Or, in my case, slightly more incompetent. :smack:
Believe it or not that’s his nickname of his own choosing - in the confessionals he’ll refer to himself in the third person: “That’s how K-Grease rocks it.” When he first said it I thought he was referring to one of the sous chefs, then I figured he was talking about his own dumb ass.
Dude is not ready for prime-time. Even the most adventurous of diners will avoid his restaurant. It’s not as if the show is despairing in the ratings. People know it’s on. I think if he was serious competition they’d have hired an image consultant to help improve… let’s see, his diction, his posture, his gait, his clothing, his hair, that simple look on his face…
I fucking hate Heather with her baboon face and the way she resembles a third-grader getting lectured. But she hasn’t done anything incredibly stupid, and probably can clean up decently.
Let’s play word association with these dolts, shall we?
K-Grease: unkempt
Sara: farter
Victoria: tits
Heather: annoying (but immediately after, “mildly competent”)
You could really only hire Heather and not find it a liability if you’re the casino owners.
I actually think Ramsay is pretty easy to get. They see him in three contexts: the challenges, dinner service, and occasionally out on the town. In the former two contexts he has to be an unrelenting hard-ass for the cameras but I don’t think it’s a million miles from how he actually is. It’s a very drill instructor type of persona. You can’t rip people 24/7, you have to occasionally work a compliment (backhanded or not) in. At night he’s the relaxed Ramsay, which relieves me, because if he was the way he is on the show after hours… I’d consider him a real loon. He knows how to turn it on and turn it off. I’m sure he wants to like some of these people.
Frankly, I think all the patrons are hired extras. The party of 12 that showed up at the end of the evening pretty much seemed like they didn’t know each other at all. We’re talking about a restaurant seems to be open or closed for business randomly on any given night, and has a reputation for sending people home without having fed them.
When I was an extra 8 years ago, you could pick up gigs being an audience member for the less popular talk shows like Leeza and Rolonda, so getting paid to pretend you’re dining out isn’t a stretch at all. The SAG extras would get preferential treatment when it came to actually having lines, but anyone would take the opportunity to speak up and interact with the stars, because it would mean getting a bump in pay.
Despite his image problems, which may prevent him from winning, he has proven himself a very competent chef. I would eat at his restaurant and not feel like I am being particularly adventurous.
My brother, who’s a professional chef who owns his own restaurant, says that Ramsay’s pretty much just like all of his instructors and the head chefs he’s worked with at various places. They’re damn tough on the students, but they know how to tone it down after-hours. And he said that he pretty much learned not to take it personally when they’d yell at him.
He likes Ramsay, BTW, but he’d probably be on-par with him when it comes to professional capability. And I don’t just say that because I’m his sister 
.
E.
Whoops! I may be wrong.
Just found this interview with Michael Wray, last year’s winner:
Hey, and here’s another interview. Seems he likes talking to alternative magazines.
And Here’s his webpage. His wife was a stripper!
And his mySpace page
Looks like Michael Wray is laying low at the moment - he’d hoped to open a restaurant in LA or Las Vegas, but apparently found it to be more difficult than anticipated. Instead, he’s working on a line of chef’s knives.
I also found a transcript of an interview with him that gives some insight into the show’s production and its clientele.
The raw chicken was bad enough but then saying he did it because it was faster nailed the coffin shut. Making an excuse when you obviously screwed up shows a lack of professionalism.
Yeah, there are certain things you just don’t do in a kitchen, and which will drive the bosses up the wall. Sending out raw and potentially dangerous food is one of them. That could not only make the restaurant liable for a lawsuit (which is bad enough) but could also really hurt their public reputation. It could potentially hurt everybody who works there. I know the HK kitchen is really just a kind of fake televison studio restaurant and the “patrons” are basically just a studio audience who don’t pay for the meals but a cook who would send out raw chicken “because it was quicker” is at least going to get chewed out in most real places and probably has a 50-50 chance of getting shit-canned on the spot. You say it was an accident, a mistake, you didn’t realize it was raw, you apologize and you don’t make excuses for it. Saying “it was quicker” is not even a good excuse, it just shows a lack of respect for both the patrons and the restaurant.