It should be of no surprise to anyone that Gordon Ramsey, the superstar chef, is being accused of fixing his new reality television show “Kitchen Nightmares.” It should be of no surprise because he has been fixing his current show “Hell’s Kitchen” for three seasons now.
I used to be able to look past the parts of the show that were obviously fabricated. I didn’t mind that the people who were dining at the “restaurant” always seemed to complain about food service being slow, even though if they went to Hell’s Kitchen they should know that that would be the case. I could even look past people complaining to Gordon Ramsey’s face and him yelling at them. Even though these exchanges never looked quite right to me, I let it slide.
I let anything slide that did not involve the kitchen including such timely deliveries, especially ones with wrong items or things missing, as well as some “misplaced” items in the kitchen.
All of that was fine as long as I believed what was going on in the kitchen to be real. The problem is I have lost faith in that. This season has the worst competitors in the history of the show. None of them would have been in the top-five of any previous season.
It is also interesting to note that of the four chefs that were remaining before Monday night’s elimination, only 2 were “professional chefs.”
All that would be fine if they were all better actors but the fact is I can no longer buy the drama in the kitchen. Rock acting like a madman was not convincing, Josh’s meltdown after meltdown started to look staged. Add to that the sous chef asking where the monkfish is the exact second that one of the chefs put it in the trash, and you have one unbelievable episode.
Have you ever wondered why they couldn’t even cook mashed potatoes? That is because they are actors who were told it would be good for ratings if they couldn’t do it and Ramsey yelled at them. Of course if everyone did their job, like the chefs they are supposed to be, than Ramsey couldn’t yell and no one would watch.
Have you also ever wondered why one team can have an insurmountable lead, only to lose it again in a few minutes. Editing aside, how can you catch a team that is almost done with dinner service when you are still on appetizers?
Monday night’s episode finally took the cake for me. In what was promised as the most emotional episode ever, as everyone is, Julia was kicked out of the kitchen, but Ramsey said he would pay for her culinary lessons. I will never believe this unless I see Julia in school for myself, and Ramsey’s paycheck to the school.
I also realized that even though Heather won last season, I have never heard anything else about her and I had never even heard of the hotel or restaurant that she is working at. It seems odd in this day of reality stars on morning shows and all over the television, that I have never heard of her or Michael since their finale episodes.
Maybe I am wrong, maybe the show isn’t fake, but all of the drama seems to be just a little too perfect for the show. There is no way that the entire restaurant full of people is not staged, but I can hold out hope that the cooking is real even though I can no longer believe that this show is actually a reality show, but you know I’ll still watch it anyway, it is the summer after all.
