Hell's Kitchen - Season 4 Official Thread

[BethanyF]

Question for the people that Love Chef Ramsay. Why??? Don't get me wrong I love the show but he is a piece of work. Is it the show or do you actually like the guy?? Just asking, I was just wondering?

Entertainment value
I have a thing for these guys that have that brash exterior but you still kinda get the feeling they are nice guys when the cameras are off. Ozzy and Gene Simmons are 2 others that come to mind for me. They have that bad 'rocker' persona, but at home (or at least at the home shown on their shows) they are relatively decent guys.
Ive seen Gordon on a couple talk shows and he seemed different (nice) than he does on Hells Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmare.
Do I like what he does or says to the contestants....I dont know. They know what they are getting into, so it's not like they should be shocked when he lays into them. But I do think he overdoes it on occassion.
I do think he is just trying to prepare them for the worst of the food industry. Bad bosses, bad customers, etc. I'll bet he thinks 'if they can survive me, they can survive the industry'

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

The guy who went home reminded me of Milton from Office Space.

 

[BratTink]

All of the chefs seem like morons this season. Jason (toe guy) should have gone home because he really failed in the kitchen. But he was a horrible man who hated woman and I don't see him lasting long.
Maybe I'm naive because I've never worked in a professional kitchen, but I cook. I do NOT understand how they get nothing out? Risotto is difficult to make well but not impossible.

 

[TurboKitty]

Toe picker guy will not last long. There are a few that you can tell will be off early. I don't get the people that say that they can't take it. Have they never seen the show. I mean Ramsay is brutal you have to know that going in.
Question for the people that Love Chef Ramsay. Why??? Don't get me wrong I love the show but he is a piece of work. Is it the show or do you actually like the guy?? Just asking, I was just wondering?

He's like a drill instructor. He creates stress in the kitchens, partially because he's worked hard to be in the position he is, and it is HIS reputation on the line with every dish that is served. Every dish that leaves that kitchen needs to be consistant and something he'd be proud to serve his own mother. The other stress he tried to import is from having to run the line and preparing his winner to be able to do it, even on those night when 4 people call out sick, the ice machine breaks, the seafood delivery is running late and shows up in the middle of service. The customers who are there that night deserve as good a meal as a patron on any other night, ya know?

On later episodes of earlier series (I hear even moreso with the British versions of his shows) he shows his kinder side, not sparring the deserved compliments and generally being a good egg.


I happen to like his colorful vocabulary. It amuses me on some level, and...check my tag. Yeah, it's for Chef Gordon.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Risotto is difficult to make well but not impossible.

I can make a very good risotto if I say so myself, and I'm not even a professional chef, so I don't get how those guys can't make it.

 

[Nancyg56]

I finally got to see it and Holy Moly! Where did they find this bunch?

It has been how long since this show started and no one has a knock out signature dish? Risotto is still a foreign language? Goodness only knows when they have to learn Beef Wellington! I would think that before coming onto this show at least one or two of them would be prepared for the same dishes that seem to be offered in HK and that they all would have at least one simple spectacular dish that can be made in a minimum of time.

It's early yet but I would have sent the 4 Star General home. If he wanted to be the "captain" but refused to provide any direction even when his team was begging for help he is useless to me.

I was also surprised that the line cook who was originally the captain of the girls team was so confused. Because she worked in a kitchen I thought she would have some idea how to organize her team.

Oh well, I cannot wait until next week!

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

The guy who went home reminded me of Milton from Office Space.

The guy who went home looked like he had the worst man wig too. Ugh! He looked freaky why not just go bald? It can't be anyworse than that wig.

I think one of the reasons I like Chef Ramsay is because he doesn't put up with any B.S. He also doesn't give any B.S., he may not be nice about it but he is usually right. On Kitchen Nighmares especially, he always tells the owners the hard truth that no one else had enough guts to tell them. He does it not to be a jerk but to help them. I think he is not as bad on the BBC version of Kitchen Nightmares. On Hell's Kitchen he is over the top sometimes. If you don't want to get yelled at, then don't apply for the show. Or at the very least learn how to cook risotto before you come.

 

[Bob Slydell]

It has been how long since this show started and no one has a knock out signature dish? Risotto is still a foreign language? Goodness only knows when they have to learn Beef Wellington! I would think that before coming onto this show at least one or two of them would be prepared for the same dishes that seem to be offered in HK and that they all would have at least one simple spectacular dish that can be made in a minimum of time.

I've wondered that same thing ever since Season 2 -- you would think by now that anyone wanting to be on the show would have risotto and Beef Wellington perfected.

Then again, cooking risotto for yourself and your family in your own kitchen is one thing. Cooking it in a restaurant kitchen for a large group of customers has to be a completely different experience, I would imagine.

 

[TurboKitty]

It's not necessarily making a good risotto, but making the risotto described on the menu, and making up to Gordon's standard.

A chicken or mushroom risotto is gonna taste different than a crab risotto...or if they don't there may be a problem.

I don't like this season too much. It seems over produced, with too many network tricks already and it's only aired the first episode.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I've seen the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares, except there it's called Kitchen Confindential. Nightmares seems more commercialized then Confidential, but maybe that's because the American chefs are more "in your face," then the British chefs, and there's more attitudes he has to get into line in the US?

 

[Bob Slydell]

I've seen the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares, except there it's called Kitchen Confindential. Nightmares seems more commercialized then Confidential, but maybe that's because the American chefs are more "in your face," then the British chefs, and there's more attitudes he has to get into line in the US?

No, the BBC version is also called Kitchen Nightmares.

Kitchen Confidential is a completely different show (a comedy, I believe).

 

[dcgrumpy]

No, the BBC version is also called Kitchen Nightmares.

Kitchen Confidential is a completely different show (a comedy, I believe).

yeah it's a comedy based on Anthony Bourdain's memoir

 

[disneyfav4ever]

No, the BBC version is also called Kitchen Nightmares.

Kitchen Confidential is a completely different show (a comedy, I believe).

Oops, you're right. I have both the DVDs, the comedy Confidential, which is hilarious, everyone should see it, and Gordon's British version of Nightmares.

 

[BratTink]

It's not necessarily making a good risotto, but making the risotto described on the menu, and making up to Gordon's standard.

A chicken or mushroom risotto is gonna taste different than a crab risotto...or if they don't there may be a problem.

I don't like this season too much. It seems over produced, with too many network tricks already and it's only aired the first episode.

But regardless of what type of risotto you are going to end up with, they are started the exact same way. You add in the vegetable/protein at the end.
And, I agree, you'd think they would be practicing risotto before leaving for the show.

 

[dcgrumpy]

It seems like the problems with the risotto are always over/undercooked or over/underseasoned. It would wouldn't really matter whether it's crab risotto, asparagus risotto...

 

[TurboKitty]

Gordon Ramsay has done a UK version Kitchen Nightmares, similar to the Fox one.

He's also done Boiling Point, Beyond Boiling Point, The F Word, and I think a version of UK Hell's Kitchen that featured celebrities in the kitchen, like a culinary Apprentice. He may have done other shows like these as well. (I wish they'd release dvds of these.)

He deserves his reknown and I admire the man. Going from what he'd worked for, a career in soccer destroyed by knee injury, to becoming a master chef complete with apprenticeship at a relatively late age, and being awarded a total of twelve Michelin stars. He is currently one of only three chefs in the UK whose restaurant is rated at three Michelin stars.


Once upon a time, I had to do a fair amount of research on the guy. That's why I know all of this.

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

Once upon a time, I had to do a fair amount of research on the guy. That's why I know all of this.

Suuuuurrrreee.

 

[Mickey's sunshine]

Also, I just notcied that there are eight guy cooks, but only seven girl cooks. The only reason I can possibly think of why that is, would be if Julia came back this season as a surprise, and was the eighth girl cook. That is purely an assumption on my part.

I would be for that.

Tuesday's show was good but wow, could not believe more people did not do better on their signature dish.

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

Who is going to watch people get yelled at tonight? It's on tonight isn't it?

 

[TurboKitty]

We watched last night. We're still not really impressed this season. None of the bunch seems like anyone I'd expect to see in the kitchen. They're all characters rather than people driven or inspired by food. (And, Jason rubs my very last nerve. I want to reach through my tv and punch him right in his smug mouth, which really annoys me because I think I'm being manipulated by the producers and editors to feel that way.)

Hmmm, this season's women have quite a salty and colorful vocabulary, don't they?

The red team's maitre de (sorry, I've forgotten her name) HELD BACK TICKET ORDERS?? Some for an hour??! She really should have been nominated for that monumentally stupid move.

I KNEW Gordon was going to fire who he wanted rather than who Corey picked. It's nice to see him remaining fairly consistant.