Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Hellish Kitchen

I hate all reality shows. Almost.

God help me, but I I can sucked into Hell’s Kitchen. Maybe its Gordon Ramsey and his irate rants that sometimes are just a long string of censored bleeps. (In Canada a recently launched Reality Show Channel showed a couple shows of an earlier season uncensored. Sadly, some elderly ladies club must have complained because they are all censored again). Maybe it’s because I’m a closet foodie. I like to cook, and occasionally wonder what my life would have been like had I realized at an earlier age that I liked to cook.

Whatever the reasons, I liked Hell’s Kitchen. Then, I stopped. I got sick of the inept cooks claiming to be executive chefs, and Ramsey screaming the same things, insisting he was looking for the most skillful cook with leadership qualities, and then when tasked to eliminate two contestants, seemed to keep the worst of the pair more often than not.

But mostly, it’s the finalies that did me in as it did me in again in this recent season. I blame my daughter for getting me hooked on the show. I had no intention of watching it, but summer is summer and nothing was on, and she insisted on watching this show with this crazy screaming chef, and so I watched. And watched. And for the first time I felt the last two chefs standing deserved to be there.

BUT THE BEST CHEF DID NOT WIN!!!!

Again. Ramsey gave some weak-ass reason for his choice, something about this particular chef grew the most as the show progressed and therefore deserved the prize. What he really meant was this chef, being a woman and a mother was less likely to hunt down his Scottish ass once they find out the prize offered, a year as head chef in one of his restaurants equates to 6 months as an apprentice line while the restaurant undergoes extensive renovations and expected to have little or no patrons. (Hell’s Kitchen rarely pays off its winners.)

So once again, I am disappointed, and once again I vow never to watch again. Until next summer, and nothing is on.

Mike