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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Hell's Kitchen

  
 
Spatula Clarke
20:50 / 29.05.04
This has been on ITV for... what, a week now?

I'm a bit of a sucker for Ramsay the television chef. Yes, he can display a really twatty attitude towards women (see the "female drivers" bullshit he spouted on Room 101), but he's kind of magnetic. Articulate, if you get past all the fucks, and apparently a bit of a motivating force. That's how he's come across in both Faking It and Kitchen Nightmares, at least.

He does 'proper' swearing, too. I love people who know how to swear properly - accept no substitutes.

Anyway, without Ramsay, the show would be shit. Even with him it treads dangerously close to I'm a Celebrity standards - Angus Deayton proving just how much he relies on the presence of an autocue, ITV's woeful production values and hard on for 'C' list sub-celebs.

So far, Roger Cook has fallen through a cheap chair. An ignoble defeat for the champion of consumer rights. Dwayne Chambers couldn't take doing more than five hours' work a day and promptly fucked off (admitting when he did so that he'd never worked in his life, which I thought was disarmingly honest). Shame - the way he and Ramsay got along would have been ripe material for some new slash fiction had he stayed a while longer. Tommy Vance spent five minutes there as Cook's replacement before doing the same. He is, apparently, a famous DJ, and so deserves better. Like presenting World's Most Foolish Criminals or whatever it's called, presumably.

Which leaves us with Jennifer Ellison, Al Murray, James Dreyfus and Abi Titmus, who all seem capable, willing and pleasant, Amanda Barrie, who appears to be used to breathing a different atmosphere to that on Earth, one of the Bros brothers - who I've not noticed in the bits I've caught, if I'm honest - and Edwina 'Fucking' Currie.

The bits that work are when Ramsay is on screen - he's just as enjoyable to watch when attacking somebody for screwing up as he is when congratulating them for trying their hardest. And this is where the show picks up. Ramsay won't take shit. Currie is full of it. I've gone through tonight's selected highlights in the BB thread, but for those who don't do BB:

Currie responding to Ramsay's complaint about her inability to find ingredients by claiming that the other team had them all, with Ramsay then telling her that she is "full of shit" and "a pathetic bitch."

Currie telling Ramsay to shut up after he's had a go about her inability to properly season the food, despite repeated lessons. Ramsay then telling her in front of everybody else - 'C' lister chefs and customers alike - that she's spineless. A few mintues later, he asks her to come over to him, then starts laying in to her attitude again - "It's all a fucking joke to you, isn't it?", and so on - when she asks him not to spit when he talks (this just after the cameras have quite clearly caught her doing the same *into the food she's preparing*)

"It's unhygienic."
"Unhygienic? You've got a fucking hair net on! It won't make any difference for somebody so fucking diseased!"

'Diseased' absolutely spat out at her, by the way, with real disgust on his face, like all good one-on-one insults should be.

Television doesn't get much better than this. Cheap reality television, that is. Ramsay's obviously giving Currie extra helpings of bile because of who she is, but that just makes it more delicious. I doubt even her fans would find much to complain about - he's entirely fair when giving out praise, as shown by the way he was towards Dreyfus after he was put in charge of the kitchen for a bit of the night.

So who else is watching, and could they please explain exactly what the point of the program is? There's something about viewers voting people off, but I've not seen enough to understand how that works and what the overall point is, other than seeing awful people humiliated.
 
 
Ganesh
21:05 / 29.05.04
Well, I think it's largely about seeing awful people humiliated, but also has Makeover TV elements, as well as a 'How To Be A Manager' theme. I've feel following it too, videoing it where it conflicts with Big Brother.

I actually found parts of it quite moving: hugely sympathised with those individuals who, early on, seemed to be overwhelmed by the experience, often to the point of panic. I found myself becoming almost tearful along with James Dreyfus, for example, possibly because it reminded me of my first days as a junior doctor: everything happening quickly around you, people shouting, high stakes, feeling utterly deskilled.

I do think it's pretty obvious that Gordon Ramsay gets on better with men than with women. He seems to have taken a violent, not-entirely-rational dislike to both Abi and Edwina, singling them out for enormously vitriolic shouting-in-the-face intimidation on the basis of very little. I'll be interested to see whether he can summon up the 'cuddly Gordon' stuff for those two, as and when they eventually crumble.

And yeah, Angus Deayton just comes across as a cunt in a suit.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
21:40 / 29.05.04
I haven't noticed Ramsay bawling Abi Titmus out, but then I've only watched it in chunks. He did single her out for praise alongside Murray the other night, as one of the two people he thought were showing an interest in improving their skills, but that was to camera and not to them in person.
 
 
Ganesh
23:54 / 29.05.04
Oh, he spent the first two or three evenings bawling in her face. Having watched the video of this evening's show, however, I think the issues are different with Edwina Currie: she appeared to be going out of her way to provoke Ramsay, and although I think we went over the top, I could see why he was getting frustrated with her apparent inability to accept responsibility for anything going wrong in the kitchen ("the Red Team had plenty of rice") and constant lippy sniping back at him.

On the other hand, the blossoming Ramsay/Dreyfus dynamic is oddly touching - especially when one contrasts this with Ramsay's vile treatment of the head waiter (Jean-Pierre? Jean Philipe?) Although Ramsay's testicle-obsessed idiom often verges on the homophobic, I don't think he himself is homophobic. A tad misogynistic at times, but not clearly homophobic.
 
 
Ganesh
01:28 / 30.05.04
Seems a bit confused about what "stigma" means, though.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
19:04 / 31.05.04
I dunno, I think Ramsay's a little bit more than a tad misogynistic. This is the same man who's publicly claimed, on a number of occasions, that he wasn't present during the birth of any of his kids because he felt the sight of his wife in labour would damage " their " sex life. The phrase " like being in a room with a hundred skinned rabbits, " was chucked around, as I recall. I mean fair enough, he's entitled to his opinion I suppose, but how must his wife have felt, seeing that in print ? And who exactly was he trying to impress ? And what does any of this have to do with cooking in any case ?

So bring on the day when he goes too far, and somebody finally turns round and smacks him in the face, or at the very least asks him why he dyes his hair - I don't know if he does or not, but it does, let's face it, look very much like it...
 
 
Ganesh
20:22 / 31.05.04
And what does any of this have to do with cooking in any case?

Well, quite, but it'd be naive to suppose that, in our celebrity-hungry culture, chefs are only interviewed about cooking, singers about singing, models about modelling, etc., etc., etc. Given the increasingly prevalent Heat media approach, Ramsay can hardly be accused of dragging the focus away from food.

Having said which, I do agree that he's got weird, twisted attitudes to women generally. On Hell's Kitchen, this was particularly evident (to me, anyway) in his treatment of Abu Titmus (was it the fact that she presents a satellite porn show?) and also the slightly odd stuff he was coming out with when the head waiter referred to Jennifer Ellison's fiance as her "boyfriend". "If you called him that, he'd fucking kill you". Err, no, he wouldn't, because he is not (presumably) a caveman.

And yeah, I bet he's does dye his hair.

More and more, the dynamic of Hell's Kitchen reminds me of my own time as a just-graduated junior doctor: initially having little clue what I was doing, and becoming so panicked I could barely comprehend a straightforward instruction; dealing with shouty, all-powerful superiors whose respect I nonetheless wanted to earn; gradually getting to the point where I was treading water, then beginning to take pride in and even halfway-enjoy the experience. Makes me quite the misty-eyed nostalgoid.

One of my favourite moments in the programme, however, is when Deayton attempts to ask Ramsay how the evening's going, and Ramsay treats him with abject contempt, usually ignoring him completely. I swear Deayton gets more smugly punchable with every appearance.
 
 
osymandus
10:54 / 01.06.04
I have to say the funniest part for me so far was when Vic Reeves tried to pull one on Gordon with his stick about wanting Egg and chips and teh reply off "Do i look as if im here to f***** cook you egg and chips " and teh very bemused look on Vics face .

(I am a Vic Reeves fan btw).

Other then that its been great , i know chiefs so have now seen (possible toned down) visual proof to bakc this nasty stories . I dont thin his specificly targeted Abi becuase shes a woman rather that he sees a good deal of potential in her and his (in his own way) drawing it out. Edwinia is just being well a politician whos not in control.

Priase, to be fair, for Amanda Barrow though i mean she's nearly 70 for heavens sake , not many of us on here maybe a quarter her age could have lasted that long ?
 
 
Alex's Grandma
12:48 / 01.06.04
I particularly liked Deayton's comment re: the viewer's interest in Abi Titmuss " if you're a fourteen year old boy. " I mean this from Mr three-in-a-bed-cocaine-sex-orgy... Come on. Did she blow him out off camera or something ? I think we should be told.
 
 
Ganesh
13:21 / 01.06.04
Oh, I think it's just standard-issue Deayton autocuntishness - the stuff that became increasingly irritant following his own tabloid 'fall from grace'.
 
 
Ganesh
08:28 / 02.06.04
Priase, to be fair, for Amanda Barrow though i mean she's nearly 70 for heavens sake , not many of us on here maybe a quarter her age could have lasted that long?

Perhaps she's a Barrow Wight?

I also liked the Vic Reeves egg thing. Did he do that because he generally does order fried eggs in restaurants, or as a bit of wackaday absurdism that backfired horribly?

James Dreyfus (who I'm even starting to forgive for Gimme, Gimme, Gimme) pinpointed what's irritating about Edwina's kitchen manner (apart from her inability to ever accept responsibility for anything ever, I mean): the fact that she acts like it's her own kitchen, and instructs people accordingly. Despite being the shittiest cook there, the obvious weakest link, she's constructed this Mother Hen persona for herself, and clearly thinks she's strewing her kindly kitchen wisdom upon the flightly young people - when, in fact, they're all pissing themselves every time she opens her mouth, and doing a good job in spite of her lumpen presence.
 
 
Ganesh
22:08 / 02.06.04
Hmm. Edwina seems to have garnered the Sadistic Wind-Up Vote...
 
 
Jub
08:19 / 03.06.04
yeah, gutted. Put me with the 14 year olds, but I think Abi's lovely.
 
  
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