TV cooking contest shows
 

I've been really enjoying cooking contest shows for the last year or two. Examples are Hell's Kitchen, Next Food Network Star, and Top Chef. Sometimes the food is very interesting, as can be the challenges they put the chefs through.

They're all worth watching. Last night I saw another installment of Next Food Network Star, and it was fun. There has already been spotty outbreaks of discussion of these shows in OOT, sometimes impassioned, usually interesting. Let's do a Lounge take on all those shows!

To start, here's celebrity chef and author Tony Bourdain's take on that show as of 7/11/07.

Tony Bourdain is a familiar name to people who follow cooking shows. A confessedly moderately talented chef and small-time novel writer, he rose to notoriety and near adoration with Kitchen Confidential, a grungy, hilarious tell-all about the restaurant business and growing into adulthood as a chef and various types of louse. The success of the book spawned t.v. series and further books and articles, and it occasions some fun blog posts, including "guest blog" spots on other people's sites.

I hope you enjoy this one. Warning -- Tony can be crude.

Tony Bourdain on The Next Food Network Star

Note that Tony has been a guest judge on Top Chef, a similar show, just a few weeks ago.

Note also that on the same page, you can scroll down to find other entries from him.

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Whenever one of these come on, I have a hard time following them. Too much action jumping back and forth.

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I haven't read your link yet but I wanted to say that this sounds like a lot of fun, Blarg! I will check my TV listings and see if I get any of the channels that air these shows.

I used to watch one that came on really late at night. I think it was Top Chef. Anyway, currently I'm following Hells Kitchen. I think GR is a raving nutcase. I sort of wish that they would showcase the talents of the individual contestants just a little more, don't you? It's really hard for me to know who to root for.

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I haven't seen Next Food Network Star. I'm reluctant to watch because I assume it's not really about cooking, it's about who can be the next Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee (watch this semi-good looking woman make semi-edible food from recipes they stole from their parents or a Good Housekeeping book!)

I've watched every episode so far of Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen. Here's basically how I compare the two: Top Chef is a cooking competition. The entertainment value is centered around who can cook better in various competetive environments. The contestants are all somewhat accomplished chefs and know what they're doing.

Hell's Kitchen is a reality show that happens to be in a restaurant. The entertainment value is centered around watching an old English lunatic scream and insult people who are trying to cook standard restaurant food. None of the challenges involve the contestants being creative or showing off their talent. I'm getting more and more sick of this show every time I see it. The worst part is that the menu is basically the same as last season. Those wellingtons look just as nasty as they did a year ago. And the producers obviously chose contestants that were not good cooks. If they all knew how to make decent risottos in a reasonable amount of time, there wouldn't be a show.

I'm not sure if it's still on, but there used to be a show on BBC America called Gordon Ramsay's F Word. Each episode, a team of like 3 or 4 people would come to one of GR's restaurants and try to cook for dinner service. I only saw like 5 episodes, so I don't know if the point of it was to pick a winner at the end of the season or something. GR would yell at the people, but it was a lot more constructive criticism and less lay-up fat/ugly/dumb blonde jokes.

There's no doubt in my mind that the producers of HK have a lot to do with GR's antics on that show.

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Katy,

Top Chef is on Bravo. New episodes air Wednesdays at 10pm ET.

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Agreed on everything you said. Gordon Ramsay has to wheel out his abusive schtick regularly for program demands, and the cooks they chose were far from top of the line. I don't think they need to be for the purposes of the show. All the show needs to do is provide a cook, not show us top cooks.

Surprisingly, I've seen Ramsay be quite complimentary numerous times this season, which I saw virtually none of last season. He compliments Rock fairly constantly.

Next Food Network Star is a bit of a puzzle. The cooks are obviously not top level, and don't seem ready to be televised authorities. When getting quizzed on a basic ingredient like canned tomatoes, one contestant is completely flustered and starts babbling. Then again, their job is not just to cook, but be photogenic, clear, and personable on screen. So cooking is a demonstrably smaller part of their job. On screen, it may finally be nonexistent, as there are plenty of shows in which the host doesn't cook at all. So the show moves in multiple directions at once, which multiple ways to succeed or fail, and those all have to be measured at once with some sort of balance.

Bourdain's entries on the show, on the link, have a lot of good things to say about the show.

Top Chef this season seems interesting, and the contestants are notably good this year. It's the cooking contest show I like the most because it is the most serious and has the sexiest hostess(so much for serious, on my part!).

I'd love to see those old Gordon Ramsay BBC shows. I'm going to check to see if they have any of them at Netflix.

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Ever since you made this post it seems I've been watching the Food Network channel more. Today I watched them make some great sandwiches and cheesecakes. The other day it was authentic ravioli. Yum! It's making me really hungry. I am going to try to catch Next Food Network Star tonight for the first time.

About Hell's Kitchen, I was sort of wondering why we keep seeing those same Wellingtons. I guess I'm finding the show rather boring. I want to watch people cook, not sweat onto customer's plates. Gordon Ramsay makes me very stressed out.

Question for all you chefs out there, is a busy restaurant kitchen really this stressful? I'm sort of surprised they have so much trouble timing things right. I mean how come they keep overcooking their meats?

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Katie, if you have not read Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, you really should give it a try. It's absolutely hilarious in many places, and gives a really intriguing look at how the business really runs and what it's really like at all levels. If you have any interest in cooking shows or just like a pretty hilarious, sometimes rude romp through what is for most of us a different world, you'll get a bang out of that book. I've read a couple others of his, and he's just a pretty fun guy and a really good writer. He's got a real gift for skewering pretentious stuff yet really grooving on people trying to do high level things, including some that he knows he'll never be able to do himself. Reading him raving about Thomas Keller, often called the best chef in American and maybe the world, is a wonderful take on the kind of high artistic levels a chef can reach that I wouldn't have been able to understand without his help. Reading him rip a new arsehole into people who crow about being vegetarians but then have the nerve to cook vegetables in really crappy, indifferent ways is a hoot I can relate to, as well.

Food Network Star is on tonight, Katie, and I think it's the final episode for the season. I'm sure Bourdain will also have a very interesting blog post on that, too.

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[ QUOTE ]
Katie, if you have not read Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, you really should give it a try. It's absolutely hilarious in many places, and gives a really intriguing look at how the business really runs and what it's really like at all levels.

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Thanks for the recommendation, Blarg. Definitely sounds like something I would enjoy. I will look for it this week. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


Ok so I watched two episodes of Next Food Network Star. This show was a lot of fun. Way better than Hell's Kitchen. I won't give away any spoilers just wanted to say I really liked the format. I got to see the differences in style between the contestants and learn their strength and weaknesses which is a lot more than we learn from HK. This is the kind of show I want to watch.

With regard to last week's show, I found it interesting that Jag didn't make one entry that the judges liked. And what was with his chicken wontons dipped in vinegar? Who does that? Yuck.

Amy's chicken with goat cheese and mushrooms looked really good, as did her comfy looking stew. She seems like a very strong contestant. Clue me in on why she wanted to go home the other week.

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I've been watching so many of these shows I'm forgetting some particulars, that among them. I do know that she was whining on and on about being away from her daughter, as if it was going to kill the both of them. It looked like craven attention-wh*ring/sympathy mongering to try to get around her screw-ups. I think it was just doing badly in one of the competitions and not knowing how to take it without cracking up.

Both she and Jag seem to be really easily able to segue into near breakdowns. I wonder about these guys' stability and resourcefulness under pressure. Really, all of the last four have blanked out or screwed up under pressure pretty notably. As in, not just not cook well, but really spaz out on a personal level.

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I completely agree with Bourdain's post about HK in the link Blarg posted. I watch both Top Chef and Next Food... but watched only a single episode of Hell's Kitchen before deciding I didn't care to see it again. Watching funny people be funnily cruel can be really funny. Watching Gordon Ramsey be cruel is painful, especially when there isn't quality cooking to offset it.

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Well, they kicked off Amy, who seemed way ahead of Jag. This one really shoulda been between the ladies.

Then they brought her back! Wow, a relief for her, and a bit of torture tambien.

Also, Jag's contrition seemed nothing of the sort. Saying you're sorry when you're caught and have no other choice isn't impressive.

Jag has lots of stage presence, but he screws up his cooking pretty regularly, and dissed the network. The blonde girl dissed her other teammate. The only one who didn't screw up the last challenges in one way or another was the person they kicked off.

Can't wait to read Bourdain's blog entry on it.

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Katy,

You have to read Kitchen Confidential. You just have to.


Blarg,

Which of Tony's other books would you recommend? I saw he has a bunch of books out now. Are they really good or is he just riding the wave of KC for $$$?

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Jag has lots of stage presence, but he screws up his cooking pretty regularly, and dissed the network.

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I was surprised that Jag had so much stage presence on the Rachel Ray show. He was really entertaining. Completely the opposite of his back stage personality. I also thought that the lobster dish he made on her show looked absolutely delicious whereas Amy's dish looked pretty questionable.

His lying about his military record is pretty weird. I totally agree with you that his contrition was phony as hell.

The other girl (ol' big mouth) did a nice job on the Rachel Ray show. But lol at her for putting a glob of herb butter on top of a steak. Isn't that a little over the top? (Also, did you like the way she sort of shoved Rachel out of the way? haha.)

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I guess at some point I'll get sick of HK, but until then I will enjoy Ramsay verbally pummel the contestants. One thing that someone in this thread pointed out, it seems like the "chefs" on the show aren't very good. They screw up all the time which causes Ramsay to lose it. I guess poor chefs are essential, otherwise we wouldn't hear Ramsay cursing people out which is the schtick of the whole show.

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[ QUOTE ]
Katy,

You have to read Kitchen Confidential. You just have to.


Blarg,

Which of Tony's other books would you recommend? I saw he has a bunch of books out now. Are they really good or is he just riding the wave of KC for $$$?

[/ QUOTE ]

A Cook's Tour is good, especially the part on how much he loves Vietnam and the crazy stuff he ate there. A real honest love story for the place. It's not as good as KC, because KC had more of a structure, as a bio. ACT is episodic.

He's got another one called The Nasty Bits that I picked up a few weeks back but have only read one or two pieces from, but I like that too.

All in all, I think Bourdain sustains a good level of writing throughout his stuff. Even if some is better than others, none of it is poor, and he has such an active life that he's constantly in the position to have interesting stuff to talk about. With him, the stuff that seems a lesser effort is sometimes his latest t.v. show, which can suffer from having to fill time whether he has exceptional material or not. His writing is just stuff done on his own, so it doesn't fall short that way.

I'd definitely read the books in order, too -- KC, ACT, and then his other stuff. I think you probably enjoy later pieces more for knowing the story of the nut behind them.

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I agree that Amy's food didn't look that good. Part of it was this gray glop that looked very unappetizing, and part was half in the bowl, half out. Just because you are the gourmet for the backyard doesn't mean you have to aggressively slop your sh*t around. That almost seems passive-aggressive toward the concept of simplicity -- "let's really mess it up for you hicks, you oughta dig this ...." Also, although her work with the camera on the Ray show was mostly quite good, she did seem to retreat into babbling about the complexity of her food, which I took as a sign of building up a protective wall between her and an instant communication with the audience, which she is still a bit scared of. The judge made a good call in pointing that out.

I still think she is probably the best cook there, and shouldn't have been given the boot. Jag's spiel about really loving food seems to have carried him through not just one but two episodes, despite still not stepping up to the plate on the cooking side. I have a feeling it would have won him the job if he hadn't been caught lying. Which is kind of a shame, because if he got his own show, he wouldn't be able to make it watchable by periodic heartfelt crying.

Plus, I'm tired of calling him "Jag" and hearing him refer to himself in the third person.

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P.S. Katie: The "big mouth" girl really does have giant choppers. I started laughing yesterday when I could actually see a big hotspot of glare being reflected from her GUMS.

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Did anyone else recognize Rory the first time they saw her on Next Food...? It bothered me the whole first episode, and then I googled. She was on (VH1's? CMT's? GAC's? one of those) the "Popularity Contest" show. I have to think she has a decent edge simply because she's used to seeing herself on TV and reacting to reality TV moments. Obviously, there's a level of cooking expertise below which you just can't be on FoodTV, but above that limit, camera-comfort, audience rapport, etc, count for way more than cooking. Having made it deep in to a reality TV show, I just have to think Rory has an edge over someone like Garcia or Amy.

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im actually kinda pissed - I wanted JAG to win badly. I think that the other two are too similar to all the other people with shows on the food network. Especially after seeing them cook and realizing that both of them aren't very good. Oh well... stupid JAG

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Jag has screwed up a LOT of the tests, though, recently. Like, he can hardly do a thing that's good anymore. I thought he was better at first, but now I really couldn't put him above either of the two ladies.

You know, maybe Rory should win by default just because the other two of the last three finalists are kind of crazy. Rory looks like her gums are trying to leave her body, but otherwise seems pretty normal.

And they say she is commanding; that remark has been made by different people a number of times. Seems to me a prime quality you need if you're going to head up your own show.

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Rory's teeth make an entrance into a room a good half minute before the rest of her body appears but that doesn't dissuade me from liking her. The girl loves butter and I respect that.

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Gordon Ramsey has a new show (maybe a year or two old now) on BBC called, "Kitchen Nightmares" or something like that.

It really is excellent. Anyone who considers Hell's Kitchen a guilty pleasure should def check it out. It's on Thursday nights and the premise is Ramsey going to different joints in Europe that are struggling. He goes in and turns the place around more often than not.

He still acts like a prick from time to time, but you can really see how great he is at what he does. I don't even watch HK anymore - but I never miss his other show.

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[ QUOTE ]
Gordon Ramsey has a new show (maybe a year or two old now) on BBC called, "Kitchen Nightmares" or something like that.

It really is excellent. Anyone who considers Hell's Kitchen a guilty pleasure should def check it out. It's on Thursday nights and the premise is Ramsey going to different joints in Europe that are struggling. He goes in and turns the place around more often than not.

He still acts like a prick from time to time, but you can really see how great he is at what he does. I don't even watch HK anymore - but I never miss his other show.

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He is also making an American version coming out this fall on Fox.

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Tony Bourdain is now doing another guest blog, and this time for a different cooking contest show, Top Chef. He's guest blogging for judge Tom Coliccio(the bald dude).

Fun excerpt:

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Speaking of the Brothers Blockhead: I have a grudging respect for Howie. I truly enjoyed how -- when I was a judge -- he threw my own words back at me, taking responsibility for his own actions, but standing on principle. He's a tough, obstinate little bastard. He takes his beatings like a man, without passing the buck or making excuses, but seems not to play well with others.



Not that ANYONE could play with Joey. Joey comes off like a walking laundry list of "Things Chefs Don't Want In An Employee." Whiner. Crybaby. Blames Others. Persecution Complex. Confrontational. What Bill Buford, in his excellent book, "Heat" came to recognize as a "[censored]". It's a good thing the judges don't see the backstage melodrama. Most chefs I know get wood from kicking guys like that to the curb.

[/ QUOTE ]

This link will take you to the rest of it:

Bourdain guest-blogging for Top Chef show

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I just had my service provider add Bravo to my cable package because I wanted to be able to talk Top Chef with you! It cost me $8 a month (along with 49 other channels). I'm excited. What night of the week does it come on?



oops - just noticed that Ron Burgundy already told me that it airs Wednesdays at 10. Sorry about that Ron! (hey cool, that's tonight)

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Cool Katie! They usually run the last episode right before the new one, so you can catch up a bit that way. Plus, last week they ran the last TWO episodes, so you might be able to catch a three-hour block there to get you up to speed.

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Top Chef 7/18

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On Pacific Coast time; I've got a couple hours to go before I catch any spoilers over there!

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Okay saw it.

Hung for the THIRD TIME IN A ROW scoffed at people criticizing his dish -- arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). Worse, the criticism seems far from something academic or for refined palates in any way. People simply said his rice was overcooked and his chicken dry.

Seriously, what is wrong with this guy? I don't think I'm out of line by saying that as an Asian, he has had rice a billion times -- I grew up around Asians and can't think of a single one who that would not be true of. And he blew it. This should be part of his arsenal, not a threat. And doing chicken? feh, minor stuff. That he couldn't master this simple dish is telling. And then getting a snotty attitude about it, after multiple snotty attitudes, is telling as well. This guy is living in his own world of self-regard, and invulnerable to humility and learning experiences. He is WAY too young to think he knows everything there is to know already. Especially about cultures that have basically zero in common with his own.

Lia leaving seems a bit much. So her food was bland. That doesn't make it bad. Others were cited -- like Hung -- as outright bad. What gives here? We have lost Camille the first time she was ever at the bottom, while Howie survives multiple times and so does Hung. And now we lose Lia for not being as bad as the other dishes she's competing against. The Indian girl's ceviche was described as something that could only qualify as quacamole if you closed your eyes when eating it, because it had too little fish in it. TOO LITTLE FISH! In a ceviche dish! WTF?

So dry chicken plus dry rice, and a ceviche that's guacamole, stay while a dish that is merely bland stays? I dunno about this.

I was glad to see Joey finally pull something out of his ass. And Howie strongly and repeatedly praising his dish, and even handing him his wine bottle after his win, was classy and very cool all around. Taking his past tussles with Joey into account, I like Howie a lot more after this episode.

I guess I always have a soft spot for the underdog. I'm not that fond of Joey, but I still get some sort of a charge when he wins, just because he has so much hate and failure behind him. It's like he cut free a dooming anchor, and it's hard not to get behind his breathing free for a change.

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Well I practically neglected So You Think You Can Dance to watch 4 episodes of Top Chef in a row. Needless to say I was a little burned out by the end of it.

I watched the barbecue show, the reinventing family classics, the 3-person team challenge (with the elite dining club people), and the Latin show. My favorite episodes were the last two. The Latin cuisine looked delicious and it was really fun to see the variety.

I like the format of this show a lot and love the professional polished attitude of the judges. Especially like the way the judging panel discusses each of the dishes and comments on why they didn't like particular ones. A little overwhelming with the number of contestants for me to try to learn all their names and personalities. (Surprised to see Joey and Howie become such good buddies after they screamed at each other early on. Lol, men!)

I agree with you about Hung's arrogance. This guy is going to have some problems in life. He may be talented but his ego will really limit his growth.




[ QUOTE ]

Lia leaving seems a bit much. So her food was bland. That doesn't make it bad. Others were cited -- like Hung -- as outright bad. What gives here? We have lost Camille the first time she was ever at the bottom, while Howie survives multiple times and so does Hung. And now we lose Lia for not being as bad as the other dishes she's competing against.

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I don't know Blarg, polenta and salmon? That just sounds horrible to me. I would never think to mix these two tastes.

I like Casey's attitude. Kind of liked Lia too and wanted to see her stay on and get a shot at more challenges. I was hoping Hung would go.

Overall, very interesting show and again I just really enjoyed the Latin cuisine. Yum!

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Wow, weird. I wrote a response that didn't show. Oh well.

Anyway, glad you liked the program. It does seem like the class act of the three cooking shows.

I still think it's odd to get rid of Camille for her first time at the bottom while letting people like Howie hit the bottom multiple times(in an early show he didn't even finish plating his dish, and had to come out with only half of it on the plate!). And that Lia's making something merely bland was enough to get her kicked when other people, like the Indian girl who messed up twice in a row INCLUDING this episode, seem to miraculously ride it out.

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Howie did not deserve to go when he made the unfinished dish. He was not the worst. Would you rather eat half of a good dish or a whole terrible dish? Howie has made a couple stupid mistakes. But he's also shown a lot of talent and potential.

Camille and Lia have never done anything interesting. I think you're giving way too much credit to Lia by saying that her salmon and polenta thing was just bland. This was a Latin-themed challenge, and she decides to make a strange terrible and uncreative dish that has no connection whatsoever to Latin cuisine. The thought of salmon+polenta makes me puke a little.

Yes, the Indian girl sucked again, but you have to eliminate the worst each week, and she hasn't been the worst yet. It's only a matter of time though. She won't last much longer.

So far this season, I've agreed with the judges on every elimination decision.

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BTW they show Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC and it's a REALLY good show.

I know they are remaking it here in America, but I have a feeling they will play up Ramsey's abusive Hell's Kitchen schtik and try to make it a comedy. The British version is great because these are real chefs who are really in danger of running their restaurants into bankruptcy, and Chef Ramsey really seems like he wants to help them. Also the chefs have that uniquely British brand of stoicism and understatement about their plight (and in the face of Ramsey's abuse) that it makes for great tv.

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[ QUOTE ]
BTW they show Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC and it's a REALLY good show.

I know they are remaking it here in America, but I have a feeling they will play up Ramsey's abusive Hell's Kitchen schtik and try to make it a comedy. The British version is great because these are real chefs who are really in danger of running their restaurants into bankruptcy, and Chef Ramsey really seems like he wants to help them. Also the chefs have that uniquely British brand of stoicism and understatement about their plight (and in the face of Ramsey's abuse) that it makes for great tv.

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QFT

i just watched last nights & it's EASILY my fav hour of tv each week. i'm sure much of the credit for the turnaround is the word spreading that Ramsey & BBC are helping the restaurant - but even still - it's amazing watching what this guy does to a place. this is going to sound lame, but i go from laughing, to amazement, to choked up - when he takes some poor business & turns it into a money making machine for them.

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[ QUOTE ]
Howie did not deserve to go when he made the unfinished dish.


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I think this is wrong by definition.

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He was not the worst. Would you rather eat half of a good dish or a whole terrible dish? Howie has made a couple stupid mistakes. But he's also shown a lot of talent and potential.


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Camille and Lia also BOTH won before, too. Howie has made a terrible dish before(the dry pork) and one dish that could have been an instant dismissal. As to what I would like in a meal, I'd like what I paid for. If I ordered surf and turf, or whatever, I expect both. Not a story.

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Camille and Lia have never done anything interesting.


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By awarding both of them top honors before, the judges disagree with you here.

By the way, what's with Howie and all the friggin' pork? If he could find a way to make pork popsicles, he'd probably do it. I don't see him as necessarily leading the way in creativity.

[ QUOTE ]
I think you're giving way too much credit to Lia by saying that her salmon and polenta thing was just bland. This was a Latin-themed challenge, and she decides to make a strange terrible and uncreative dish that has no connection whatsoever to Latin cuisine. The thought of salmon+polenta makes me puke a little.


[/ QUOTE ]

I like salmon and I like polenta. She didn't do too well with spices, though, and that sounds like a more legit criticism. Hey, she screwed up. So did everybody on the show so far, including Howie for sure and multiple times. This was Camille's first time at the bottom. You've got others with multiple times at the bottom.

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Yes, the Indian girl sucked again, but you have to eliminate the worst each week, and she hasn't been the worst yet. It's only a matter of time though. She won't last much longer.


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I agree.

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So far this season, I've agreed with the judges on every elimination decision.

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I'm wondering what's special about that Mohawk guy. Did he ever win a challenge? I wonder when he's gonna go.

Seems clear it's between the black dude and Hung for the final spots.

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
BTW they show Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC and it's a REALLY good show.

I know they are remaking it here in America, but I have a feeling they will play up Ramsey's abusive Hell's Kitchen schtik and try to make it a comedy. The British version is great because these are real chefs who are really in danger of running their restaurants into bankruptcy, and Chef Ramsey really seems like he wants to help them. Also the chefs have that uniquely British brand of stoicism and understatement about their plight (and in the face of Ramsey's abuse) that it makes for great tv.

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QFT

i just watched last nights & it's EASILY my fav hour of tv each week. i'm sure much of the credit for the turnaround is the word spreading that Ramsey & BBC are helping the restaurant - but even still - it's amazing watching what this guy does to a place. this is going to sound lame, but i go from laughing, to amazement, to choked up - when he takes some poor business & turns it into a money making machine for them.

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What day and hour is this on? Is there any way Americans can see it? We get a lot of channels, but no BBC. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Shame, because pretty much everything non-fiction BBC does is absolutely top notch and a welcome relief.

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i'm in vegas & BBC is in the 300's on cox cable. it's on (first run) thursday's at i think 5...maybe 6. i always dvr it & watch it later @ night. i'm going to look for previous seasons on dvd though...i dig it that much...i'll let you know if i find it.

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blarg,

Yes, Howie needs to branch out from pork in the same way that Brian needs to branch out from fish. But of course, a one trick pony won last year, so who knows.

I like the gay mohawk dude, but he just seems to have too many ambitious ideas that his skill level can't handle.

T2L,

Do you get the Fine Living network? There's a show that has a similar premise of the "restaurant makeover." I forget who the chef is, but I remember she was on Iron Chef once.

There's also a show where they follow people around who are trying to open a restaurant. It's interesting to see the whole process of remodeling the space, hiring chefs, buying equipment, etc. It's funny how they always have some major crisis or problems right up until opening night.

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For those of you who like Ramsey shows, BBC America also shows 'The F Word'. This one takes place in one of his restaurants and he brings in a different threesome to cook the 'easy to make' meals. The 50 guests then decide if they want to pay for each dish.

It's a really good show...I've seen 2 seasons of it, but they haven't shown any repeats for the last month or 2. Look out for it though when they do.