Gordon Ramsay looks for cooks on reality TVMy wife and I have taken to watching a few TV series that are extremely entertaining and fun. Imagine a television program where people armed with knives and blunt instruments go into intense competition with the purpose of eliminating each other for a prize. These contestants will stab and beat down until muscle and meat is broken down while they conspire and trash talk each other with as many mind games as possible. You may think I'm talking about Ultimate Fighting. But what I'm really talking about is cooking.
Yes, cooking is no longer about the late Julia Child and her peers kindly sharing recipes about sauteed this or braised that. Cooking on television is about putting your ego, heart and future on the line against other fellow cooks (sorry, chefs) to prove you can be the Iron Chef or Top Chef or Chef from Hell as the case may be. It's sort of like WWE Wrestling, except cooking isn't fake!
Iron Chef is the one that I think has been around the longest because I believe it started in Japan. Two chefs, one from an almost videogame like lineup of master chefs go up against up and coming chefs to work a given ingredient into a full course meal in about an hour. This is the most artistic of the cooking shows as these guys will work a turnip six ways til Sunday to make seven or eight aesthetically pleasing dishes that would get an A+ in art class. A panel of critics turn up their noses and rate the dishes to pick a winner. It's about honor and reputation, making it the most noble cooking show on Earth.
Meanwhile, Bravo's Top Chef Chicago takes the familiar reality show format of packing a group of strangers into a house where they compete for immunity challenges and elimination rounds, cooking their butts off to a variety of themes (tailgate day, wedding party day). Top Chef is the most engaging because it's so damn intense, these guys and gals would rather crap blood than fail to souffle'. When something goes wrong, these people jump in each others faces and throw any unsecured objects to the wall. And they put it all on the line for...a free vacation and a spot in Food & Wine magazine? That's beyond intensity and may count as insanity or means chefs are way underpaid.
At least the people on Top Chef can back up their verbal sparring and hissy fits with some cooking talent. The same can't be said of Fox's Hell's Kitchen which has the same reality show format as Top Chef but with a distinct difference. This years crop of chefs are so unrepentantly bad that by mid season Gordon Ramsay was dumbing down the menu to cheeseburgers and pasta-and they couldn't even get that right! But that's OK because the show isn't about cooking at all but the sight of Gordon Ramsay berating and insulting people in a way that would give any Human Resources exec nightmares. Too unskilled to cook anything, these contestants snipe and conspire against each other when they're not calling each other out. I'm convinced they deliberately brought on the worst cooks they could find to give Ramsay the maximum number of targets. The best part? One of these imbeciles will be head chef for Ramsay's new restaurant. The horror...the horror.
Personally, I can barely cook toast (my wife asked for French Toast and I made her bread buttered on both sides once) yet get a kick out of these "chefs" doing battle for little more than pride. I never knew cooking could be so fun! So the next time you eat a meal out, just remember you're not eating food but someones soul. Even if it's a Big Mac. If you can smell what the Rock is cookin'.
3 comments:
Personally, my hubby has burnt me out on cooking shows. All he watches is cooking shows and house and garden type programming. :) However... I have been known to watch those "challenge" shows on food tv channel. I really like those; 4 cooks/chefs competing for a 10,000 dollar prize in catagories like sandwiches, steaks, fruit pies... I think there are actually two similar shows. One is always shot outdoors and the other is always shot indoors. The indoor one is always about themed cakes, working with sugar, pastries, etc. I really like that one. If I could I would go to school to learn to be a great pastry chef or candy maker. You can do such amazing and wonderful things with sugar. An entirely under-utilized art medium. :)
Mmmmm....pastries and cakes....I'm so glad I had a donut today. I tried to insert a picture of Homer Simpson drooling but I couldn't do it in the comment section.
I get ya, Mr. Mike :)
Guess what? I just noticed tonight that Fine Living Network is showing the old Japanese version Iron Chef shows. It came on at 11pm est. I guess that is their usual time slot. It's going to be on again tomorrow at that time. I liked that show much better than the American version. I just don't much care for the American Iron Chefs, they don't do a thing for me. Basically they don't let you see their soul. They appear to be only "surface" no "depth". I'm sure I'm wrong. You can't be a great chef and have no soul, but they don't let theirs show at all.
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