Kitchen Nightmares/Restaurant Impossible....Owen

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mpukas said:
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.
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I never watched any of the Ramsey shows until a couple weeks ago, but I had seen Irvine's quite a few times. All I could think when I watched my first Ramsey show was "Holy carp, DI totally copied this show, but made it a lot worse!" Kinda like the US version of Top Gear...
 
I actually really liked Irvine on Dinner Impossible, but agree with those who have said Restaurant Impossible is a complete rip off. I mean, I don't think there has ever been such a blatant rip off ever in TV. Maybe in a reality dating series. I guess the masses like it though. I enjoy the web stuff that Ramsay puts out, I need to watch the 1998 stuff.
 
We've been OTA tv for the past few years, so didn't even know who Irvine is. When I pulled up a picture of him and his wife, it was an article about his wedding. All she knew about it was the place, time and date. "I didn't know the colors of my wedding or what my bouquet would look like! But I trusted his taste." Bet he tells her what to wear, what to eat, how to dress, and not to think (he'll do that for the both of them.) Scary start to a marriage, IMO.
 
One show I do like on FN is Chef Wanted. The chef's get a gob from making a menu, and executing it in the kitchen. Staff and all.
 
Crothcipt said:
One show I do like on FN is Chef Wanted. The chef's get a gob from making a menu, and executing it in the kitchen. Staff and all.
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Wow that lady's hair is crazy! That's least 2 cans of hairspray..
I shudder at some stuff, throwing salmon on a board, and why do they have those horrible printers? The noise! Thermal printers ftw.


As far as Ramsay goes, if you watch boiling point then hells kitchen, you'll realise he is the same in both temper wise, before he moved to the U.S. he stated somewhere he had a huge dislike for Americans, so you get a Chef with a short fuse, put him with a group of people he doesn't like, and 95% happen to be crap chefs and a few cameras and you got a hit show.

Most of us know the stresses of the kitchen service and I'm sure id be angry in that situation, especially people bringing up stuff to the pass that's fu@ked well not the same anger, but close.
Only time I lose it is at the expo or waiters, when they screw the orders up, never at my kitchen team.
 
Yeah Bourdain has the opinion I like. I never met Ramsey though. UK version is definitely the best. If you are fast enough, or have it recorded you have to read the fine print that comes up at the end of a US kitchen nightmares. It states that the coverage is taken over a time period and edited so it may be out of sequence. Plus google the restaurants and most if not all are out of business. They all get websites but I usually see on yelp when they shut down. That always gave me the feeling that maybe in the contract they weren't allowed to sell for a certain time period. To make matters worse, if you're in a bad kitchen you'll watch the shows and see the sames things, run. I did. The sad thing about some restaurants like on the shows is the bar will keep them going way beyond their expiration date.
 
I've never seen Boiling Point. Skimmed though the above posted video. What an eye opener! I've only seen Hell's Kitchen/Nightmares. I can respect the guy in Boiling Point. Seems like two different people. And that's sad.

-AJ
 
http://m.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/what_you_don_see_19rgV35X8wfLp4jDbEup0I

Tbh, we all know our profession is a short and sharp one, I know for a fact I don't want to be pulling 50 hours on the line at 50, so if he has to be on a show such as hells kitchen to make bank I don't blame him, there's no doubt he has done everything good and bad to get where he is now, I'd have done the same in his shoes.

It's just a shame the producers make the show come across the way it does, anyone seen the UK hells kitchen with Marco Pierre white?
 
I think both shows are available on Hulu...I've wondered on more than one occasion about the difference in tone between the two. Seems like the culture he's operating in plays a role...not sure how much of that is on which side of the camera though.
 
Ramsey also has a show on BBC called The F Word. It's a great show and I've seen 5 seasons of it. He has a restaurant in London just for the show. Check it out. He may be a toolbox, but there's some good food and such on the show. If anybody can't find it, I'd be happy to send you some DVDs. Just PM me.
 
the f word was, i think, his first show. i liked him there. most, if not all the ramsay bbc stuff were good. when it got all "hollywood" it went to crap.
 
The bbc Kitchen Nightmares is considered the first season on the discs, netflix ect.
 
Boiling point was his first show then beyond boiling point.I cant stand the US version of kitchen nightmares but the uk version was inspiring at times.There is also a show on you tube called Marco which is filmed in the 80's at Harveys restaurant and features Ramsey as a young man.Worth a watch if not just for the 80'S fashions.
 
the shows are staged. Not that the problems arent realistic, or hadnt happened in the past at those places. But turning around a restaraunt just isnt conducive to television. you certainly arent doing it in 3 to 5 days. the shows are filmed for several weeks, the employees are told to wear the same clothes so it appears less time has passed. and most of the blow ups are staged or recreated.
 
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