Hell's Kitchen: Waiter, what's this in my salad?
A Hell's Kitchen diner found "something" unrecognizable in a salad, and it was sent back to the kitchen. All that drama, wait until after the commercial, and what the diner didn't recognize was the core of the lettuce.
Much was made of this. Ramsey said that it would be better to serve an undercooked or overcooked steak, because that could be sent back to the kitchen and cooked correctly, but the diner wouldn't be able to forgive this salad atrocity.
I agree that you don't want to find a lettuce core in your salad, but it's not like finding an eggshell or a toothpick or some other nonfood in there. I think if I found a lettuce core, I'd just push it off to the side and not eat it. I certainly wouldn't need to ask the waiter what it was. I doubt I'd send it back, unless it was the icky and unclean end of the lettuce.
So am I just undersensitive to kitchen errors, or was this a lot of fuss over something wrong but not traumatic?
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12 Comments:
Lots of fuss over something somewhat wrong. Sounds like a drama queen kind of thing in this case. Sigh...reality T.V. striving to hit a climax, and fails.
dhorst at 7:41AM on 03/01/09
This show makes me very nervous. I don't handle conflict well in the real world OR in forced, pseudo-dramatic encounters on reality TV.
I have wondered recently how much coaching the patrons who come in for filming on that show receive. I think I read somewhere that many of them are actors looking for work/exposure. I saw one episode, a few seasons back, where a customer got into a shouting match with GR. I think he threw her out. I cannot IMAGINE doing that, or engaging in behavior anywhere near that level of craziness, at any restaurant with any employee, much less the head chef. Makes me seriously question the authenticity of the problems with the cuisine. Wow...a scripted reality show. What's the world coming to, right?
mollykate678 at 9:40AM on 03/01/09
Yeah I thought that was a fairly minor error as well. It's not like the salad wasn't edible otherwise or had become unsafe to eat because of it. I think the guy who wiped his face with a towel and then used the towel to wipe out a pan was WAY worse than a romaine core being served. Besides, who let the food leave the kitchen like that anyways? Was it GR? I don't remember. I think you'd have to be pretty useless in a kitchen if you don't recognize the core from a head of lettuce, so that diner making such a big deal out of it was probably deliberate so she could be on camera for an extra few seconds.
joyyy at 10:55AM on 03/01/09
The "customers" are obviously actor types. I'd like to hear from one about the experience. The producers may have planted the lettuce core to stir up the drama.
One of these clowns will become exec chef at a restaurant? Please. They could not run a burger stand. I'd like to know what the winners really do at their new "jobs."
Remander at 11:03AM on 03/01/09
i agree with all of the above. it was a lettuce core, not a bandaid, or some other alien object.
people are nuts.... and this reality tv stuff has gotten totally out of control. are people really as shallow as they appear on these shows?
whenever i see these "chef" contenders performing in a kitchen i can't help but feel that i would have fired their asses out of my kitchen on the first day. what a bunch of mamby pambies.
pooch at 11:05AM on 03/01/09
I suspect that the diners are coached to be very picky about the meal, and to please tell the waiter if anything is amiss. I hadn't thought about them being actor wanna-bes, but that makes a whole lot of sense. You get a whole lot of people who have nice clothes to wear, don't mind being on camera, and who aren't going to complain if dinner gets shut off in the middle of service.
As far as the lettuce core, I doubt it was planted, because they'd be sabotaging a particular contestant, but I think it was a lot more drama than we needed for that item.
On the other hand, the dimbot doing cheers in the kitchen instead of working? What the heck was she thinking? All her co-workers are scurrying around like bees, and she's doing cheers. Huh?
dbcurrie at 12:42PM on 03/01/09
This show in question is just plain pathetic it is a total waste of time. I cant believe people tune in to see Ramsay. Yes, I must admit I was sucked in to the show at first, but now that I know pretty much all there is to know about this man I cant watch or dignify myself in giving him any of my attention. As for the contestants on the show will they respect Ramsay at the end of taping? Doubt it. Marco Pierre White put it like this " If Ramsay was made of chocolate he would eat himself."
Manaeguy at 8:23PM on 03/01/09
@manaeguy, you can't believe people watch the show, I can't believe people sink so low as to eat Twinkies.
Oh, wait, I eat Twinkies sometimes. Sink happens.
dbcurrie at 9:33PM on 03/01/09
I'll admit it - I know it's stupid, I know it's a waste of time, I know it's scripted, I know it's amped up for shock value, but I still watch it. It's entertainment, at least on some basal level. Like I said earlier, conflict makes me uncomfortable, but I still enjoy watching TV, especially after coming home from work at a mind-numbingly dull job.
Also, I really enjoy GR in his other ventures, namely Kitchen Nightmares, British version. He seems so much more normal than on HK. It's sad to me that, for whatever reason, he has to get American-TV-ized, if that makes any sense. It's a similar feeling I have toward Paula Deen and a few others on the TVFN. Watching older episodes, you see a completely different person than the character they've become.
mollykate678 at 10:33AM on 03/02/09
I like Gordon Ramsay on his British Kitchen Nightmares show. I also like him on The F Word. The character he plays on Hell's Kitchen was obviously designed by Fox - Ramsay is blunt on his other shows (if a cook's food is crap he'll say so in so many words), but he isn't really unkind. Fox must have ordered him to be a raging asshole all the time. And I guess he agreed. The money must be terrific.
minstrel at 6:35PM on 03/02/09
I cant' stand Hell's Kitchen...these guys can't cook! I watched 5 mins of one last week...all they had to do was make scrambled eggs, omelets, bacon and pancakes and they couldn't do it! If you can't make those simple things, then you really aren't qualified to be working as a professional chef, imo!
KateRuby at 1:35PM on 03/03/09
@KateRuby - wasn't that an ego boost to watch though? It made me laugh, especially since a friend who is an exec chef at a nice place has told me before that he can't do eggs or much breakfast stuff to the same quality he can cook pretty much everything else, so I made a point of cooking breakfast for him a few times when I still lived nearby.
I LOVE to cook breakfast stuff, and I would actually get a kick out of seeing more of it on cooking shows (what ones are on hulu, that is :P). Breakfast is its own little art, I think. I always feel like it's more of a treat, like savory dessert for first thing in the morning. I guess I'm kind of a breakfast nerd ... if only I pried my butt out of bed early enough on weekdays to cook a proper breakfast on a regular basis ...
joyyy at 2:10PM on 03/03/09