Gordon Ramsay - Turkey Killer!

[Richard_D]

I see Gordon Ramsay has hit the headlines again.

After keeping a few turkeys in the run up to Christmas, his latest programme showed them being electrocuted and plucked. Despite heavy warnings some people still watched it and complained. Now an investigation into the programme has been launched......

Oh dear, is it just me or is it sooo predictable? first Jamie Oliver and now Gordon Ramsay. I'm all for knowing where your food comes from but putting this on TV guarantees column inches etc.

Don't get me wrong I'm a fan of the show but a few of the items have been quite sensationalised.

What do people think of this kind of 'shock' food TV?

[BeefCheeks]

In two words: appalling and unnecessary.

I agree; I too am all for knowing where one's food comes from. However, I would not drag viewer into a slaughter house of any sort, no matter how humanely or grass-fed the animal has been raised. It's shock value for the sake of shock value, and that, simply, is that.

[shona m f pearson]

hi all - not sure I agree. If the program was labelled w warnings.... we are responsible for the demise. In chef training we went through a slaughter house. It's part of what we do. Does TV/media always have to be dumbed down to be fuzzy and sentimental - I wish not. ( I cook 'em and eat 'em... what does everyone else think ?)

[sanrensho]

Don't get me wrong I'm a fan of the show but a few of the items have been quite sensationalised.

Firstly, I haven't seen the show. However, if you're talking about media sensationalism, then I don't see how GR is to blame for that. If you're saying that GR's show deliberately played up the slaughter in a sensationalist way, then I can understand the criticism.

As long as there are appropriate warnings, I personally don't see a problem with revealing the slaughter aspect of food. I also don't have a problem with explaining to my children that meat comes from dead animals. Death is exploited in much worse ways on television, such as CSI.

Edited December 18, 2005 by sanrensho (log)

[jsolomon]

I hate to be the one to broach the topic, but since most everyone on eG knows that I am certainly not the most politically correct, tactful, or self-censored member of eG, I would like to go on the record as saying two things.

1: Showing an abattoir at work on broadcast TV is incorrect. It is, by its nature, sensationalist and ought be quashed at the highest levels with extreme prejudice.

2: I would like to see, on broadcast TV, an animal rearing/fabrication for food episode (or episodes) on some legitimate cooking shows. What does that entail? Well, something about ducks or chickens, and butchering them. Perhaps sheep. Maybe some simple fish butchering. Certainly not a whole series, but perhaps two or three shows.

Home butchering is certainly not beyond most television owners' abilities. Perhaps it is beyond some of their storage means, and beyond some of their aesthetic comfort zones. But, I find it hardly difficult than the gratuitous violence I already see on my idiot box. It certainly can't be much more graphic than the NOVA episode about childbirth.

edit: spelling bee champion's downfall

Edited December 19, 2005 by jsolomon (log)

[Grub]

When a show carries warnings about graphic content, the only reasonable response to complaints, would be to track down the complainee and give them a fucking beating.

Intellectually speaking, this on par with pissing on an electrified cow-fence, in spite of there being a big sign there, warning you not to do it -- only you don't merely urinate on the fence and make a mental note that this was a really bad idea -- oh no! You track down the farmer and complain that it's his fault that your shoes are wet, and your wiener smells like burnt rubber.

[jsolomon]

Intellectually speaking, this on par with pissing on an electrified cow-fence, in spite of there being a big sign there, warning you not to do it -- only you don't merely urinate on the fence and make a mental note that this was a really bad idea -- oh no! You track down the farmer and complain that it's his fault that your shoes are wet, and your wiener smells like burnt rubber.

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Heh. If there is a barbed wire fence with one strand that isn't twisted with barbs, and someone pisses on it in my neck of the woods... well, suffice it to say the judge would 1: throw the case out of court, and

2: cite the fool for trespassing.

And, everyone in the coffee shop would have a good chuckle over the incident for at least six months to come.

I have seen it happen.

[Richard_D]

Don't get me wrong I'm a fan of the show but a few of the items have been quite sensationalised.

Firstly, I haven't seen the show. However, if you're talking about media sensationalism, then I don't see how GR is to blame for that. If you're saying that GR's show deliberately played up the slaughter in a sensationalist way, then I can understand the criticism.

As long as there are appropriate warnings, I personally don't see a problem with revealing the slaughter aspect of food. I also don't have a problem with explaining to my children that meat comes from dead animals. Death is exploited in much worse ways on television, such as CSI.

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I was talking about the show. I was wondering if it had been done to get ratings and column inches

[Adam Balic]

GR has a great PR machine and that is a fact.

I didn't find it shocking at all, but that has to do with my background. There was no real gore and the visuals were basically of a turkey flexing it's wings.

The show had numerous weeks of build up to this moment and and during the show there were very many warnings of what was to happen. If you were going to be upset by this and still watched it you were either a fool or a masochist. I don't see what was to complain about.

What I think is disgusting is the amount of negative comments these trivial and one off events generate, while the revolting conditions that the majority of animals destined consumption live in raises hardly an eyebrow. So rather then 'I'm all for knowing about my food comes from but that is just yucky', think about that next time you buy a cheap supermarket chicken or buy your generic turkey for christmas.

According to DEFRA 23 million turkeys per year are raised in the UK, I am guessing that very few of these were raised and slaughtered in the humane conditions that The Ramsay Turkeys were exposed to, so some perspective might me in order.

[Carlovski]

Did anyone see the BBC2 documentary about life in an Abattoir?

It was called Slaughterhouse - The Task of Blood. Far more disturbing than anything done by GR or Jamie Oliver - but it was post watershed and did come with numerous warnings. Got lots of complaints though, plus led to people recieving death threats and one of the workers being sacked.

Here is a google video link - Clicky if you are interested.

As it happens I am against the Turkey incident too. However you dress it up by calling it educational, saying how much worse goes on every day, something was killed for the purpose of entertainment. It wasn't a fly on the wall documentary like the Abattoir program, it was deliberately set up, a narrow distinction maybe, but important I feel.

Or maybe I'm just wound up with the whole "Yes I am a shouting, swearing workaholic egomaniac but I still come home and spent quality (and probably organic and free range) time with my 27 kids" side to the program.

[Adam Balic]

As it happens I am against the Turkey incident too. However you dress it up by calling it educational, saying how much worse goes on every day, something was killed for the purpose of entertainment. It wasn't a fly on the wall documentary like the Abattoir program, it was deliberately set up, a narrow distinction maybe, but important I feel.

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There is truth in that, but the think that the ultimate purpose of the exercise was to eat the Turkeys and this is going to happen with or without the GR PR machine at this time of the year in the hundreds of thousands of UK households in the next few week.

These animals went through a lot less trauma then is going to true for birds and I have to say that I am in favour of increased quality of life and less transport trauma and this out weighs any anthropomorphic sense of dignity.

Whatever the issues of the GR PR for this show, the truth is that these animals experienced a much better life then the vast majority. I think that it is unexceptable that people are squeamish about this program because the are confronted with a few bold facts, but side step the issue of what the meat on there plate actually is and what quality if life it had.

It is simply not good enough to say "I am aware of the reality of the slaughter house etc, but don't want to see it on TV", then buy a generic chicken at the supermarket. It is self-interested and a bit pathetic.

[sanrensho]

I didn't find it shocking at all, but that has to do with my background. There was no real gore and the visuals were basically of a turkey flexing it's wings.

From your description, it sounds like the episode was handled fairly tastefully. Chopping heads and spurting blood/guts would have been unnecessary. However, I see nothing wrong with not glossing over how food (meat) gets to our tables.

I'm not even a vegetarian, but even kids need to realize that meat doesn't mysteriously appear on styrofoam plates and nicely wrapped in plastic. I don't agree with candy-coating over the fact that meat = animal slaughter.

[Carlovski]

Anyone watch the show on Channel 4 last night on Christmas food?

More Turkey cruelty exposed. Highlight was the most enthusiastic sprout farmer I have ever seen though!

[Patrick S]

When a show carries warnings about graphic content, the only reasonable response to complaints, would be to track down the complainee and give them a fucking beating.

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I tend to agree.

But someone's bound to ask: What about poor little Timmy, who happened to flip over to that channel at the moment of truth?

[Corinna Dunne]

After missing “Slasher Jamie in Italy” I was determined not to miss “Gordon’s Christmas Massacre”… and I invited my 5 year old to join me. “Would you like to see the turkey’s being killed?” I asked, and she said “Yes”, followed by, “Oh there’s Hugh” (meaning Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) and of course she knows Gordon well.

So we watched a very sensitive and responsible piece which showed the turkeys first being stunned, and briefly saw one getting its throat slit. Her comments were “Does the blood stay in the bag?”, “Is that the way geese get killed?”, “Oh yes, they do get hanged” and “Can I watch Gordon cooking them next week?”. She popped back off to bed, had sweet dreams and as far as I can see, is most definitely not ruined for life.

[Corinna Dunne]

Oops… forget turkey torture. Here’s the problem with the F Word… it went out after the watershed last night… and food wasn’t the only F word. Which isn’t normally a problem. Except the 5 yr old wanted to see Gordon cook the turkeys… Nigella et al (and do a bit of Hugh spotting). So I recorded it and now I have to be extra careful to fast forward at the more passionate bits, because in her little world, so far so Food and none of the late night F.

By the way, the winner of the trainee position in one of GR's restaurants is a female. And no, it wasn’t a token thing. She's called Camilla, and is clearly consumed with passion, determination and effort. Good luck to her.

Really looking forward to the next series. Now, that’s what I call entertainment!

[Daddy-A]

I was talking about the show. I was wondering if it had been done to get ratings and column inches

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Of course it was. It's on television so everything that's put on the programme is done to generate ratings. No television producer on earth says "I'm going create a show becasue I like the subject, but I don't care if anyone watches." Simply creating the show is designed for ratings.

Watching a turkey get electrocuted or watching Rachel Rae spend $40 in Paris ... obsenity is all relative isn't it?

A.

[PS]

An outbreak of common sense as Ofcom, the UK's broadcasting watchdog, in response to 57 complaints from memebrs of the public, has ruled that Ramsay and Jamie "sheepkiller" Oliver slitting a lamb's throat in his Jamie's Great Escape series treated the issue of animal slaughter in a "responsible" way and had not breached TV guidelines.

The regulator noted that it was clear that Jamie O found the killing "emotionally difficult".

Re Oliver's sheep-slaying: "There were no graphic distressing scenes and the programme sought to reflect a tradition that has been going on throughout the world, and in that particular part of Italy, for thousands of years."

Re Ramsay's turkey-topping: "While the procedure itself was shown in full, there were no unduly distressing scenes."