Gordon Ramsay Just Broke MasterChef For Me

[Fenris]

Ok, I’ve never been all that impressed with MasterChef, but it’s been a pleasant enough diversion.

But for some reason, the most recent episode of MasterChef stretched my suspension of disbelief too far.

The contestants were cooking for lifeguards, so–hey! Fish! Because that’s gonna be a nice treat for locals who live on the beach, as opposed to something they can’t get all that often (but let’s let that part go)

One of the contestant teams were doing fried eggplant (or zucchini? I think it was eggplant). Anyway, the oil temperature was too low and the eggplant slices were soggy and greasy. Aawwwwwww.

BUT! Gordon Ramsay came out screaming at them, face red, spittle flying. He’s screaming at them, as though one of them had accidentally poisoned a bunch of little kids and then lit them on fire. And then, literally shaking with RAGE :mad: he shrieks at them to “Get a grip!” and stalks off.

Yeah, Ramsay does this in every episode of every show he’s ever been in. No surprise. But this time, the ridiculousness of it all just hit me. This guy’s in a frothing rage of the level that normally one would reserve when dealing with concentration camp guards pissing on a mass grave…over soggy eggplant.* And it doesn’t matter if he’s acting or if he really does have anger management issues. It’s still absurd, either way.

I started giggling. It’s like something just snapped inside me and instead of drama/tension, it just became absurdly silly.

I don’t know if I can keep watching the show anymore when I’m just PALTR-ing at the judges and their drama.

This happen to anyone else?

*Note: they didn’t even ruin it. Get paper towels, blot off the extra oil by squashing the eggplant between the paper towels. Salt. Oven roast for 10 minutes. Or just fry it a second time at a much hotter temperature and then salt. And even if was utter ruined, it’s just eggplant. Nobody healthy should be that emotionally attached to eggplant.

[Patx2]

Yeah, Gordon goes completely over the top, however, he usually reserves most of the drama for Hell’s Kitchen where every other word is usually bleeped out. I saw the episode you are talking about and his reaction was, putting it lightly, insane, but I think he does it for the ratings, the crazy thing is though, like you point out, it sometimes just makes it unwatchable. I really miss the fact that he used to call contestants smurfs on HK. He would be in a fury and yell you stupid smurf or something to that effect. He hasn’t done it in ages, I don’t know if he was told he cannot discriminate against smurfs in such a way or what. Anyway, that’s why I continue to watch HK, I’m really hoping he goes off and calls someone a smurf again, so funny.

[RobDog]

Gordon Ramsay makes any programme he appears in utterly unwatchable for myriad reasons, but mostly because of the way he describes eating establishments as “rest-rnts”.

[Novelty_Bobble]

The man is a colossal bell-end. Always has been. Without doubt a good cook but also without doubt an egotistical control-freak.

The correct response to him when he blows his top should be

"Gordon, you are financially illiterate as well as being a terrible businessman and as much of a people-person as Pol Pot. Take your red, wrinkly, spittle-flecked face out of my sight and let me get on with rescuing these veg…are you still here?..don’t give me the silent, menacing rage because if you were going to hit me you’d have done it already and you’d now find yourself wincing and wondering how THIS pepper mill found it’s way up there and ruefully noting that I had access to multiple edible lubricants but maliciously decided against them. Now we’ve established that violence is off the menu are you going to sod off? yes?..good…off you fuck now.

[pulykamell]

@Fenris

Yeah, Ramsay does this in every episode of every show he’s ever been in. No surprise.

Actually, he doesn’t. I’ve seen various episodes of his UK work, and it’s much more restrained; kind even, at times. I’m convinced he’s been told to really ham it up for the American market.

I just did a quick internet search, and here’s an article about it, so it’s not just my lone observation.

The trouble is that Ramsay was never the fuming madman the American networks made him out to be. That’s nothing more than a ruse — a character for sale abroad. I remember feeling astonished, the first time I watched an episode of the original Kitchen Nightmares: the hostility wasn’t there. Ramsay wasn’t lambasting anybody; he wasn’t scolding the busboys for delays or upbraiding the line cooks for slip-ups; he could even be seen, on occasion, smiling and laughing like an ordinary person. You’d never know it were you familiar with him from the show’s America iteration, but in the United Kingdom, Ramsay is exceptionally charismatic, even charming.

[RobDog]

@Novelty_Bobble

The man is a colossal bell-end. Always has been. Without doubt a good cook but also without doubt an egotistical control-freak.

The correct response to him when he blows his top should be

"Gordon, you are financially illiterate as well as being a terrible businessman and as much of a people-person as Pol Pot. Take your red, wrinkly, spittle-flecked face out of my sight and let me get on with rescuing these veg…are you still here?..don’t give me the silent, menacing rage because if you were going to hit me you’d have done it already and you’d now find yourself wincing and wondering how THIS pepper mill found it’s way up there and ruefully noting that I had access to multiple edible lubricants but maliciously decided against them. Now we’ve established that violence is off the menu are you going to sod off? yes?..good…off you fuck now.

Dear Novelty Bobble, whilst I found your post most excellent, and I heartily agree with all the sentiments contained therein, might I make a tiny suggestion?

How about replacing all the words from “financially illiterate” to the final full stop with “a cunt”.

[Dewey_Finn]

I agree that he’s much calmer and even nicer on the UK shows (e.g., Kitchen Nightmares, The F Word and Gordon’s Great Escape).

[aceplace57]

Anyone seen Gordon’s first British show, Boiling Point?

It chronicles his experience opening his first restaurant and his attempts to get a michelin star. He was a tough boss but wasn’t a ranting lunatic.

He was under tremendous pressure. He had walked away from a successful restaurant that he only had a small share in. Mortgaged everything to open his own place. He risked a lot and couldn’t afford to fail.

One funny bit, during an interview he puts down TV chefs. Mocks them and says he’ll never be one. His only interest is running a first class restaurant.
15 years later, Gordon is the most famous tv chef in the world. LOL

[aceplace57]

I read Gordon’s book.

He explains that he fell for a popular business scheme. Investors approach a young up and coming chef. They offer to set him up in his own restaurant. The catch is the chef only has a small ownership. Maybe less than 20%. The chef is working 60 hours a week for very little money. The investors are getting rich.

That was the successful restaurant Gordon walked away from before opening his own place,Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

[D_Odds]

pulykamell is right, Ramsay’s US character is entirely made up by his FOX producers. And those producers are the reason I don’t watch any of his US shows, at all. Previously, I might catch an episode or two if I couldn’t find anything more interesting. But one episode, he went off on a restaurant proprietor about lobsters. He holds up a lobster and starts ranting and raving about advertising Maine lobsters and serving Canadian lobsters, as if one could tell simply by looking at the lobster and as if there was a difference between the two. Maybe I just hadn’t paid close enough attention before, but that piece of performance art permanently soured me on any of his American shows.

[Chiffon]

Soggy eggplant is disgusting, but soggy oily eggplant even worse.

[Patx2]

@Dewey_Finn

I agree that he’s much calmer and even nicer on the UK shows (e.g., Kitchen Nightmares, The F Word and Gordon’s Great Escape).

He is also quite chill with the kids on Master Chef Junior. It’s obvious all his fury is made up for ratings, but I guess when they are paying you the big bucks, acting like an over the top maniac is what you choose to do.

[Grrr]

All I can say is thank goodness for Gordon Ramsay!

His shows are the only thing that will convince my son to put down the game controller and come watch TV with me.
My son finds his angry tirades hilarious. Been watching his shows together since he (my son) was a little kid.

Funny now that my son has graduated, he works in a kitchen. I wonder how much GR had to do with that? He does love to cook.

[Dewey_Finn]

@D_Odds

pulykamell is right, Ramsay’s US character is entirely made up by his FOX producers. And those producers are the reason I don’t watch any of his US shows, at all.

If you want to see the softer side of Gordon Ramsay, I recommend watching his show The F Word, which is airing this summer on Fox. He is calm and friendly. The show is very much like the original UK version with two teams of non-celebrity friends or families competing to serve diners in a fake restaurant. There is also a competition between a celebrity guest and Gordon to make some dish, and there is often some sort of field trip in which Gordon engages in some macho feat like noodling for catfish or hunting boar in Alabama.

[aceplace57]

I watched several seasons if the British Kitchen Nightmares.

They were very good. Gradually they started featuring restaurants that I knew couldn’t be rescued in a week. Nobody can train an incompetent chef in one week.

Sometimes Gordon convinced them to do a simple menu. That was the only slim chance of saving the restaurant.

Bad management can’t be fixed in a week. Mom and daughter run a restaurant and fight about everything. There’s no way Gordon can fix that. They may act nice for the cameras. But you know that restaurant has no chance after Gordon leaves.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

@aceplace57

I watched several seasons if the British Kitchen Nightmares.

They were very good. Gradually they started featuring restaurants that I knew couldn’t be rescued in a week. Nobody can train an incompetent chef in one week.

Sometimes Gordon convinced them to do a simple menu. That was the only slim chance of saving the restaurant.

Bad management can’t be fixed in a week. Mom and daughter run a restaurant and fight about everything. There’s no way Gordon can fix that. They may act nice for the cameras. But you know that restaurant has no chance after Gordon leaves.

Most of the restaurants he tries to “save” close later.

[Fenris]

@Patx2

Yeah, Gordon goes completely over the top, however, he usually reserves most of the drama for Hell’s Kitchen where every other word is usually bleeped out. I saw the episode you are talking about and his reaction was, putting it lightly, insane, but I think he does it for the ratings, the crazy thing is though, like you point out, it sometimes just makes it unwatchable. I really miss the fact that he used to call contestants smurfs on HK. He would be in a fury and yell you stupid smurf or something to that effect. He hasn’t done it in ages, I don’t know if he was told he cannot discriminate against smurfs in such a way or what. Anyway, that’s why I continue to watch HK, I’m really hoping he goes off and calls someone a smurf again, so funny.

I quit Hell’s Kitchen when they had a season more scripted (and worse acted) than professional wrestling. Some obnoxious bimbo kept cheating JUST as Gordon looked away exactly the way that happens in professional wrestling.

[BeepKillBeep]

Of course a lot of the drama is, I don’t want to say made up in the sense that they didn’t set up the eggplant to be soggy, but they need the chefs to react to something for the TV cameras. It is pretty consistent on MasterChef during a team challenge that one of the chefs will go to each team and criticize something that they’re doing. And not setting the oil temperature is a pretty basic mistake which I think is more what Ramsay was “upset” (I don’t think he was really upset) about. I really enjoy watching “The ‘F’ Word” with Ramsay. It is live and I find you get a better view of his personality which actually seems kind of fun. He is critical of the teams while they cook, but I think he takes serving high quality meals to his customers seriously, as well he should. He doesn’t act like a raving loon though on “The ‘F’ Word”, in fact, I think the sharpest he has been with anybody was a customer who complained that some bone wasn’t pointing the right way.

[Dewey_Finn]

@FoieGrasIsEvil

@aceplace57

I watched several seasons if the British Kitchen Nightmares.

They were very good. Gradually they started featuring restaurants that I knew couldn’t be rescued in a week. Nobody can train an incompetent chef in one week.

Sometimes Gordon convinced them to do a simple menu. That was the only slim chance of saving the restaurant.

Bad management can’t be fixed in a week. Mom and daughter run a restaurant and fight about everything. There’s no way Gordon can fix that. They may act nice for the cameras. But you know that restaurant has no chance after Gordon leaves.

Most of the restaurants he tries to “save” close later.

But if you’ve watched a few episodes of Kitchen Nightmares (or the similar Restaurant Impossible), you’ll see the same mistakes made over and over again; filthy dining rooms, kitchens that are greasy and dirty to the point of being a health or fire hazard, overstuffed menus, food that’s either frozen or poorly made, incompetent chefs, etc. So even before you call one of these shows for help, you should be able to identify these issues and address them without the outside help. That the restaurant owners, managers and chefs didn’t or couldn’t do so on their own suggests that they’re not likely to succeed after a celebrity chef spends a week or so there fixing the issues. Most likely, they will revert to the same bad habits that got them into trouble in the first place.

In short, that many of the restaurants featured on Kitchen Nightmares eventually close isn’t his fault.

[Sauron]

Since this is a Gordon Ramsay thread, here’s the obligatory link to the “Amy’s Bakery” episode of Kitchen Nightmares: - YouTube