So thanks to the glory of a global economy I have had a staff meeting on monday nights the last couple months. So I have been half ass watching and listening to Hell’s kitchen, for lack of anything better.
It seemed like an interesting idea, a bunch of aspiring chefs putting up with the abuse of an arrogant master chef to show who is the best and run a restaraunt. But after the first episode it became clear they only had three people even vaguely qualified to run a place. And after three more there were only two. So tonight the two guys who had a clue went on the big face off. After one dude won the chef gave an exciting new offer, to be his apprentice!!!.
How the hell is that a better offer than running your dream restaurant. Like I said I only half watched the thing, but did I miss something? Was the whole thing a put on? Is Gordon Ramsey even a real world class chef? What was the point of it all?
He had a choice: own your own restaurant, or train under Chef Ramsay. He chose to continue his training.
Gordon Ramsay takes very few people under his wing to train. Restaurants have a very high failure rate. To choose instead to train under Ramsay was a very, very good choice, IMO. Michael is young, there will be all kinds of time to open his own restaurant, and now he will have the skills to persevere. Basically, the climax of the show is like: Yay, you won your own restuarant! What could be better than that except for… training under Chef Ramsay to be sure when you do get your own restaurant, you will be able to sustain it…do you choose the big picture or the little picture?
Hee hee. I was wondering the same thing after the show. Your own restaurant, or… Ramsey’s apprentice which costs us nothing! I do agree, however, in the long run it is probably better to train under Ramsey.
I also wondered what exactly “getting your own restaurant” meant throughout the course of the show. Do they pay the rent? The employees? marketing costs? and for how long? What, exactly, would he have won?
That said, it wasn’t a bad show, as far as half-baked apprentice rip-offs go.
The odds would have been severely against Michael if he went with Door #1 and just took the restaurant. LA foodies are fickle, fickle, fickle - he’d be the “flavor of the month” and chances are excellent that his restaurant would be sinking in two months.
Apprenticeship is something he can “take to the bank,” at least.
Oh god, I’ve been glued to the TV every Monday night – I absolutely adore this show!
Michael winning? No surprise. At the beginning I pegged him and Ralph as the finalists. No offense to the others (i.e., Elsie) – it’s not surprising that both are already-working chefs.
Ramsay’s the real deal, btw. According to my British friend, he’s got a cult-like following over there. Over here he was well-known primarily to foodies and/or chefs before <i>Hell’s Kitchen</i>.
My fascination with the show…it was almost like reliving culinary school, with a dash of my current job thrown in. My current boss, the former executive chef, is Ramsay’s tempered twin. If you’ve never worked “the line”, his behavior can appear to be over-the-top and downright nasty. But you cannot take it personally – it’s almost as if the behavior is endemic to the profession.
I only watched the finale so I wasn’t sure who everyone was but I had to wonder how the effeminate large whiny guy ever even made it on the show in the first place. There were some comments that he “doesn’t do meat” (which I found ironic). He could not handle the heat or pressure. Does he actually work in a restaurant somewhere?
I didn’t like Michael. I can’t put my finger on it either, Ralph seemed arrogant but Michael really bugged me. It may just be a knee-jerk reaction to someone covered with tatoos and constantly wondering if he was a hepatitis carrier. I know that’s not very PC and probably belongs in the MPSIMS thread “I don’t like tatoos” but as I said it’s a knee-jerk reaction, it’s the first thing that pops into my head.
But even I could see that apprenticing for a year with a master chef was the better move. I didn’t see it as an either/or deal either, he apprentices and then gets his restaurant. He was still pretty green with running a kitchen and also young so the apprenticeship could only help him in the future. Unless he snaps and stabs Ramsey to death. I don’t think Ramsey was too bad last night since he didn’t do much but set them loose and watch but from all the talk he is pretty hard to deal with.
I think he is a pastry chef or a baker of some sort.
Michael was clearly the right choice and he made the right choice by being an apprentice with Ramsey. Imagine the lead of a food critic’s column, “Michael X opened his new restaurant this last weekend after an 18 month apprenticeship with famed top European chef Gordon Ramsey” versus “Michael X opened his new restaurant this last weekend, which he won on a FOX reality show”.
One thing unmentioned is that I think Ramsey actually helps his apprentices out when they go out on their own by investing in their restaurants.
I’m glad Michael won. I liked the dichotomy of the two restaurant names, and you could read it on the faces of the waitstaff when they were told.
I named this restaurant for my dog and my friend’s dog. Reaction: Ho hum/snicker.
Or
I named this for my wife, it’s my pet name for her. Reaction: Awww.
I wonder why they didn’t get everyone back to help out. Were those the last 6 eliminated?
No, two bootees were not brought back, though you can see why below:
Elimination order from earliest to most recent:
CarolAnn
Dewberry
Jeff/Wendy (Jeff quit in the middle of service, then Wendy was eliminated at the end of that service)
Mary Ellen
Chris (Of whom Ramsay said “you’ve been exposed as a fraud” during the boot)
Andrew
Jimmy
Elsie
Jessica
Jeff and Chris were not brought back - although I haven’t heard any explanation as to whether it was because they couldn’t schedule it or because Ramsay didn’t want them back - though I think it was the latter. Considering Jeff quit in the middle of service, I strongly suspect he most definitely wasn’t asked back (I would imagine that would be Ramsay’s one utterly unpardonable offense), and since he apparently considered Chris a fraud of a chef, it doesn’t suprise me he wasn’t called back either.
d’oh! make that FOUR that weren’t brought back…Mary Ellen and CarolAnn weren’t brought back either…I have no clue why those two weren’t brought back, but probably for ability - I think MaryEllen skated through the first 3 weeks, IMHO.
Ramsey has a hatred for Chefs that have titles and don’t live up to them. Chris kept harping that he was an “executive” chef and Ramsey felt he was just a hack. He expected Chris to be heads above the rest and he wasn’t; in fact Elise who had NO training whatsoever was his better in ability and beat him and the others time and again.
I agree that opting to apprentice under Ramsay was the smarter move for Michael. It gives him more time to build his own rep before he starts a restaurant, not to mention the fact that it will allow him to become a better chef.
I was glad Michael won and was pulling for him from the beginning. Ralph struck me as experienced and able- somebody you’d want on the line- but he was also a bit of a blow hard and his “inspirational” speeches grew annoying rather quickly.
My feeling throughout the last few weeks of the show was that Ramsay really liked Michael’s cooking (and I believe Michael got consistently more favorable responses to his actual cooking than Ralph did) but was a little concerned that he was too quiet and calm to really kick asses on the line. I thnk Ramsay may have felt that by taking Michael under his wing for a year he can really help him learn to be a head chef and run a kitchen. The scene of Michael in his room where he was practicing being “forceful” was hilarious.
I believe that Ralph showed the ability to run a kitchen, and that he could probably operate a succesful steakhouse if he recognizes his own limitations and doesn’t shoot too high. My impression was that while Ralph was a competent cook he was not a particularly original one and did not knock anyone out with new flavors or ideas.
I think that Ramsay liked Elsie too, but her lack of restaurant experience sunk her.
I would also concur that Ramsay’s demeanor on the line is pretty normal for restaurant kitchens. Yelling and swearing is just part of the culture back there. No one takes it that personally and it’s generally all forgotten after the service. Critter is correct that the one thing you don’t do is walk off the line. You can call people every name in the book, speculate about their sexual habits, their parentage, etc. and it’s water off a duck’s back. Walk off the line during a rush and you’ll never be forgiven (or most likely, ever work in that restaurant again).
