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100 Books in One Year: Roasting in Hell’s Kitchen by Gordon F**king Ramsey

Cannonball Read / Andrea

Book Reviews | January 28, 2009 | Comments (22)

Total man crush. Fuck it that he’s married, bullocks to his kid. He’s passionate, foul mouthed and watching him baste a steak with butter just makes my panties wet (those chef pants? commando. chef’s are hot).

Hormonal reactions aside, he’s a man I can respect professionally. He eats and breathes passion about food on his table or yours. And if you’re not passionate about food stay out of the fucking kitchen. After reading this, I see that the passion obviously didn’t come from family influence (drifting, grifting, musician dad, mom abused, living in caravans) and food wasn’t his first passion, soccer was.

I love food memoirs. Kitchen Confidential wasn’t a revelation for me. I spent quality time in kitchens and under chefs (stop right there) and up until I fucked my back up I was putting serious thought into the Culinary Institute of America. And yes, pre-food network most kitchens were just as he described. Dirty, sexy and drug fueled. Most still are.

Surprisingly Ramsey wasn’t one of the chemical brothers of the knife, nor was Marco Pierre White (raging fucking lunatic, megalomaniac, paranoid and fucking brilliant). Jesus, I can’t imagine what Ramsey would have been like if he was a hedonist like Bourdain (shudder).

So what did I get out of this one? Well, I’m getting rather well versed in British profanity use, for one. But I actually look at this as more of a management book, between reading this and watching some of “Kitchen Nightmares” I gave myself a real professional kick to the ass. The man is all about accountability, plain and simple. No excuses, only reasons. If you aren’t passionate enough about something to fight or quality then you need to get the hell out. You don’t float or drift in Ramsey’s restaurant group, you learn or you leave.

It’s a fun read too, pick it up. Makes a great man gift.

Oh, and pick up his cookbooks, they are amazing. Asshole or not, the man gives good instruction.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. Details are here and the growing number of participants and their blogs are here. And check here for more of Andrea’s reviews.









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Comments

This is one book I'll go out and buy, I love Gordon Ramsey. Most of the time my t.v. is on the food network. My uncle and brother were chefs, so I grew up in a kitchen.

Posted by: Pookie at January 28, 2009 9:21 AM

I agree with you completely Andrea. I have a hardcore man crush on Chef Ramsey. Plus, his use of the profane brings a tear to my eye.

Hey, we all need to have goals.

Posted by: admin at January 28, 2009 9:26 AM

Asshole or not, the man gives good instruction.

Especially on what can go up said orifice!

Posted by: Che Grovera at January 28, 2009 9:41 AM

I am terribly sad that "The F Word" is on during the day so I only see it when I work from home or call in sick - love that damn show. Also? He's fantastic with his kids which makes him even sexier - how the hell is someone with that craggy a face so ridiculously attractive?

Posted by: Megan at January 28, 2009 9:53 AM

I hate hate hate Hell's Kitchen with a passion, solely because of the wasted potential. Here we could be watching people learn how to run a restaurant, something that could really be fascinating, and all we get is Ramsey screaming curses at these poor schmos. He never offers any constructive advice as far as I can tell--it's just two hours of a drill sergeant passing himself off as a chef and hurling abuse. It gets tiresome within five minutes. It also makes no sense to me. I guess it's better for ratings, but WHY is this man shouting so much? Being passionate about something is not an excuse to act like an asshole. It's just food, man. Back off already.

Now, Kitchen Nightmares is more of what I was hoping Hell's Kitchen would be. Here you see Ramsey actually making intelligent suggestions and proving that he really is a chef who knows what he's doing. You can see how a restaurant transforms itself (although a depressing number still seem to fail). I'm still not a fan of the profanity, though. Not because I'm a prude, but because it's so incessant that it becomes pointless. He's like that clueless teenage girl who says "you know" five times in every sentence. And hearing that bleeeeeppp every two seconds is annoying as hell. I could like the guy if he just took a few anger management courses.

Posted by: DeadBessie at January 28, 2009 9:54 AM

But if you watch the real Kitchen Nightmares (not the "hey look free appliances for attention whores" US version, you'll see that he uses the yelling and profanity as a tool. It's not just swearing for swearing's sake. Now, he's obviously egotistical as hell...humility is not in his vocabulary. But I think he generally is a good judge of character, and he genuinely tries to figure out how to get someone motivated.

I've watched Hell's Kitchen for the past three years, and after the first year, it just got stupid with the stunts. If there's a fourth season, I'll probably have to give it a pass.

Posted by: Wednesday at January 28, 2009 10:09 AM

As a native speaker of British profanities, it's "bollocks to his kid", not bullocks. Apologies if it was an honest typo!

Posted by: Gumble at January 28, 2009 10:25 AM

There's a fourth season. Starts tomorrow.

I've watched most of two "HK" seasons but still, I'm put off by the emotional manipulativeness and the calculation of the thing. I don't watch any other reality shows but I'm guessing they're mostly all like this?

Anyway, I won't be watching this year because it's on a night I work and I just don't care enough to record it, since I know exactly how it will play out. New faces, same shtick.

Posted by: bucdaddy at January 28, 2009 10:32 AM

To some extent, yes, they all use emotional manipulation to drag more drama out of the contestants. Put a bunch of high-drive-type personalities together, sleep-deprive them, and watch the fireworks...makes for entertaining TV.

I watch Top Chef and Project Runway because usually those people have a real reason for being on a reality show -- they want the prize they're supposed to earn with their proven talent. I think the first season of HK was like that, too. Not anymore, though. So many of the shows end up being nothing more than face time for people whose only goal is to be a Reality TV star.

Posted by: Wednesday at January 28, 2009 11:03 AM

First is there anything about his feud with Iron Chef Mario Batali? I guess he calls the fat chef Fanta Pants, because of some orange shorts he likes to wear,

2. My uncle and brother were chefs, so I grew up in a kitchen.


Posted by: Pookie

Carving potato vaginas, no doubt.

Posted by: richmac at January 28, 2009 11:16 AM

how did this review make it onto pajiba? there are two errors in the first paragraph.

Posted by: liz at January 28, 2009 11:18 AM

Simmer down, liz. It should be common knowledge that the Cannonball Read reviews are imported from the reader's personal site (as opposed to the grammatically perfect prose we expect from the regular Pajiba staff!). I also believe this is Andrea's debut to boot.

There are actually three errors, if you descend to the level of kvetsching over hyphenation. I'm reasonably tolerant of misspellings in an unfamiliar vernacular. That leaves us with apostrophe abuse, but since it isn't repeated (and the rest of the text checks out okay, hyphenation issues notwithstanding) it would seem that cutting the rookie a little slack might be in order.

Posted by: Che Grovera at January 28, 2009 11:51 AM

I've never see this guy's show, but I am intrigued, and I'll definitely check out the book. I just wanted to share something-

I worked at Kinko's, with a bunch of other I-can-print-show-flyers-and-noir-posters-for-free college students, and one guy who was a bit older and looked a LOT older. I asked him why he worked at Kinko's, once I got to know him, and he said "Well, I was a chef... but I had to find a way to deal with my substance abuse problem, so the first step was to quit cooking."

Then I dated a sous chef and got the rest of the blanks filled in. Hoodathunk?

Posted by: Sweetie Dahling at January 28, 2009 12:05 PM

I forgot about the bullshit emotional stuff they stick in Kitchen Nightmares--like the one where they had Ramsey boxing with some sissy restaurant manager, and every time the guy threw a punch, they superimposed a black and white shot of the guy's dead dad and the failing restaurant over their fight. I was rolling my eyes so much I gave myself a migraine. Once they had members from a family operated restaurant give "confessions" in an actual church to Ramsey. What, so the guy is a shrink too? Just stick to the shots of roaches, rat droppings and pissed off employees, thanks.

I didn't know it existed, but I imagine the UK version is more fun. I love British slang--it manages to sound insulting and affectionate at the same time. Sod off, you wankers!

Posted by: DeadBessie at January 28, 2009 12:25 PM

DeadBessie, the UK version is so vastly superior to its Americanized counterpart it is like comparing filet mignon to a steaming turd. Gordon still acts realatively the same but the producers don't use the stupid emotional manipulation and contraversy.

Plus, he always returns to the place some months later to see how they are faring. He's really not the asshole he is usually portrayed to be.

Posted by: admin at January 28, 2009 12:32 PM

I spent quality time in kitchens and under chefs (stop right there) and up until I fucked my back up I was putting serious thought into the Culinary Institute of America.

Well, that's what happens when you spend too much time under anyone.

There, I said it.

The UK Kitchen Nightmares is quite endearing. The American one is offensive. I love Ramsey, but I hate how Hell's Kitchen keeps on completely useless people and kicks off semi-decent people for unfortunate reasons. It just makes it clearer that they've chosen the winner far in advance.

Posted by: Kat at January 28, 2009 12:32 PM

I will be working the phrase "it's like comparing filet mignon to a steaming turd" into conversation every chance I get.

Posted by: DeadBessie at January 28, 2009 2:08 PM

How many pages in does he call someone a "donkey." Love that term!

Posted by: JapJay at January 28, 2009 2:24 PM

I went to place this book on hold at the library, and found out his name is spelled wrong in the title. BUT, I also found out Star Blazers (aka Space Battleship Yamato) is at the library too.

Thanks Andrea!

Posted by: Stenz at January 28, 2009 9:10 PM

The fact that Gordon Ramsey narrates the UK Kitchen Nightmares makes a massive difference. That twat of a narrator on the US series had my ears bleeding with all of his "Chef Ramsey" this and "Chef Ramsey" that. Pah.

Posted by: amanda at January 29, 2009 7:41 AM

Fuck! Bollocks! Bloody hell! The name's Ramsay, with two a's.

Posted by: piedlourde at January 29, 2009 12:07 PM

Ramsey is the English spelling, Ramsay is the Scottish (and correct) spelling.

Posted by: Drucius at January 31, 2009 5:45 AM