So how long could YOU last here?

[The Curmudgeon]

I wasn't entirely sure where to put this, because even though I'm showing you a clip from Hell's Kitchen, it's not actually about the show itself. So fuck it, this is a hot topic.

So there were small cheers of joy in the Curmudgeon household, because Hell's Kitchen is back on TV for another year. One of the very few reality shows we watch, it is always, always solid gold TV. It's a good concept, it's an actual prize and Gordon Ramsey is a genuine one-off; quirky, eccentric, explosive but still undeniably likeable.

Anyway, I want you to watch a couple of minutes of this (you can watch the whole thing if you like), and tell me - could YOU take this abuse?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjy_FKODsTM

It's funny on TV because the contestants in Hell's Kitchen are 90% idiots, drama queens, assholes with the odd actually great chef thrown in (well, someone has to win it, I guess). But if I was faced in that situation I would have walked in five minutes after telling him to go fuck himself. Obviously when you sign up for this show you're signing up for that as well, but Ramsay's confrontational attitude is commonplace in kitchens. Before I met her Mrs C was a chef (it was she who got me watching this show in the first place) and she said she used to get yelled at, have things thrown at her.. and that's just how life is in a kitchen.

So there's the question; would you ever take that sort of abuse at work? Have you? Shit, do you?

[trashcanman]

"Fat useless sack of yankee dankee doodle shite" is going to be my new go-to insult. Honestly, I could listen to that childishness all day. Hell, it's the entire premise of the show. Pretending this stuff isn't staged, I'd laugh my ass off the whole time until the goofball got physical. Then I'd laugh even harder. I worked in a restaurant for years, but didn't se anything like that. That shit does not fly here. You'd have no employees AND get jumped in the parking lot every night. So let me get this straight: in the UK you get arrested for being an ass towards other people on TV or the internet, but in real life you're allowed to treat people like that?

[The Curmudgeon]

There was one of those "Ask Me Anything" things online, and it was from one of the former contestants of the show, and he/she said that what you see on the show is pretty much accurate, with only some edits made to make the episode flow better. So that terror they have of Ramsay is seemingly legit.

He really does ramp up the evil for the American show, though. I mean, he's like a fucking cartoon villain on this show, while in the UK TV shows he's more of a fiery tempered eccentric. He definitely pushes the angry chef act, but I'm not sure the actual contestants know it's an act.

I've never worked in a kitchen, but according to Mrs C her time there was like that a lot. Not as directly offensive and confrontational, but she says she had pans thrown at her by an irate chef and yelled and cussed at too. This could've been because she was a 17 year old girl and didn't have the sense to tell him to stick the job up his ass (which is certainly what I would've done) or because kitchens are actually like this here. Who knows?

[trashcanman]

I can't imagine a real life situation where somebody willingly complies with this:



Hilarious, but come on. That was so written in advance.

[The Curmudgeon]

That's from..I think..Saturday Night Live or something. Definitely a sketch show, not part of Hell's Kitchen.

Just looked it up - it was a skit from the James Cordon show.

[trashcanman]

Ah, well that explains that.

[The Curmudgeon]

Yeah, Ramsay would never be that cuddly and cartoony.



That's more like it.