If you haven’t figured out that chef Gordon Ramsay isn’t the devil he seems to be on Kitchen Nightmares then it’s possible that you believe everything that Reality TV is telling you. The notoriously hotheaded chef has been seen many a time onscreen yelling at and berating chefs in rundown kitchens and owners that have allowed their businesses to go face-first into the toilet. He’s disrespected the food, the establishment, the workers, and even chewed out the owners in front of the workers. In essence he seems like the worst person alive and when it came to working with kids you would have almost expected him to be stiff as a board and on point when it came to holding in his temper or slipping up a bit now and then and letting that famous temper fly.
So why did it never happen?
Well, for starters, Gordon Ramsay is not the hothead that people think he is. In truth he’s one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. Things can get down and dirty in the kitchen, anyone that’s ever worked in a restaurant setting can tell you that with absolute certainty. It has to do with work conditions, the interaction between the chefs, wait staff, and owners, and even the kind of business and frequency that a place is packed or even has customers. Not being busy enough can test anyone just as easily as being slammed every night can.
Truthfully you want your restaurant to be slammed, but in this era of Reality TV the guy brought in to fix things wasn’t always there to be the hard-nosed, professional chef that knew exactly what he was doing. He was there to put on a show. Now yes, some of these businesses were headed towards the drain at a rapid pace, but in order to really sell the show and make it seem as though Ramsay was helping out as much as it looked like the producers had to spice things up a bit. There were countless tricks that were used in order to make people believe that Ramsay was doing all he could to help the kitchen staff and the wait staff, and that he had a personal stake in the business’s revival.
The truth was he rarely if ever met the owners of the establishment and the drama backstage was all produced and staged by the show’s creators. Like I said, if you’ve worked in a restaurant before, that’s right hands up, then you know that if someone comes in to save your failing business you do whatever the heck they say. If they’re an expert and have made a successful career out of cooking and running their own establishment then you tend to perk up a bit when they speak. They’ve found a way to make it work and if you want to continue with your job you listen quietly and don’t argue. Those chefs, owners, and wait staff that never seem to be on the same page are usually actors or are specifically told to act as they do on the show.
Sorry to spoil the illusion, but if he’s there to help he’s going to be in and out as quickly as possible, and people are going to listen.
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