Kitchen Confidential TV Show on FOX

[ronnie_suburban]

I just read--perhaps in AOL Entertainment?--that this show has been yanked.

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Scroll up. That story originally came from the NYT which printed a correction the next day. Still, the outlook isn't too bright.

=R=

[Mimi Sheraton]

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?

[lesfen]

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?

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The public? Like, the general public? I'm not really sure that they cared in the first place.

[Annie Girl]

Sorry to be a cynic. I loved the book, "Kitchen Confidential", but I lost faith in Bourdain when he went "commercial" with all the TV shows and celebrity showings. I think he is old news and it is time to move on. Baffles me why he still has so many loyal fans!

[chefboy24]

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?

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as a line cook, i love it. it makes us more valuable. it makes americans more interested in restaurants and restaurant food. it might make cooking seem like a more respectable profession (and it has come a long way since the 70's), and there will be more young american boys and girls who will persue serious cooking, and as a result our cuisine and restaurants will get better and better.

at least i hope.

are you the real Mimi Sheraton? what an honor that you grace egullet with your postings. (sorry I'm a bit new here)

[chefboy24]

Sorry to be a cynic.  I loved the book, "Kitchen Confidential",  but I lost faith in Bourdain when he went "commercial" with all the TV shows and celebrity showings.  I think he is old news and it is time to move on.  Baffles me why he still has so many loyal fans!

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because he wrote kitchen confidential.

because he wrote the les halles cookbook (i have never read such a hillarious cookbook anywhere, let alone a hilarious cookbook about french bistro classics) i mean the cookbook gets me cracking up, laughing out loud, his personality comes through in what would ordinarily be the most mundane instructions on how to make stock or french onion soup)

because he is a chef's chef, not the people's chef.

because he is inteligent, has relevant things to say, and isn't affraid to say them.

because he points out things that should be said (that CIA is now a place where rich mommy and daddy's send their children, about trends of food, about phonies, and BS)

surely have something more interesting to say then "he is a sellout."

Edited October 6, 2005 by chefboy24 (log)

[Siren]

maybe showtime or hbo or something could pick this up, make it an hour and raunch it up nice and proper... like it's expected to be...

[tetsujustin]

Sorry to be a cynic.  I loved the book, "Kitchen Confidential",  but I lost faith in Bourdain when he went "commercial" with all the TV shows and celebrity showings.  I think he is old news and it is time to move on.  Baffles me why he still has so many loyal fans!

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because he points out things that should be said (that CIA is now a place where rich mommy and daddy's send their children, about trends of food, about phonies, and BS)

surely have something more interesting to say then "he is a sellout."

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I'm going to have to disagree with your CIA comment. There are a lot of serious students there looking to actually make an impact in the industry. Just because you're not the biggest fan of the current trends doesn't mean they're not relevant, and I and you as well should have known a lot of people that were just scratching and scrapping their way through school.

As for the "sellout" comments. It's interesting to see how Bourdain even makes fun of himself about how he goes in to expedite, and how his hands have become soft writer hands (I do believe he took a shot at Ruhlman after that comment), unhardened from his days as a cook. So in essence you could be correct in him saying "he sold out," but then you're missing the point. As a cook and chef Bourdain was pretty damn good. Les Halles would be a place I would think of whenever I'm in the mood for homestyle French food, but I believe his impact on the industry has been a lot more due to the exposure of our industry and the goings on and the food. Besides as you get older, you need to get the hell off the line for your own sake. I don't want to be slapping pans down in my middle age (for the sake of my bank account, if nothing) I believe it's a natural progression for any cook to look to another line of work that has to do with food. Some become hands-off exec. chefs, some consult, Bourdain as extraordinary storytelling and writing skills, and he's using them to his benefit.

What's wrong with a TV show where he takes us into other lands to show native foods? What's wrong with someone buying your script to make a television show? What's wrong with signing a book that you wrote?

If that's selling out, then I'm all for it.

Back to the television show though. As much as I disliked the first two episodes, I actually took a liking to this last one. It mixed in a good amount of foodie quality that exposes restaurant kitchens, with some slapstick humor, with some actual feeling and expression.

All I was wondering was what the hell was Jack Bourdain's chef thinking when he gave away a glass of "'62 Lafite-Rothschild," much less leaving half the bottle sitting on the table (then eating a hotdog.) haha. I agree with the comment about one of the premium channels picking this up. Kitchen Confidential (the book) wasn't made for regular cable.

[kellycolorado]

I liked the last episode the best like some others. More foodies references and food shots. I don't need laugh out loud funny personally... I can't wait for the show with Michael Vartan- old Alias co-stars back together. I hope he speaks lots of french since he's fluent. They could make this episode pretty amusing with american/french chef rivalries.

[sapient]

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

NY Daily News

[lesfen]

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

NY Daily News

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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?

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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 October 10, 2005 by aser (log)

[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.

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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 November 11, 2005 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[johnsmith45678]

There's an unseen episode here:

http://www.myspace.com/kitchenconfidential

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

[MHarney]

There's an unseen episode here:

http://www.myspace.com/kitchenconfidential

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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/kitchen/recaps/epi_04.htm