Gordan Ramsey is the devil in this reality show. Does he have a potty mouth?! Insulting even the customers! I have to admit to watching this train wreck and will probably watch it next week.
UK Dopers a question: Is Chef Ramsey the**“Best Chef in All of the UK”** or is this just hype for the US television audience?
I decided I wasn’t going to watch this show, since it seems from the previews that it’s even more staged than most reality shows. I had a feeling that he would be mean just for the sake of being mean. But after talking to my mother last night (she was looking forward to it), I gave it a try.
At first, it was funny when he was trying their signature dishes. Then the restaurant opened and I cringed through the entire episode. Usually my attitude is “You deserve what you get when you sign up for these shows”, but this guy is horrible–not just swearing, but name-calling, insulting, hitting in the stomach with a plate of food. I don’t think I’ll watch it anymore.
I still think most of it is staged. Where did they get these “customers” anyway? Waiting two hours for food? Never! And as soon as he told me to fuck off, I’d be walking out, yet these “bimbos” stayed another hour!
I’m so proud of myself. If I’ve watched the first show of a series, I’m sucked in, but not with this one. If I can’t even suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy it, then I’m not watching.
I watched it. I just don’t get it.
Compare it to “Cooking Under Fire.” On that show, the people have quite a bit of experience cooking. Most are chefs. Ming Tsai is wonderful, occasionally cutting, but with a purpose behind it. They’re trying to find a chef.
On this show, there are contestants with no experience. Ramsay is dumb as a post and mean as… something mean. I was interested to see that the two women who had the least experience were the two women he seemed to cut the most slack when it came to the “signature dishes.” But if you’re trying to find a chef, why bring in people who can’t cook? Why?!
Hey I’m posting in both threads…! Ramsay doens’t believe that “experience” means much, a desire to cook and learn is more important. I can’t remember the show’s name, but Ramsay visited various eateries and the majority of the “experienced” chefs were hacks…more often than not the back-up staff and “unexperienced” help were better cooks, they just had the gift and were willing to learn something new.
Over and over again, the chefs were just lazy, reproducing the same dishers over and over again and getting more and more lazy in the preparation of it. I remember one episode where Ramsay, pulled a fish bone maybe 2-4 inches long out of his boneless salmon and had a plate full of grit from a plate of mussles. It was unacceptable, yet this experienced chef, willingly served it…something that I as an unexperienced cook would never do.
Ramsey has won the “Best Chef in the UK” award (there really is such a thing) many times. They have a sort of Oscars for the culinary arts.
Also, he’s not really camping it up for the show, from what I understand that’s pretty much how he is. When he opened one of his newer restaraunts in the UK he went through like 8 employees in the space of a month.
He is a damn fine chef and does great things, but he’s a bastard. Everyone is well aware of it. 
Gordon Ramsey is the real McCoy, several Michelin starred restaurants to his name. The British cuss with gusto, across all strata of society, so he’s not particularly noteworthy in that respect here. Cursing is a whole different kettle of ball games in the US, though, so I guess he comes across as the proverbial bull in a china shop.
I wasn’t going to watch either, but curiosity got the better of me 
My verdict? I expected Ramsay to be much more harsh. Granted, he probably can’t because this is TV after all, but what he said/did during the episode is nowhere near as ballastic as I’ve ever experienced, as I’ve had the dubious pleasure of working with some pretty tempermental chef-managers.
I could tell the whole episode was scripted. At certain points, I could read it in Ramsay’s eyes: Now this is where I say/do this, and when I do you’re supposed to say/do that. I especially felt it at the beginning where the contestants presented him with their signature dishes. I woiuldn’t be surprised if a producer suggested the food spitting for additional drama.
I’m undecided if I’m going to watch next week. We’ll see.
There’s no real suspense in this show, is there? It’s not produced or edited well. PBS’ **Cooking with Fire ** is a much better produced show and more entertaining.