235 replies to this topic

[lesfen]

Fox has yanked Kitchen Confidential, for now at least. The article doesn't say much. It's about midway down.

NY Daily News

Oh thank goodness. Here's hoping it gets replaced by something revolving around a dysfunctional family with precocious children... preferabely with a stand up comedian in the father role. TV's really lacking that department.

[BeefCheeks]

Am I alone in thinking that any day now the public will be fed up with all of the writings, talkings, TV, gossip columns and books dealing with restaurants, food, and the celebrity chefs and their, lives and loves, back-stabbings, goals and philosophies and personality blips? 
I'd love to know how you all feel about this?

No, you are most certainly not alone; as both a book editor and a food writer, I have an increasingly difficult time wrapping my brain around the fact that virtually any food publication you pick up today bears more of a resemblance to Page 6 of the Post than it ought to. But let's not kid ourselves: this isn't a new phenomenon. How many of us remember the infamous tale of a towering lady from Santa Monica bad-mouthing a certain Michael Field back when Time Life was looking for a series editor for The Good Cook? I couldn't read much of a certain autobiography because I kept picturing the author en flagrante with Colman Andrews. Who needs to know this? It left a sour taste in my mouth in the same way that Jeremiah Tower's sad California Dish did, last year when it came out, and I say that knowing that Tower is a genius. What happens, exactly, to the food in these cases, and even moreso in the case of the food "reality" TV shows? It becomes a literally tasteless, one-dimensional backdrop for a bunch of self-important hangers-on whose lackluster cooking skills are outdone by their attitude problems. Forget food; the kids in these reality shows might as well be making widgets. And if we're going to be specific, this particular Fox show did an enormous disservice to the talented Bourdain and to the original book itself which, as we say in the publishing world, was "landmark."

[aser]

who wants to take bets on the next first growth they name drop? 59 haut brion? haha, it's like they're slip it in just to appease the very people reading this thread.

I know attaching bourdain's name on this might've elevated expectations, but imo it is a servicable show. Considering the mindless garbage fox thorws at us 95% of the time, it's better than nothing. It is what it is.

now if only curb your enthusiasm comes back on....

Edited by aser, 10 October 2005 - 12:44 AM.

[Pontormo]

Hey, you all, since you can no longer watch this sitcom, at least after the baseball games are over, do switch the channel to ABC and watch Wife Swap.*

Since I was busy translating La vita Nuova into Persian, I only caught fifteen minutes of the show, but it was fascinating. A make-up wearing wife from Kentucky who puts her little girl in beauty pageants traded places with a wife who refuses to allow a TV in the house and believes that no one should compete or be judged by the degree to which her outfit matches.

Relevance?

Of course, the family from Kentuck eats only junk food and the wife from the other family pushed natural foods and vegetarian dishes on them after forcing them to sing and play drums. The extreme dichotomy reminded me of some of the things currently being written about vegetarian restaurants in a different forum.

In the interest of entertainment, the producers did not choose a gifted cook to represent vegetarianism to their viewership. The woman stir fried vegetables and tossed them on a plate of brown rice. They looked like lovely red bell peppers and healthful, healthy stalks of broccoli rabe, but blah. Her non-husband asked why the rice has to be undercooked. He had never experienced the crunch factor of whole grains, the defensive cook explained; her food was fine.

Then we all got a shot of him throwing his meal in the trash. A few minutes later we got to see these same reluctant folk sip bright green gunk from a juicer and declare it's not as bad as it looks.

"It's not the taste, dahling, right?" says the Daddy in his feedstore cap to the little girl on his knee. "It's the consistancy."

She looks up at her father. Can't believe what he just said. But as she squinches up her face and grimaces after trying his glass of gunk, she politely lies, "Yeah."

They all decide then and there they need to change their diets and eat better.


*I got the name wrong on my first ineffective post about this show.

[glossyp]

It appears that Kitchen Confidential is back on beginning Nov. 14.

[Carlovski]

I managed to catch the first couple of episodes. I actually thought it was fairly entertaining. I wonder what the general reaction would have been if it had come out of nowhere i.e we didn't compare it to the book (or Tony)?
At least it shows something of the long hours and bustle of a professional kitchen.
I never really pay much attention to complaints about gender/race/religion/sexuality casting arguments, no matter what you do someone will complain. Oh apart from the film Notting Hill
I guess Steven is meant to be British? No accent I recognise though but that is fairly typical.

[hannnah]

I guess Steven is meant to be British? No accent I recognise though but that is fairly typical.

The accent is a close cousin of my husband's (who's from Wembley), also known as the "if I spoke in my regularly scheduled accent no one over here would understand me so I've had to slooooow doooown and e-nun-ci-ate" accent. Apparently the actor's Welsh and graduated from RADA, so he's probably had the official "generic British accent" course.

[I_call_the_duck]

It looks like it's gone, folks. According to this article, Fox isn't renewing after the first 13 episodes.

Edited by I_call_the_duck, 11 November 2005 - 01:36 PM.

[johnsmith45678]

There's an unseen episode here:
http://www.myspace.c...henconfidential

Female chef joins the kitchen, vegan comes in to eat.

[MHarney]

There's an unseen episode here:
http://www.myspace.c...henconfidential

T'huh...a day or two after cancellation, an episode that actually made me laugh.

Oh, well. C'est la mort.

[Kevin72]

It looks like it's gone, folks.  According to this article, Fox isn't renewing after the first 13 episodes.

Along with Arrested Development .

I think both will be returned at some point to burn off the remaining eps but what I've read so far doesn't indicate when. Look for them in July, I guess.

[tan319]

It looks like it's gone, folks.  According to this article, Fox isn't renewing after the first 13 episodes.

They should have bleeped the obscenities instead of laming them up.
The first time I heard "mothersnapper" I switched it off.

[I_call_the_duck]

They should have bleeped the obscenities instead of laming them up.
The first time I heard "mothersnapper" I switched it off.

Is that how they handled the obscenities?! Yeesh. I could barely get through the first episode it was so not funny.

[kellycolorado]

They are supposed to be airing Arrested Development and then the "French Chef" episode of KC tonight but our FOX affiliate is just showing another episode of Prison Break instead. I'm confused. It looks like all the episodes will be shown on the FX channel on Sunday Nov. 27th though... Time to set the DVR.

[johnsmith45678]

New episode out:
http://www.fox.com/k...caps/epi_04.htm

[aser]

saw it last night, it seems to have gotten more slapsticky than previous eps. That french accent was something terrible though, but then again I suppose it was meant to be a farce.

[johnsmith45678]

Appears Fox removed KC from their web site. Wonder what'll happen to episodes 5-9.

[Human Bean]

...An ancient thread momentarily rises from the depths...

KC was recently released on DVD.

I've just watched all 13 episodes, and it's not bad. It's not great, and doesn't even attempt to represent the book, but on it's own terms, it's quite enjoyable.

They didn't come close to running out of ideas, and the 13 episodes have nice arcs to the characters; a commentary track on the last episode hints at where they might have gone had there been another season.

If you get the chance, give it a try; it's far from the worst restaurant-oriented comedy ever on US TV (the worst restaurant-related US comedy would be season 1 of of 'The Restaurant' w/ Rocco DiSpirito, IMO.)

(BTW, my all-time favorite restaurant-related comedy is BBC's Chef! (seasons 1 and 2) for it's extremely sarcastic and abusive English humor).



Edit: fix punctuation

Edited by Human Bean, 11 June 2007 - 01:27 PM.

[Atomic Lunch]

I've been watching the DVDs and they are really funny. It's hard to know why Fox does this: cancel shows before they even get a chance to develop traction. This was a really good show, though. There was an unaired episode (nine unaired in total on this set) called Rabbit Test that had me laughing until I cried.

I think one of the things that really worked against this series was how it was presented. I've seen it a dozen times on this board alone: "It doesn't have much to do with the book." If you forget the book and just watch it as a TV series, it's great. If you watch it with book in hand, like a kid at a Harry Potter movie, listing the disparities, you'll be so busy you'll never see the really good writing.

You either love Bourdain or you're disgusted by him. This show on the one hand had his fans pissed off that it wasn't more true to the book. On the other hand, the girl I watched the DVD with said "he's not going to eat the head off of a live sewer rat, is he?"

They should have changed the name of the series, bumped up Bourdain's title so that they could prominantly feature it in the opening credits and promos. But then Fox might have cancelled it after six episodes rather than just four.

Why would anyone even take a series to Fox anymore?

[blackbox]

*snip*

(BTW, my all-time favorite restaurant-related comedy is BBC's Chef! (seasons 1 and 2) for it's extremely sarcastic and abusive English humor).

I'll have to check that out- extreme sarcasm and skinbristling rudeness with a stiff upper lip; sounds delightful. ;)

Is it on BBC amer, or on DVD now?
Tks!

[LittleChef22]

I'd like to check this show out!

[Ted Fairhead]

"Chef!" seasons 1,2, and 3, are on DVD. Neflix lists them. Very very funny and Lenny Henry as Gareth Blackstone, an irascible chef with staff problems is totally believable. One imagines Tony Bourdain was sitting on the shoulders of the writers whispering in their ears. Season 3 did drop in quality so I suppose that is why it did not continue.
BTW, I did rent "Kitchen Confidential", both discs and we found them funny and very watchable. Perhaps a little lightweight but deserving of a place on the otherwise dreadful schedule of Tv fare.

[chuchelo]

For those who still want to see this show, it's available at www.hulu.com.

[6ppc]

For those who still want to see this show, it's available at www.hulu.com.

and it is funny. Watched it over the last couple days and found it to be enjoyable.

[Hopleaf]

I just watched all 13 episodes on hulu and I found the show to be entertaining enough. nothing whatsoever like the book, but a decent enough show. ninety percent of what went on in the kitchen was complete farce. But I was constantly thinking that Bourdain is either doing a great job of keeping his mouth shut about what a debacle FOX made of his book or he's just enjoying cashing the check.

At any rate, there's a show on hulu that I really enjoyed that the BBC put out called Whites. It also met the same fate as KC, but it was lightyears better. Check it out.

[Broken English]

I downloaded the season a few months back, it's enjoyable if I forget that I work in a kitchen, but it is oh so cheesy.

The few lines from the book they used made me cringe (most notably the whole 'work clean' thing). The whole waiter's eating scene was highly realistic though, in my experience anyway haha.

Edited by Broken English, 21 December 2011 - 10:58 PM.