Remembering Gordon Ramsay
Let’s be clear about our intentions from the start: This is a eulogy for the late, little-known British chef Gordon Ramsay. A tribute to the real Ramsay, the chef behind the facade. A tribute to Ramsay who wasn’t a total asshole.
The new season of Fox’s reality show “Hell’s Kitchen,” starring Ramsay, begins Tuesday night. It’s a show that seems deliberately designed to waste Ramsay’s considerable talents as a chef and television personality by having him put inexperienced, untalented cooks through a particularly boring meat grinder. Ramsay and Fox assign these misfits simple kitchen tasks that are clearly beyond their skill level, presumably in the hope that they will fail. And then, to Ramsay’s delight, they are allowed to fake blush and scream. Last season, the producers introduced a particularly tragic character — a fat, slightly nerdy man who, despite his seemingly good nature, clearly had no intention of surviving — who didn’t make it through the first episode before bursting into tears. It was a harrowing moment for anyone. (The man was later hospitalized, for the second time in two seasons.) The victims — er, contestants — on “Hell’s Kitchen” are mere cannon fodder for Ramsay’s rage, proof that American television really knows how to destroy all things good and pure.
That’s right, Gordon Ramsay: good and pure. Because sadly, it never has to be that way. Ramsay — the real Ramsay — is no slouch. His restaurants around the world have earned him a total of 12 Michelin stars. (It may not sound like much, but three stars is the highest possible rating, and winning one is an honor. Lucifer would burn winged pigs to death on a bitter night before most Food Network chefs could earn even one star.) Ramsay was a revered chef in the UK long before American audiences knew him. He trained under the infamous Marco Pierre White as well as revered French chefs Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, and now has more than a dozen restaurants in his portfolio. There’s no denying it: Ramsay has always been an asshole, long before Fox twisted his character beyond recognition. But his yelling used to have a purpose. It was a small part of what he did in the kitchen—at least the part we saw on television—and he did it for a reason. To motivate, to teach, to kick ass the old-fashioned way when one of his chefs needed it. On British television, that’s largely how Ramsay still operates. Ramsay, when he wants to be, is a consummate teacher, someone who can make even the most complex techniques instantly understandable, even to an inexperienced home cook. But that’s just how the British experience him. Perhaps it’s a symbol of how others perceive the United States, and even our own insecurities about ourselves: the smart, sophisticated Ramsay comes across to the British (who have managed to maintain a certain sophistication despite basing much of their humor on the theory that ugly men in dresses are never not funny), but the braggart Ramsay is thrown back at us by the stupid Americans — we’re given a caricature, a man who’s almost entirely evil, cruel just because he can be. In the States, only BBC America gives us a glimpse of a different Ramsay. In “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares,” chefs have one week to save a failing restaurant that’s barely holding out for survival. And if the businesses succeed, all the credit goes to Ramsay, who is sometimes his usual gruff but also warm, welcoming, and even helpful. Don’t miss the episode where Ramsay saves a restaurant called Momma Cherri’s Soul Food Shack. The owner and staff seem to genuinely like Ramsay, and for good reason—with a little insight, he turns a failing but kind-hearted restaurant into a thriving establishment. At one point, restaurant owner Charita Jones starts crying when she realizes she won’t lose customers thanks to Ramsay. I dare you to watch that scene without shedding a tear. (The next episode airs April 17 at 6 p.m. ET.)
On the flip side, there’s the Fox version of the show, “Kitchen Nightmares.” Here, Ramsay pretends to turn miserable people who can’t run a lemonade stand for kids into the next great restaurateurs — all in the same week. It would be much more interesting if the people being rescued were actually sympathetic, and we could be persuaded to support struggling restaurants. But then, that’s not the point — why learn something when you can do it yourself?
