[Ron Burgundy]

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.