I can just about guarantee that Ramsay was put through exactly that kind of hazing and verbal abuse when he was coming up in business, and not just for a few weeks but for a couple of years. A neophyte in a high end kitchen is treated pretty much like a dog for at least the first year (and I don’t think GR even went to culinary school. His bio says he has a degree in Hotel Management and then – after a brief stint as a pro soccer player – worked his way up to being a head chef in several restaurants in London and Paris).
I actually don’t see GR as someone who can’t show humility or take criticism or as someone who would have been incapable of tolerating the requisite period of hazing. If that were the case, he would have never made it up the ladder as far as he did. He’s temperamental and he’s a perfectionist but I don’t think he’s really an egoist.
And as many Dopers have commented, his other shows - Kitchen Nightmares and The F Word, to name two, are much different in tone. People have to remember that it’s a reality show done for Fox - it’s supposed to be OTT. I actually think he’s less crazed than he was in the first two seasons. Maybe I’m desensitized, but I haven’t heard my favorite insult - “you fucking donkey” in… donkeys.
Sometimes I wonder if the producers ever make him do extra takes to get a more “dramatic” performance. At times, it looks to me like he’s kind of faking the anger a little bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t go a bit like this sometimes:
GR: This risotto is a bit overdone. I think you’re going to have to do it again. And use a little more salt this time.
DIRECTOR: CUT! Let’s do that again, but with a little more fire this time. Rememeber, you’ve had it with Nick. Your temperature is rising. You’ve got half a mind to shut down the service.
GR: OK.
DIRECTOR: And…ACTION!
GR: Cor…Taste this risotto, you fucking donkey. You fucking BURNED it. I wouldn’t serve this to my fucking dog. That’s it…SHUT IT DOWN!
I think this is true. He looks more like my dad than a crazy psycho. Crazy Psycho Gordon slaps a plate on someone’s vest for the cameras. Dad used to get that tired, you’ve-got-to-be-shitting-me look when I was flubbing grounders at second base. Just tired and resigned. (Dad didn’t call me a donkey though.)
In this case, it’s more about the audible disappointment from someone you really like being let down. That has ten times more power than being called a donkey, in my experience.
I was inspired to try making risotto last night. It turned out really good but I don’t think I’d be willing to put that much work into dinner very often. I’m also tempted to try wellingtons, but I always stumble on the price of beef tenderloin. No wonder Chef gets so pissed off when they overcook it!
Normally, I don’t either, but once I wanted to see if the site had a video recap of a point I missed in the show. It didn’t, so I thought that as long as I was there, I’d also had a look around. And I found the recipes.
I may be mistaken, but these lobsters didn’t have the rubbber bands on the claws, which I think is more usual. That certainly doesn’t make it a “Fear Factor” level task, but it deos make it a tiny bit more difficult.
No, they didn’t have the rubber bands, but it takes maybe 5 seconds to tell the contestants to pick up the lobsters from near the back. And you KNOW no one got pinched by a lobster, since the previews would have shown enough of the incident to make it look like a contestant died.
One of the bland white guys, Brosh, got pinched and said something about it but that was about it. I wondered why Chef made a point to tell them to kill it with a knife to the head first and no one did it, they just plopped them in the boiling water.
Is PETA making a huge fuss about the show yet?
My brother found GR’s Wellington recipe on the official site for his BBC show The F Word (sorry, I don’t have the URL available right now). But the site included not only the recipe but a video clip of Ramsey prepping and serving the recipe.
