Hell’s Kitchen is back on Fox for its 11th season and last week I was on a conference call with Gordon Ramsay who talked about the changes for the show that airs tonight at 8p.
Unlike some other reality shows producers/stars, Ramsay is willing to learn from his competition. The renowned chef talked about his own network competition helped him to change things for the better on his show. He said, “I insisted this year that we have a little bit more mentoring, and you’ll see sort of week six or seven when we sort of start focusing on the real talent. You’ll see how we almost took a leaf out of Idol’s book and X Factor. I really wanted to get these guys good, because the better they look, the better we look. Yes, I’m always sort of defensive when they get criticized they’re not real chefs. They are real chefs. They just want an amazing break.” It will be interesting to see him play a bigger part in their prepping for the ultimate job of working for him in the upcoming weeks.
Then there is a show on another network that influenced him. He said “I also like The Voice. Over the last 18 months where the actual judges physically get off their chairs and stand up on the stage and perform in front of their contestants. And that’s exactly what I started doing in Hell’s Kitchen the way that I thought, look, you just see me now as this guy that is fronting a program, but you’ve got no idea I’ve made more mistakes than all of you put together. I continue pushing myself to the full extent, and more importantly I can cook and here’s why. So I like that vulnerability and I think you’ll see that after sort of maybe week six or seven when you start honing in this talent to how good they are.” A good chef is always to learn from others and we all know he is a good chef.
But one thing he doesn’t learn about from Hell’s Kitchen is something that might surprise you as much as it surprised me. Does he watch what the contestants do when they are not in the kitchen? He said “I based only and purposely took a decision eight years ago not to get engaged with what happens off set. I’ve always maintained, I run a restaurant and Fox runs a show, so it’d be very unprofessional of me to start delving into what goes on in terms of the characters and the personalities. I judge everyone from an equal playing field.” Then he explained even more so, “It’s too easy to get obsessed with what goes on in the dorm, but that doesn’t interest me because that doesn’t sort of make any difference to me. When I open that restaurant, when we do the challenges, when we set the menu, which I’m totally involved in far much more this year than ever before, it’s always done as a professional chef basis, so I don’t want to look like I’m two-faced. I’m sneaking sort of behind the scenes to find out what I like, so I can have a different view of them when they walk back into the kitchen, so no.” After watching what goes on in the dorms, I think he should reconsider that. There are people on the show I would never want to work with because of all the tension they cause with their fellow competitors.
And he should pay more attention to what goes on when they are not with him especially if he plans on going on the road with a few of the contestants from the show’s long run. That’s right, he ended the call with this little tidbit, “You know, it’s a very good question. I’m looking at a potential live tour in the summer of 2014 where I’ll actually go around sort of 25, 30 cities and actually do a sort of Gordon Ramsay Live.” I’ll be there, just like I have been with him every Tuesday at 8p with Hell’s Kitchen and Fridays at 8p with Kitchen Nightmares and this summer with Hotel Hell and MasterChef!
