9 Nasty Truths About Your Favorite Foods
Famous Death Row Last Meals
I read a good number of food blogs. Not all of them, of course, as that would make it impossible to do anything else, but most of the important ones. In all of my reading, a lot of people talk about Top chef, but I never really got into it. No, my heart belongs in Hell's Kitchen.I have only come across one post on Hell's Kitchen this season, and I really don't understand. In my humble opinion, there is simply nothing to dislike. Where else are you going to get this mix of tension, ego, and profanity? Is Top Chef like this and I've missed it? I don't know. All I know is that there is very little else I find quite as entertaining on television.
I know several people who absolutely hate Gordon Ramsay. I like to think I see through his mean exterior to the cuddly teddy bear underneath (I have met a few European chefs just like that). His outbursts of exasperation are priceless. I mean, who has not wanted to bang their head on the counter at a co worker's incompetence? Yes, I know that his management style wouldn't go over very well in the US, but it makes great TV.
If you're a fan of Hell's Kitchen, let me know what you think. If you're not a fan, let me have it. Can anyone convince me that Top Chef is better? I don't think so, but you can try.
SLIDESHOW: Tattoos That Go Way Beyond Your Average Tramp Stamp
America's 10 Highest-Paid CEOs of 2011 (and How They Earned It)
PHOTOS: Nicole Scherzinger Almost Reveals Too Much
The Richest Woman in the World: How Gina Rinehart Earns her Billions
What Happened When Alex Kenjeev Paid His Student Loan in Cash
PHOTOS: Americans Honor Troops On Memorial Day Weekend
Carrie Underwood's Grunge Rock Past: 'I Was All About Pearl Jam'
'American Idol' Changes Record Contract Policy: Runner-Up No Longer Guaranteed Major Bucks
Yale Student Killed In Crash Days After Graduating
What's a Realistic Retirement Age?
Samsung Galaxy S III review
Honor Student Jailed For Missing Too Many Classes
Mary J. Blige, Charity Lawsuit: Singer's Foundation Sued for Failing to Repay $250K Loan
Farmers Hit the Jackpot in Kansas Oil Boom
Blood Found In Missing Girl's Bedroom
Hawkeye and the Blue Ear Help a Mother and Her Hearing Impaired Son
VIDEO: Cop Kills Naked Man Allegedly Eating Another Man's Face
PHOTOS: Kristen Stewart Almost Bares Sideboob
Alan Simpson Lashes Out At GOP 'Madness'
5-Time World Boxing Champ Found Dead
LOOK: Inside Honduras' Deadly Prisons
WATCH: Mermaid Gives Birth
'Cannibal' Attack: Naked Man Shot Dead In Miami 'As He Chewed Victim's Face' (VIDEO, PICTURES)
SLIDESHOW: And You Thought Your Navel Piercing Hurt
When Jenny Was Still From The Block
Will You Be My Facebook Friend? No.
Boy Locked In Filthy Coal Bunker Every Night For A Year
Michelle Obama Attends Beyonce Concert
SEEING IS BELIEVING: This Boston Terrier Has The World's Largest Dog Eyes
MSNBC Host Says He's 'Uncomfortable' Calling Soldiers Killed In Action 'Heroes'
Rodger Streitmatter: PHOTOS: 8 Legendary Same-Sex Couples
Tracy McMillan: Why You're STILL Not Married
5-08-2008 @1:53PM heather said... Hells Kitchen is more about line chefs and has much more reality show in it. I mean its going to be about who can mass produce these dishes they create and is based more in the realities of back house...
Top Chef focuses much more on the dishes and culinary talents. There is drama and such, but its less.... dramatic.
Reply
5-08-2008 @1:52PM simon said... my wife and i watch both!
nobody can cook on HellsKitchen. "where's the effin risotto?" Ramsay is pure comedy!
Top Chef is full of REAL chefs and caters to my wife's expensive taste for fine dining.
Reply
5-08-2008 @2:05PM kevjohn said... I love Hell's Kitchen, but I don't really have much to add that hasn't been said already. The people they have on the show this season can barely cook better than a high schooler fresh out of their first Home Ec. class, but it's an entertaining show.
Reply
5-08-2008 @2:20PM mark said... Hell's Kitchen was fine in Season 1 when they had some real chefs, but now is gone downhill. Ramsay deserves better talent and I'm surprised they didn't move more in that direction. Top Chef has continually upgraded the talent and there is no question that these folks could outcook the Hell's Kitchen contestants. Ramsay is Ramsay and that is why we like him, but bring back some real talent to the kitchen, please.
Reply
5-08-2008 @2:22PM aggie_ga said... I watch them both, and they both have aspects that I love and that I hate.
I like BBC's Kitchen Nightmares and the F-word a lot more than Hell's Kitchen though. There's only so much whining that I can handle, and this season's Hell's kitchen is full of talentless cry-babies.
Reply
5-08-2008 @5:06PM Bob Sassone said... If anyone is interested, I'm reviewing Hell's Kitchen this season over on TV Squad:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/05/06/hells-kitchen-day-6
Reply
5-08-2008 @5:17PM LlamaFarmer said... I have watched both shows, but IMO Hell's Kitchen is more real. Of course, there is going to be the "reality tv drama," but I know a couple of chefs and they were taught and educated by more Gordon Ramsey types. I hate to say it but when I watch Top Chef, I sometimes feel like I'm watching the "food" version of America's next top model. And, after reading his biography, yes, Gordon does have a good heart underneath that very intense exterior.
Reply
5-08-2008 @5:27PM twobitme said... I watch both shows, but for completely different reasons. Hell's Kitchen is definitely more for the sideshow entertainment it provides. I don't believe for a second that the people they picked, especially for this season, are the best of the submissions. It seems like they picked people who would make good TV as opposed to good cooks/chefs. This season has actually made me as angry as Gordon Ramsay on several occasions.
And, he is the more entertaining personality, even if his American persona seems completely different than his English shows. We even worked up an "interview" with him on our podcast because we enjoy his swearing so much.
Top Chef is more about seeing how a chef's mind works, in my opinion. I cook and bake, and come up with the occasional recipe, but to see them create these impressive (if not always tasty) dishes from scratch with sometimes only an hour is impressive. The show definitely seems to be more about talent and food, and less about drama.
But, both shows fill a completely different part of my TV viewing. I think they're both infinitely watchable. My girlfriend and I will usually do a double feature of the two on the weekend.
Unless I get too angry at Hell's Kitchen. Than I just go take a "calm down" nap.
Reply
5-08-2008 @5:26PM twobitme said... I watch both shows, but for completely different reasons. Hell's Kitchen is definitely more for the sideshow entertainment it provides. I don't believe for a second that the people they picked, especially for this season, are the best of the submissions. It seems like they picked people who would make good TV as opposed to good cooks/chefs. This season has actually made me as angry as Gordon Ramsay on several occasions.
And, he is the more entertaining personality, even if his American persona seems completely different than his English shows. We even worked up an "interview" with him on our podcast because we enjoy his swearing so much.
Top Chef is more about seeing how a chef's mind works, in my opinion. I cook and bake, and come up with the occasional recipe, but to see them create these impressive (if not always tasty) dishes from scratch with sometimes only an hour is impressive. The show definitely seems to be more about talent and food, and less about drama.
But, both shows fill a completely different part of my TV viewing. I think they're both infinitely watchable. My girlfriend and I will usually do a double feature of the two on the weekend.
Unless I get too angry at Hell's Kitchen. Than I just go take a "calm down" nap.
Reply
5-08-2008 @5:31PM Larry said... I love Hells Kitchen. Its honestly the only show I watch. Its just a good all around mix. Knowing anything about cooking just makes it all that much better and if you have 1/2 the common sense of a rock, you can usually tell whos going to get eliminated just by their background experience. After all, you know Chef Ramsey would want ONE of them in his restaurant or he would look at the producers and tell them to "@!#% OFF YOU @#Q#%'ing DONKEY!"
Reply
5-09-2008 @2:02AM doodoolemonque said... Though I watch both Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen, I find both shows annoying this season. Frankly, the cast of Hell's kitchen simply too unattractive, inarticulate and immature to find interesting. I cannot separate one miserable character from the other.
The misogyny of so many of the male and female cast members of Top Chef is so distasteful as to make it nearly impossible to find anyone for whom to root. So many came into this season with sooo much baggage as to render the entire group dysfunctional.
All in all, the casts of both make the addicts on Intervention seem downright cuddly.
Reply
5-09-2008 @7:47AM Spike HK said... Reasons to hate Hell's Kitchen:
It's a freak show where a bunch of non-chefs are assembled and asked to prove their worthiness to be chef de cuisine of a major restaurant by showing their prowess as line cooks.
Gordon Ramsey is playing a cartoon version of himself, complete with manufactured anguish and wrath when a line cook from a waffle house is unable to prepare a satisfactory 3 star dish. Can he really be so upset when someone hands him a dish of undercooked food that he honestly launches into a stream of four letter words, childish temper tantrums throwing food around, banging his head against walls? Or is it scripted?
Beef wellington? What year is this?
The show is edited for morons. "Who have you chosen to leave?" Music, music, edit, edit, commercial, back from commercial and then we get to see the previous two minutes of the show again in case we've forgotten them during the commercials.
Watch any of Ramsey's UK shows to see the real Ramsey. Or watch the UK version of Hell's Kitchen, starring Marco Pierre White, the mentor that Ramsey stabbed in the back, to see how this type of show can be run for someone with a brain and how the game show contestants can be treated with some respect and actually taught a few useful things.
Reasons to love the show:
Well, things blow up good. And sometimes lowest common denominator is damned entertaining.
Reply
5-09-2008 @12:47PM TopChefFan said... I can't help but compare HK to TC. It seems to me that TC focuses more on technique of the individual chef, while HK seems to focus on the chef as an integral part of a kitchen team. I don't mind Chef Gordon. Now piss off!
Reply
5-10-2008 @11:41PM patti shock said... I love both for different reasons. I would not miss either. I also love Iron Chef America and The Next Food Network star. Guy Fieri is a former student of mine at UNLV.
Reply
5-11-2008 @12:19AM MIKE said... I think a lot of you have some really good points that, yes perhaps Top Chef is more about the food. But realistically, in real life, there is drama, there are disagreements between people. I respect Hell's Kitchen way more, for the fact that the cooks are berated and pushed to the absolute extreme. Furthermore, to be mentored by an 11 Michelin Star caliber chef would be nothing but an honor. That super model on Top Chef is, in my opinion, just a face, the stuff that comes out of her mouth is just not professional.
Viva Hell's Kitchen
-M.
Reply
5-14-2008 @11:42AM dan7348 said... I love Gordon Ramsay's BBC Shows... where he acts like a normal person. After watching those though, I can't stand watching Hell's Kitchen and the US version of Kitchen Nightmares. He becomes a horrible charicature of himself.
After seeing the Office make a nice transition from the BBC to the US, I was hoping for better... sadly, we got a dumbed down version of Ramsay. I'll stick to his BBC stuff.
Reply
6-03-2008 @1:53AM hopenile said... For the longest time i couldn't understand why Hell's Kitchen felt more real to me than top chef, and it took reading Tom's blog on bravo.com for me to figure it out. Tom admits that he barely even knows the chefs, and the only interaction he has with them is the judging tables. Ramsey, however, makes it a point to know the Hell's Kitchen chefs beyond their food, and learns their personalities. He appreciate them as human beings, and as individuals who are trying to have a shot running a real life kitchen, whether they win and its his kitchen, or they lose and it's just their life's dream. The people on top chef never have that sort of interaction with Tom. What really sold me was last season of Hell's Kitchen, where Chef Ramsey actually saw some real talent in an inexperienced chef who hadn't had the opportunity to go to culinary school, and he personally gave her that opportunity to get that education. Plus, on Hell's Kitchen, the contestants have to go through the gauntlet of doing actual service night after night. The Top Chef people rarely have to do that beyond resturaunt wars.
For the folks who liked the UK HK, a quick question . . . I tried to watch part of the first season, and couldn't get into it because it wasn't actual cooks/chefs, it was a bunch of UK celebs . . . that is just PAINFUL to watch. I enjoy seeing cooking done by people who care ahout it, whether they are line chefs or own 10 resturaunts, but I can't get into the British equivilant of Flavor Flav trying to do a dinner service.
Reply