Hell's Kitchen Debate

Matt and I have decided that it was about time for a joint blog. Matt, being a HUGE Hell's Kitchen fan, thought it might be interesting to pit my views of a real kitchen atmosphere against his knowledge of the TV world of Hell's kitchen. Hopefully we'll both come out of this alive and maybe we'll even learn something about the drama of television. Here we go!!!

Matt: I love Gordon Ramsey. He's awesome; he yells and throws things and when people screw up it's so entertaining. but honestly all these "cooks" can hardly cook there lots of undercooked meat and Van on the blue team actually left the plastic on the fish on more than one occasion last week.....HE SEASONED THE PLASTIC!!!

Emily: I can't say someone screwing up is ever entertaining in a kitchen unless it's someone you don't like and even then it means more work for you, so kind of a lose lose. I have thankfully never had a chef who screamed and threw things, but there are many who do. There would have definitely been 3 or 4 people who would have said something if someone left plastic on fish; the prep time in a kitchen is a lot longer than on TV I think.

Matt: But I love when gordon gets mad about that because they even take off the plastic at mcdonald's I mean come on what is that? And having meat not cook in the center and serving raw shrimp come on these people really expect to be an executive chef.

Emily: Wow I think I would be very frustrated watching them; no wonder Gordon yells so much. If line cook made that mistake they would not only be reamed out for not paying attention, but they'd also be given a hard time about it for the rest of their life at that kitchen. What I want to know is are these people exec chefs already like Top Chef has become or are these all amateurs.

Matt: YOUVE NEVER WATCHED HELLS KITCHEN?!?!?!?!

Emily: (I probably should have done some research before being pitted against a huge fan) Everyone in Hell's Kitchen has some sort of culinary background and for the record I'm really bad at following any show unless it's Saturday and I have nothing to do and there's a 9 hour marathon on Bravo.

Matt: When Gordon throws plates into the trash and screams at them and calls them fat cows. So much drama!......love it

Emily: I really have said on more than one occasion that if cameras followed around a kitchen staff(especially a kitchen that has intern housing) it would be the biggest drama filled reality TV show anyone has ever seen. Most of this would be because of the outside drama many cooks bring into work, not because of drama of work. If a bunch of line cooks screwed up as much as they do on Hell's Kitchen I would hope the exec chef would fire them all and look for more experienced cooks who can handle the pressures of service.

Matt: If they screw up really bad he shuts down the kitchen completely whether people are served or not.

Emily: This would definitely never happen. But then again in a real kitchen you're working with the same menu every night most of the time. It's a routine that you can get used to. Someone who can't get used to a routine of a kitchen belongs in another industry.

Obviously TV adds drama that probably doesn't exist in real life. There is plenty of drama in a kitchen, but a real kitchen doesn't have the time constraints or stress of being on national TV for everyone to see every mistake you make. I'm sure Ramsey's screaming is the least of their embarrassment. I normally catch the first episode of Hell's Kitchen and I love watching the "chefs" come in cocky and sure of themselves. Working a kitchen has a good way of knocking you down a few notches, well for some people at least. Thankfully when most of us cook at home and burn something we are our hardest critics and we don't have a Gordon Ramsey screaming down our necks.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily & Matt