rose_ayn

If he seriously wants to sell a cookbook he'd better hurry up and ride the coat tails of Hell's Kitchen. If those sample pages are complete thoughts and not notes to self - well it won't sell, not without a profound amount of editing. "Worst cases of narcissism" is an understatement. And why the hell did he link to Ramsay's site for the biography of the man? Of course then I'd respect it an ounce if he'd done that.

Perhaps the customer ratings would have been different if the customers weren't paid. Everyone who ate at Hell's Kitchen was paid to appear on the program and signed non-disclosure contracts before sitting down. Michael's customers in the finale were probably paid because Ralph's customers were flown in from NY. The London offer was totally scripted. I don't think Ramsay will do it again here seeing that he's refused to do another season of Hell's Kitchen in England. I remember seeing Bourdain's name attached to this one time long ago. It may have just been someone's wishful thinking, but I do know that the first time I saw an article about this is was Bourdain not Ramsay as the host.

I must be one suspicious little brat. I never believed Fox would actually give a restaurant to the winner. From the first episode I believed that there was a back-up plan as a prize, espeically considering a couple of these contestanst had no cooking experience. The restaurant was the lure to enter the contest but buried someplace on page 48 of the contract was a clause stating the Fox had the right to change the prize.

Although the review may not have been a glowing rave, I came away thinking she liked it - inside jokes and all. You do have to "know" Bourdain to get it a little but the last couple lines of the review summed up the show perfectly. It's about a mind-set that's beyond the doing what's right and proper. It's about having fun and enjoying life. About living outside the safety bubble and getting your hands dirty. I know where I'm going to be on Monday nights.

I LOVE the sours, whoever came up with those is my personal hero. After that, well, cherry is a high favorite but most of the fruit flavors are good. I forgot they had cream soda. I may have to try that one again. I love real cream soda and the cream soda flavored Dum-Dums. Yup, I'm a weird nut.

Saw the commercial for it last night and well - I'll have to wait and see. Sometimes shows getting better a couple of episodes in. Also maybe the more commericals I see the more I'll like it. I figure we'll be seeing it advertised for the remainer of the "Hell's Kitchen" run. I'm in no was expecting this to represent Bourdain. His book, his idea, his last name on the character and I suspect that's where the connection ends. As for Ausiello, well not a bad source (especially for Tv Guide) but not my favorite either. Like most tv insider/gossip writers their writing is colored for dramatic effect.

You've made my week already. Thanks for letting us know. I'm writing it down so I won't forget - like I seem to do with way too much lately.

Completely different circumstances at play here. In "Kitchen Nightmares" he's trying to help people get their restaurants to make more money. Many of the owners are near closing up shop, but are running restaurants. They knew enough about the business to start a restaurant of their own. Their sucess or failure doesn't reflect upon Gordon Ramsay's reputation one ounce. In the American "Hell's Kitchen" some of the contestants work in a kitchen - not all of them though. But these people are trying to win a restaurant of their own despite the lack of any restaurant experience. The premise here is Ramsay's training them and therefore his reputation is more on the line.

And that's the problem. Same problem with most reality programs. They hold so tightly to the Survivor model that it ruins them. This program would be so much better if they just let Ramsay kick out who he thinks is doing the worst. This picking two teammates is going to create such unnecessary drama. Perhaps if they let the players bond in their misery they'd work better in the kitchen instead of back stabbing each other.

"Hell's Kitchen" is a little more original, Ramsay did it in England about a year ago. Personally I would have preferred they copy the original a little more. But then again I'm a brat and would have enjoyed watching Ramsay make D-list celebrities cry. I completely expect the American version to be heavy on the cheese factor. Wonder if any of the contestants will try to form alliances? They always try that, no matter show, no matter how stupid it seems. Anyway. I'm enjoying "Cooking Under Fire" even if my local PBS started this show two weeks later than everyone else. I do agree that it needs to be longer. Half hour may have been easier to sell but it's not really allowing us to care about the contestants much because we're not seeing them enough.

We don't have a local Target but I prefer to drive the 45 miles to the nearest Target than shop at Wal-Mart for ALL the reasons you mentioned. What's even more terrifying is that our dirty and dark Wal-Mart is about to become a Superstore. God help us all. We'll lose at least one grocery store because of it I have no doubt. You couldn't pay me to shop at our Wal-Mart now, but I won't shop for food there - ever. Just the thought of it makes my skin crawl.

You found little packages of these? Wow. I bought a large bag of the darks, because, well it's dark chocolate. Didn't realize the Shrek ones were dark, just thought they were bigger - teach me not to buy novelty M&M's. Of course I could probably bypass the packaging all together next time. My local Wegmans has the Star Wars M&M's in bulk at the moment, or at least they did a couple weeks back. Wonder how much begging it would take for them to offer dark M&M's on a regular basis? I miss the Royals, they were so much better.

Staying in one of the rooms so the food wouldn't leave the property was pretty funny too. My favorite bit was trying to get the lamb chop secret out of Luke, even as he's about to fall asleep he wouldn't give it up.

The difference is the critic made those statements in a public forum i.e. the newspaper where as Ramsay's statements generally don't leave the kitchen. Those statements by Ramsay wouldn't have left the kitchen if it hadn't been for the film crew. I would much rather take the abuse to my face in private than have it printed for the world to see.

An old favorite for me is definitely grilled cheese in whatever soup I'm having, tomato works best. Comfort food - I think I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow. Another odd one I haven't done in years is Fritos in milk and yes I would drink the salty milk after as long as it wasn't too warm.

Perhaps he has given up on the idea (at least for now) of working a restaurant. I've seen in a couple of media sources where DiSpirtio has been shopping around a daytime talk/cook show for syndication.

Wait, are you in America? If so, which channel? I really want to see this. Last night "Entertainment Tonight" did a little feature on the show. They decided to compare him to Simon Cowell from "American Idol." It's doesn't look like it's running anyplace here in the states. They did mention his next project "Hell's Kitchen" all be it briefly.

Beef on Wick (Kummelwick) is a local Buffalo sandwich. That Cornell chicken bbq sauce is amazing. I'm the third generation to use that little beauty. Now if I could just stop scrambling the egg in it. I guess I'll just have to make it more often. It makes an amazing marinade.

Peeps are very cool, especially if they've been aged a couple of days. Much more than that and they are doorstops and not worth the eating. I did just discover how wonderful peeps are if they've been salted. Specifically if they've been rolled in a can of peanuts. A perfect sweet/salt snack. Anybody ever have the courage to try the gingerbread men things Just Born puts out at Christmas? Marshmallow-gingerbread, I'm just not sure?