Is anyone actually watching "Hell's Kitchen" with any intensity?

(BobGeldof is waiting to help you poor people...)

BUT! She used to go out with Steven Gerrard. So evidently not all wrong (however she is now going out with some scary gangster type and keeps getting her house shot at. Hurrah for Heat magazine gossip)

i like michael best.

The reason this show is entertaining at all is because barely any of these contestants know a god damn thing about cooking. And the whole Dewberry freakout was stupendous! I loved how he was just randomly, beyond ineffectively grabbing and jiggling the handles on things, as sort've a physical expression of how useless he is.

But yeah, those customers are so not even very good at pretending to not be hired thespians.

I know, I kept going on about it!

I was disappointed that Wendy went and not Andrew. Andrew is a dilhole, Wendy is just a little clueless. You can teach a clueless person to get one clue, but a dilhole educated remains a dilhole.

Whatever is going on with him, he is so definitely my favorite to win.

"The guy who won this this year (US) is one of my brother's friends!"

Haha really! Your brother is friends with ROCK! Is ROCK actually an egomaniac IRL or is that just TV editin'?

I don't know; I've never met the guy. I would guess it's a personality trait that was enhancd by the double-whammy of stressful reality-tv compition mixed with atful editing.

Yeah, he seems like he's probably a normal dude when not being interviewed about his competitors & all that.

I didn't see egomaniac, I saw INTENSE.

Like if Henry Rollins were a chef. And religious.

anyone watching the "secret garden" kitchen nightmares? great tv.

http://la.eater.com/archives/2007/12/11/kitchen_nightmares_in_ventura_co_the_secret_garden.php#more

:[ Last one I saw was the guy with a menu that was straight out of a Dungeon Masters guide. He had two wood fired ovens that were used as decoration with the hope that his cafeteria style food would propel him to franchise ownership.

Loving this.

i have a feeling it was the goateed american cook that sent in the application to be on the show. he seemed to love watching ramsay taking the piss out of the chef.

Loving this.

-- Alex in NYC, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:10 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

alex in nyc is ilx's gordon ramsay so this doesn't surprise in the least.

as someone who grew up in ventura county, i am honestly surprised moorpark had a "fine dining" restaurant.

god i love this show. not as much as the UK one, which is all-time classic brilliance, but still.

Someone in the comments on the Eater site links to this local paper's interview with the chef from tonight's episode:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/dec/12/restaurant-owners-skewered-tv-series-kitchen-confi/

Doesn't sound like he learned anything.

I hate how, at minute 45, everything always seems so incredibly hopeless. Then, miraculously, everything somehow comes together, and people act completely out of the character the production staff gave them. It just doesn't seem real at all to me.

secret garden has had some food safety issues:

http://www.decadeonline.com/insp.phtml?agency=VEN&record_id=PR0003895

SHOCKED.

this show makes me wonder if there are any food safety inspector guys left in america.

The contrast between the article and the "I've been there" subsequent postings!

Anyway, every TV show application form should have this on the bottom:

“If I had to give advice to someone considering being on a reality show, I would tell them not to do it,” he added. “The stress is not worth it.”
Jade Goody, Marc Bannerman, Lisa, Charley, etc....

kitchen nightmares is coming to little rock! yay!

Loving this.

-- Alex in NYC, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:10 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

alex in nyc is ilx's gordon ramsay so this doesn't surprise in the least.

Hahahaha. A huge honor. Thankya!

To me, the narrative + editing of these shows feels overly scripted and not really believable (true of all reality TV - and this show is not nearly as bad as, say, The Bachelor). I agree with Polyphonic in the sense that the food critic's initial response, the French dude making a whole other meal, the "drama" of a busload turning up, etc, all feels simplistic and manipulative.

The British versions are much more believable. Gordon's a more compassionate figure in those and less of a cartoon character.

(on BBC America - Thursday nights)

This is an extremely addictive show. Ramsay's hilarious.

the "drama" of a busload turning up

the diners at the restaurants are all plants handpicked by the producers. that seems obvious though -- you don't just go from a perenially empty restaurant to a fully booked one overnight on your own.

unless everyone in town knows that a reality show is being filmed there!

The show sets them up for failure in such a huge way. If you're a small restaurant that is never more than half-full, and then suddenly you're filled to the brim with a line out the door, with people in their Sunday best expecting a Gordon Ramsey-approved meal ... and you still are using the same number of staff you did before ... how could anyone succeed in those conditions?

and with a new menu!

that guy's bleu cheese stuffed filet with pomme frites looked awesome! also i went to high school in simi down teh road from that place.

the appetizer that was a thin slice of an unripe strawberry -- classic

Scraping the bottom of the barrel now.

im pretty sure corey is going to win this

I wanted Bobby to get this! :(

hes a 5-star general in the kitchen!

bobby was not good. he never actually did anything! he just stood around a lot but people were impressed bc he was tall.

I kind of disagree. Bobby was a steady set of hands, he never really screwed up anything he cooked, except in that last episode.

And he never exploded like Matt or whatever dude's name is.

every time shit was hitting the fan they'd cut to him kind of wandering around staring into space and not helping out at all!

tru

Petrozza reminds me of every dude I know who wears those kind of glasses.

Probably because of the glasses.

Christina is totally gonna win this.

i hope christina wins it, she is the most likeable one. she fucks up a lot though. corey is a ho.

remember when she tried to seduce louross? loooooooool

Too bad I missed the other night's episode, I would have loved to have seen Jen get booted off.

Ewwwwwwww I had forgotten about the louross seduction attempt.

I also missed the Jen booting episode. Hated that bitch.

I have been watching this a bit lately. Sort of weird how these people really believe they can run a kitchen. Whatever the level of creativity, if you can't figure out the doneness of meat without cutting it open, then you need to be back on prep for another few years. Also am amazed that the guy who sent out raw chix wings to a kids table wasn't tossed immediately, like even before the episode ended.

There's a third Clemenza? I don't like this at all.

http://www.tvgasm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Clemenza-tongue-HK061812.png

I caught the intro to one episode and the insane flash cut + orch hit three times a second editing style left me shell-shocked.

I kind of love the American one. The British one was a celebrity show where it turned out most of them were pretty good except the obvious comedy entrants. The US one features people who work in catering - some of whom are in really advanced and well paid positions - that it turns out can't cook at all. This year there has maybe been three or four people who can do anything barely competent in a commercial kitchen and one of them was sabotaged in the first couple of weeks by the now-inevitable bitchiness and schisms in the female team.

The flash cuts are bad, but not much more than any other US tv show imo. The worst part is the 'next week' cliffhanger where next week is ALWAYS going to be the most shocking/controversial/unpredictable HK EVARRRR.

Do you still get Gordon bellowing "IT'S RAW!!" every single episode? Always my favourite moment.

Aye. You'd think professional chefs could cook food.

I binged on series 11 (US) of this where not one single person could cook a rack of lamb. If you get to a shortlist of 5 from 16 for a six-figure head chef job and you're still shouting "IT'S RAW!" you probably shouldn't give anyone a job.