After a month’s worth of ads for this show during SYTYCD, I realized tonight that they’re two shows, not one.
What’s the difference?
Hell’s Kitchen is trained/professional chefs, Master Chef is untrained home cooks. MC has 3 judges, in HK Gordon Ramsey is unquestioned dictator. HK chefs are working in a “real” restaurant, or at least a simulated restaurant environment, MC chefs are cooking only for the judges. Other than that, not much. MC has much less yelling.
Thanks.
Hell’s Kitchen takes “professional” chefs/line cooks/etc. and makes them serve a whole restaurant full of people every night, divided into two teams. Various challenges are also involved, with rewards like fancy dinners or nice kitchen gear for winners and drudge work like going through the garbage, doing all the prep work, unloading trucks, or cleaning the whole kitchen for the losing team.
MasterChef takes home cooks and pits them against each other (and themselves) in cooking challenges.
It’s a matter of scale of challenge, plus the background of the contestants.
Edit: Damn, too slow!
Also, on HK, the contestants should expect to be verbally abused (Stupid donkey!) and to have whatever dish they just flubbed thrown at them. (Get out!) Woe upon any contestant who has not read Ramsay’s books cover to cover and can prepare flawless risotto, scallops and wellington while blindfolded and handcuffed to a radiator.
MC shows a much kinder, softer side of Ramsay as he and the other two judges are attempting to nurture and mentor home chefs.
So do most Gordon Ramsay fans like both shows, or are there people who watch one but not the other?
Slightly off-topic: Although I adore Project Runway, one of the things I like about it is watching the runway section of each episode and being able to look at all the garments and see for myself which ones I like, whether I agree with the judges, etc. The fact that I couldn’t whip up an outfit in 12 days, let alone 12 hours, isn’t entirely relevant.
With cooking shows, since I don’t particularly enjoy cooking (though I’m a completely competent cook, and could theoretically understand what people are doing), watching the process isn’t particularly interesting to me. Then, of course, at the end I can’t judge the results myself so there’s no hook for me there. Thus cooking competition shows seem weird to me. OTOH, I have no problem watching an afternoon’s worth of cooking shows on PBS, or at least leaving the TV on while I’m doing something else, so it’s not just watching cooking on TV – I guess for me the point watching a competition show is being able to judge for myself what I think of the results. Also why I love the dancing shows. [/rambling semi-OT free association]
[I don’t think it’s threadshitting if it’s my own thread, but someone check with a mod. ;)]
For me it’s more that I watch his UK shows rather than his US shows. The US shows are either structured or edited to have much more drama than the UK shows. I’m more interested in the cooking.
I watched part of the first season of MasterChef and got bored.
I watch Hell’s Kitchen for the train wreck. Ramsay abuses people verbally, is demanding, and has outrageously bad contestants. For a good version, try Top Chef on Bravo instead - fairly high-end chefs, no verbal abuse (well, maybe the occasional snits between competitors), excellent food being made. An even better version is Top Chef Masters - actual Well-Known Chefs competing for charity.
I agree. He does the narration on the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares, and the emphasis is more on the cooking and the service. The American version has this ridiculous narrator who overemphasizes the drama. Also, inevitably there’s an elaborate remodel paid for by the production company. I also like the F Word a lot.
But has he done many new programs in the UK? I haven’t seen much new stuff from him on BBC America.
I unabashedly watch all of his shows. He’s definitely meaner in the US ones. But in the one where he travels the world sampling various cultures’ foods, he is very humble while learning their cooking methods.
Not lately, there’s been a bit of bad press around him and I think he’s wisely laying low for a bit.
What is the bad press? Is it this?
The F Word - that’s what I forgot to recommend. One of the most human and least shouty of his shows. A little schmoozing with some UK celebrity, a minor cooking competition with a small team trying to learn recipes and satisfy customers, a “let’s teach some real person how to cook in their own kitchen” segment, a “this is where your food comes from” segment. Nice, simple, shows his love of well-prepared food.
The F Word also included a bit where over the course of the series/season, he raised turkeys or pigs or sheep, mostly in his backyard, and then had the animals slaughtered so that his children would understand where their food comes from. And there was usually some sort of macho adventure in each episode, involving something like tracking and killing a wild boar.
It was a good show, and every time someone here says they hate his personality on the American shows, I encourage them to watch the UK shows.
Yeah “Gordon Ramseys Great Escape.”
http://videos.bbcamerica.com/category/407451946001/Gordon-Ramsay/
He goes to another country and spends a week traveling around learning local cuisine from the locals. A new season just started on Tuesdays on BBCAmerica.
It’s a good show. He doesn’t “drama it up for the cameras” like he does on Hell’s Kitchen. He comes off as humble and kind on the show and the locals always treat him well. So far he’s gone to Cambodia and Thailand.
There was a previous series of Great Escape where he spent time (more than a week, I think) traveling around India and learning various techniques and recipes.
Edited to add that most, or all, of his Great Escape series is available on YouTube.
Ramsay was the gateway to all the cooking shows out there for me. It started with Hell’s Kitchen. Then we started watching Top Chef and then Master Chef. Now we’ve watched everything from Cupcake Wars to Cake Boss to Take Home Chef to Good Eats! I’ve gotten a lot more creative with cooking after watching these shows.
I would say I’ve learned more about actual cooking from watching Master Chef. Ramsay is much nicer to people. I tend to feel bad for the chefs competing on Hell’s Kitchen. I know it’s all show, but still…
I’m a much bigger fan of Alton Brown. I love his show Good Eats.