert or Samuelson. Others aren’t. And that’s fine to not want to be a teacher or mentor. Some just want to cook their own food and explore it for themselves. They are not under any obligation to teach if they don’t want to.
I note that you didn’t say that you never raised your voice at a server.
You… may want to rethink what the job actually entails.
I put 4 decades in the food industry, I never once raised my voice to an employee, ever.
A server is an employee, last I heard anyways.
At least he knows the lobster was dead for a while before it was cooked. With my taste buds, I don’t know if I would have noticed.
Hats off.
Thank you for assuming what my knowledge and experience is. Have a nice day.
This is not ‘a hill’ I’m willing to even stub my toe on, but you make me wonder if Ramsey’s food tastes differently when he’s “playing an asshole” for tv, and when he’s just cooking as a regular person.
I’d be willing to bet it that does; it may sound ‘woo’ but negative energy while cooking does affect the way food tastes, IMO.
Is he though, or is asshole Ramsey just a TV character? I know too little about him to answer that. One of the reasons I dislike the contest genre of “reality” TV that presenters like Gordon Ramsey or Simon Fuller bank on is that it really blurs the line. Play an asshole in traditional fiction, that doesn’t translate into being an asshole per Vonnegut. Play an asshole in kayfabe, equal suspension of disbelief. Screw with people the way Ashton Kutcher did when he turned Asshole’s Day April Fools into a serial TV show, and you’re an asshole. Not sure where Ramsey sits on that spectrum.
Again; in the end, it doesn’t matter.
Sorry, I should have put it this way: are the people he messes with in on the bit? Again, don’t know, but I get the sense that the purpose of a lot of “reality” TV is to break down the distinction between fiction and real-life interactions by exploiting “talent” in a particularly sleazy way (not that Tinseltown isn’t a sleazy cesspit of exploitation to begin with).
That’s kind of why I hate the whole genre of contest-based “reality” TV, on top of being lazy and stupid. Yes, some amazing people find a platform in it, but in service to most hopefuls being ridiculed by egotistical pricks.
So interesting point. When he’s all anger and fury on TV do you see him cooking anything?
Watch his master class vids on YouTube. He’s incredibly calm and soothing. Exactly what you’d expect from a master chef.
Also having eaten at his restaurants, even the seemingly mundane items are excellent. His standards for his actual restaurants are clearly high and exacting.
It amazes me that people would watch how he is on Hell’s Kitchen then watch Master Chef Jr and not piece it together that it’s a total act.
I don’t think people are denying it’s an act. But if the people he appears to exploit are not in on it, the the rule of goats applies. If one fucks a goat ironically, one is still a goatfucker.
Given that it’s a tv show, I assume they’d have to be for liability reasons.
I hate it too; my one exception is RuPaul’s Drag Race because I love me some fabulous drag queens… but even that show is becoming uncomfortably more exploitative, the more popular it becomes.
Frankly?
I’ve never watched the show and don’t plan to; as I just told Gully, I think most ‘reality’ tv is Pure-D shit which brings out the worst in pretty much everyone involved.
That said, my hypothetical query still stands; IF he cooked while he was being a snide dick, (even for pay) how would it taste?
Not as good as when he’s not being a dick, very likely; the food doesn’t know he’s faking it… and negativity is still negativity, even if it’s based solely on greed/opportunism rather than real emotion.
Again, this ain’t my hill; as Ramsey will probably never cook for me personally, so it’s not like I’m ever gonna find out for sure.
Jinx, I owe you a coke.
I didn’t really assume anything.
I find it hard to imagine a staff that is birthed fully formed with full knowledge of ones own cuisine.
The idea of a chef that doesn’t teach or mentor is hard for me to fathom.
Maybe the word ‘training’ does not mean what I think it means.
I’m not here to change anyone’s mind but the idea of judging someone solely on what their tv persona is while discounting all other sources of info is just fucking stupid in my book. I don’t think it’s anything close to fair to cal him a goatfucker because he plays a character on tv.
But you and everyone else do as you wish. Leave me the fuck out of it at this point.
