Same formula, same studio restaurant, new teams of masochistic losers mixed with skilled hopefuls. And it’s off to a great start.
The women’s team were really the highlights. Any bets on who’s gonna get kicked out first? Lacey who quits prep because she can’t deal, or Colleen who thought she’d improve on Ramsey’s recipes?
I think Lacey, but it could go either way. Always fun to see cooks who’ve never worked the line when the orders start rolling in just go into blank-stare “what the hell did I get myself into” mode.
It’s obvious that half the chefs they pick are comic relief, and the other half are the real candidates. Given how many fricking chefs tried out it’s clear that someone like Lacey didn’t get picked because of her culinary excellence.
Love the culinary instructor (“I also teach manners, chef”). She’s got balls, at least.
Oh and is there some sort of unwritten rule that chefs now have to have multiple body piercings? I just got used to the facts that they have to have excessive tattooing and must smoke like chimneys, but adding in the facial piercings is still getting under my skin (and I still don’t grok why anyone would pierce their lower lip or face… ew).
Yeah, I’ve noticed that piercings are a big thing with a certain generation of line cooks and chefs now too. We have a guy who has the big black hole things in his earlobes.
I also don’t like that they seem to keep folks around longer early in the game who are there for comedy value, and boot people who are less-deserving. SPOILER FOR EPISODE 1: Wil probably had no chance, but Seth deserved the boot. I guess I just think differently about managing restaurant personnel, but when things fall apart and you have one or two people who really let the side down, I want them to man up and be straight with me and say as much (like Wil did). Excuses and finger-pointing I don’t need.
LOL @ Wil…
I really wanted to see Ramsey go Neidermeyer on him a’la
Ramsey: Redo those buttons! Dress that belt buckle! Straighten that cap! And goddamn it, tuck up those pyjamas! Attention! Eyes front! What’s that on your chest, mister?
Wil: It’s a pledge pin, sir.
Neidermeyer: A pledge pin! On your uniform? Just tell me, mister, what sort of kitchen would pledge a man like you?
Wil: It’s a Pride Pin, sir.
My girlfriend said that, practically word for word, but I think the culinary instructor is just that daft. Never attribute to cojones what could be attributed to blind stupidity.
I was kinda surprised Ramsay let him keep the pride pin honestly; he has a thing (or used to) for keeping all uniforms standard, and removes culinary school badges and other recognitions from uniforms in his own restaurants. But maybe they were trying to avoid a touchy issue.
Oh yeah, Colleen, Lacey and Seth (Forrest) definitely ain’t gonna last.
— Alan
Ramsey noticed the Pride Pin during the initial dish cook-off, when everyone’s either in street clothes or in chef coats of their own provision (for instance, Wil wore black). I didn’t notice whether he wore the pin during the evening service.
This past weeks show:
Stock going up:
Danny (nailed the challenge, best comments I’ve heard from Ramsay on the meat station)
Ben (decent on challenge, terrific during service
Paula (not so hot on challenge, killed during service)
LA (nailed both challenge and service)
Coi (Ditto)
Holding steady:
Carol (Nailed challenge, struggled on service)
Charlie (merely average to below average on both)
J (Terrible on challenge, solid on service)
Lacey (Yeah, I hate her too, but she seems to have a knack for the fish station and scallops; she was actually an asset during service)
Giovanni (Awesome on the challenge–clearly he’d cleaned scallops before, but terrible during service.)
Robert (Decent on both, not distinguishing himself as anything but the token fat guy)
See ya:
Colleen (average on the challenge and terrible–again–during service. Just a liability, and Ramsay’s favorite target.)
Seth (awful on the challenge, not so great at the service, another Ramsay whipping boy)
I think it was crap that Ji was sent home. She should’ve received proper medical attention to begin with and been allowed to sit one night out. Instead, she cowboys up, kicks ass through the service, and then is in so much physical pain that she gets the axe instead of two far more deserving morons?
Eff that noise.
That was a great episode, but Ji should be there, and if she was sent home, she should’ve been GUARANTEED a place next year.
I love how Ramsey will put something in his mouth, call over the person who made it, and then spit it onto the floor. There is no one on TV who deserves to get beat up more, and yet I can’t stop watching the show.
If I were on Hell’s Kitchen though I’d just taunt him into hitting me. And then beat the shit out of him. Because no one who yells that hard is actually tough at all.
While Ji getting sent home was definitely unfair, with only the jacket as a consolation prize, I think her real problem was that she hadn’t been on the show long enough to be gauged as an asset.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ramsey hate someone as much as he hates Colleen. It’s a little disturbing to watch. After the first episode I thought the women were much stronger than the men. Now I’m not so sure. The men seem much stronger especially after Ji’s departure.
Yeah, losing Ji was a major blow.
We were talking about the show today while we were prepping for dinner service tonight. I love the season so far, but my one quibble is the same I’ve had for the show from the beginning: they get these chefs on who may not have seen the business end of a skillet or spatula for years, and then we’re supposed to be stunned and amazed when said chefs can finally–finally!–cook a risotto or salmon without burning it. Hell, I’ve got two sautee cooks we’d sponsor on the show; they crank out metric shit tons of scallops, salmon, and beautiful risotto (a lobster risotto and a lemon/asparagus risotto) every night without breaking a sweat.
If they’d ever let line cooks on the show you’d see some real cooking.
It probably has something to do with the fact that
a) You have Gordon fucking Ramsey shouting at you
b) You’re on camera while cooking, and
c) as far as I can tell they don’t even get the tickets, he just shouts the orders at them rapid fire.
It’s a lot of pressure, and I’m sure Ramsey holds them to some sort of epically high standard (can “professional” cooks really send out “raw” meat that often?).
edit: Malcolm: One thing you never want to do is start a fight in a kitchen. There are dangerously hot liquids and surfaces everywhere, as well as knives if someone fights dirty.
a) as opposed to having your boss, an expiditer, and perhaps even an uppity server shouting at you and getting even more personal than Ramsey ever could?
b) on a game show, instead of cooking for your rent and utility money.
c) welcome to every kitchen I’ve ever worked in. Chef calls the order, and they get to work. Chef updates with an “all day” (basically how many of each item he needs based on orders he has working) to the station (as in: “I need 3 dinner crabcakes, 4 app crabcakes, 3 entree scallops and two veg all day”) periodically.
Heh, well, the dining room would be fine.
Honestly I bet he’s a much more reasonable person in real life. I have a feeling he spends a lot of time apologizing, but they don’t show it on camera. So I guess I want to pick a fight with the heavily-edited TV version of Gordon Ramsey.
Yeah, but they’re not casting for talent and professionalism, Trigger. Those are, in fact, the last things they want. A skilled professional who shuts his mouth and does his work would be television poison. They’re looking for people who’ll get you to tune in week after week, either because you hate them or because you root for them, and either way, talent is only a small portion of the equation. There has never been a reality series final, for example, in which the ‘most talented contestants’ made out the final remaining competitors. It’s always the underdog story, the asshole you love to hate, and the one person who actually has talent. For all that it’s called ‘reality’ programming, it exists to tell a story like any other kind of drama, and you can bet that most of the contestants are fully cognizant of that, and thinking of ways to make themselves interesting enough to be kept until the end.
There’s no question - he’s much, much more bombastic on US television than he is on UK television, for example. Much more shouting and yelling, because that’s his schtick, in the US - he’s the yelling chef. He’s playing a fake role every bit as much as the contestants.
The yelling is very legit. Go watch Boiling Point some time… think he’s bad on HK?? Jesus.
A great companion I’m finding is Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. It goes behind the psychology of brigade cooking if you’re not really familiar with it. (I’m not saying you are, I mean generally for other folks out there.)
— Alan
I didn’t know he yelled out totals periodically, that makes more sense (I get paper copies of orders, it’s easier that way). You don’t have to explain about the people yelling at someone cooking to me, but at a regular kitchen it’s just a routine: orders are given, you do your best, person yelling at you does his job and conveys the urgency of the situation. In Hell’s Kitchen, you’re basically in a really long and violent job interview, and these people are trying to get a better job (and the last thing they need is video documentation of them cracking under pressure, that’ll go down well for other job interviews).
As for uppity servers, who gives a shit about uppity servers yelling at you? What can they possibly do? The only person yelling that matters is any direct superiors, and hopefully they understand your job and whether you are performing adequately.