Kitchen Nightmares/Restaurant Impossible....Owen

[Gravy Power]

My Sysco rep grudgingly asked if I would like to apply to have my resto "impossibled". If selected you get 10K cash.

In short, I declined.

I also make him cover up the guys face on his lap top. Seriously.

Haha. I'm surprised you use Sysco for anything. No knock on the company, one of my good friends is a corporate chef for them. You must have known this person for a long time though. For them to still have teeth that is.

[Johnny.B.Good]

Watch boiling point, ramsay trying to get his third star

Thanks for the link. I just spent several hours watching "Boiling Point" and the sequel series, and found it all very entertaining.

[Zwiefel]

I watched only the first ep that was linked...I haven't worked a line before, but it didn't really seem to far from what a few people in the biz have described to me.

Kinda interesting to compare the 1998 Ramsay to the 2013 Ramsay....very clearly has become quite skillful at understanding and using the camera.

[shaneg]

Yeah he is definitely an intense guy.

Only thing that annoys me is how he belittles everyone, and goes on and on and makes them feel 2 feet tall, shaming them at the same time, I wouldn't work with or for anyone like that.


Also if he spent 1.2 million pound on his place, he is very disorganized, where was the foh/general manager when the fans went down?
Although I suspect Gordon is a control freak and likes to do everything himself.

[Miles]

I saw a few original BBC episodes of KN. It was okay. It lacked all the Hollywood faux drama and the overhyped caricature of GR as a screaming maniac. I can't stand the US version or the Restaurant Impossible version. They have as much to do with reality as a slice of American has to do with real cheese.

[Crothcipt]

I have liked most of what Ramsey puts out there. I have worked for a few chefs that make him look like a pussycat. As for how bad the restaurants are, well I have seen a lot worse than what usually goes in the show. Most restaurants go down because of bad management, which leads to bad everything else. Most people think that being a manager is about cracking a whip, when it's not. Its about making people being better at what they do. You are there not to manage the people, but the money. Most of the time Ramsey is trying to convey this notion.

As for Irvine I liked his other impossible show better. The Restaurant one is just crap. Only watched it once.

Ty for posting that boiling point. That is what a documentary should be like.

[shaneg]

Yeah I agree, teacher/mentor/chef/businessman is what you should be whether you own it or not, from the chef side anyway.

Being from nz we have quite a strong influence from the UK, a lot of our chefs do their working oe in London, I know about 6 people who have been through his kitchens at some point.

[mpukas]

Irvine really is a douche. His show restaurant show is such a blatant rip-off of Ramsay's - I can't believe they even have to balls to be so blatant - and it's terrible. It's a prime example of take something that someone else did that works well, break it down into fundamental components, repackage, rebrand and resell it. Absolute crap. I watched a couple of his first episodes, and some of the things they did to the interiors of some old restaurants was appalling - especially the one in Mystic CT where this quaint old place had some really beautiful oak cabinetry work. The douche-bag "designers" painted this crap pastel-colored plaid all over everything. Absolute crap. Irvince's food leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to fine dining - hell, even ANY dining - he may be good at banging out food for 500 people from a parking lot kitchen, but he's not someone I'd want involved in a restaurant.

[scott.livesey]

Hi,
I watch both shows if they are on and nothing else is. Since watching, I look closely at everything when visiting a new place to eat. Where I live, fine dining is a place where the cutlery is metal, the plates are not disposable, and drinks are not served in "To go" cups.
For true kitchen reality I prefer "Chopped."
Scott

[bikehunter]

watching both almost makes me think it's all staged. probably started out pretty real but i don't think it's all like that.

Not almost makes be think it's staged. ALL of these things are staged. I don't have a healthy respect for the intelligence of the average American (or humans in general for that matter) but it's difficult for me to imagine that anyone could be as stupid as the people in these restaurants. Anyone who thinks that any of these "reality" shows are anything except totally phoney should seek the help of mental help professionals. LOL