The new season of Hell’s Kitchen is in full swing on Fox. Critics believe that this year, the producers are milking every dramatic moments more than usual. In otherword, they are stringing together every moment that Gordon Ramsey gets mad at someone and not letting the normal pace of events sort of dictates the pace of the show.
I wondered about that myself, because it appeared that despite these contestants all being professional chefs, with a couple culinary students thrown in, they were making me feel better about my own lack of skill for just a moment. Point out a 6 oz portion of fish? I would be way off. And so was the chef. Kitchen fires. Check. And by the way, I could make a creme brulee look pretty unappetizing too.
You know when things were carefully edited when even I almost believe for half a second I could do better. Or perhaps the producers want the audience to become more interactive with the show. If THEY think they could cook better and perform better under pressure than the contests can, it creates more addiction to the show. It creates “talking back to the television,” more so than a show meant to evoke a feeling of merely “oh, that’s how they do that.”
Cooking has become almost a full contact sport, TV would have people believe. If Julia Child were around today, would she wear a cape and tangle with the original “Iron Chefs” or would she have a reality show?
What do you think - do you miss the more polite, gentler time when Julia was mixing it up with Jacques Pepin in the studio or do you think that costumes and Reality TV is the best thing to have happened to food?
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