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Guest Post - Gordon Ramsey Cooks Live

Hugh
2008-10-31 17:30:00 UTC

Occasionally we get comments so great we decide to repost them. And this is one (indeed, the first) of those occasions.

For those who didn’t know, Gordon Ramsey recently did a live show on Channel 4 in the UK entitled Cookalong with Gordon Ramsey. Apparently, you were supposed to be able to follow along cooking with the great chef as he cooked a gourmet meal – and at the end, you’d have done it too!

Viewer Amanda wasn’t impressed…

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I’m very much looking forward to the KKC ‘normal person’ against Gordon Ramsey segment, having watched the car-crash that was Gordon Ramsey’s Cookalong Live’ last week. (Friday Night, Channel 4)

It was absolutely awful television. For a man that protests to hate ‘celeb chefs’, he’s currently wearing the crown of ‘Most annoying’ of their kind. The format is supposed to be simple – check the Radio Times listing magazine or the web site for the ingredients, somehow manoeuvre your tv into your kitchen, and cook a three course meal live alongside Ramsey. During the course of the hour, he’ll cut to ordinary people cooking via the wonder of web cams, and sprinkle through some segments criticising other celeb chefs along the way.

And of course, to prove that anyone can do it, a celeb of the week will be cooking alongside him in the kitchen.

In reality, he failed to give anything approximating proper instruction, he insulted or ignored his celeb (Patsy Kensit) to the point that she just looked upset and angry, and she totally failed to be able to cook the dishes. And that’s when she’s standing next to Ramsey! I actively found it unpleasant to watch, while his studio audience were reduced to nervous giggles.

When he did, infrequently, cut to his ‘people at home’ cooking along, most of them were cocking it up too.

What instructions there were, were delivered at break-neck pace with little hope of anyone with a fear of cookery being able to keep up. Things like scoring the pastry on the main course were completed, and then followed up with instructions on how not to do it. Each section finished with a useful summary of how to make the recipe, something that would have been much better placed at the beginning of each course to give a vague hope of following proceedings.

‘Gordon proves that everyone across the nation can prepare and enjoy a three course home-made meal’, proclaims the website. Bollocks. I can’t see anything more designed to turn people off cooking than being made to feel like a useless idiot.

His segments criticising other celeb chefs – this week, St Delia of Smith – were also pretty patronising. So, he crashes her cookery school in a (rubbish) disguise, which comedian John Thomson in tow. He didn’t actually critique her course – it was just a cheap shot.

For a man with as many television shows and franchises as he has, (and with a wife who’s a cash in cookery book queen) he should think a little more before casting stones at others!

There’s another five weeks of this kitchen nightmare ahead. Jamie Oliver might be a mockney prat, but at least he seems to be interested in the people he’s helping to cook. I know which one I’d rather have try to teach me anyway…
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Now may be a good time to mention that we’re testing a Gordon Ramsey recipe in a few weeks – and we won’t be going easy on him…

Did you see the Cookalong? What did you think?

Comments

Dougal Stanton \| 2008-11-01 12:47:10 UTC The episode mentioned here was the first time I’d seen Gordon Ramsay on TV in capacity as a chef rather than as a ball of fury. I’d never seen him present before and I was pleasantly surprised. The only part that I found irritating was the interlude where he dressed up in latex, Mission Impossible-style, and tried to sneak onto celebrity-chef cooking courses. And the only reason I did find this annoying was because they obviously weren’t interested in evaluating the courses - the same thing done across a wider range of courses would have been quite interesting, but they only looked at two. And one of them he was busted from the outset. It was useful to see that the chef who busted him (sorry, don’t know names) was obviously meeting with and teaching his own class. The Delia course looked well rubbish in comparison — large and corporate. (Also the brief snippet with the acting teachers trying to change Ramsay’s body language was utterly fascinating. More of this would have been awesome, even though it’s got fuck-all to do with cooking.) Anyway, I’m getting off the point here. Back to the in-studio cooking. I disagree that the instructions were unclear, and I think the reviewer must have been watching a totally different Patsy Kensit from us. I distinctly remember Ramsay repeating instructions three times because Kensit would interrupt each time while he was trying to explain something fairly intricate and essential to the final dish. She, by comparison, twice attempted to start a food fight and went most of the show accusing Gordon Ramsay of having sabotaged her kitchen gear. I mean, WTF? One large criticism I would level at the show would be the pre-advert recaps (pre-recorded cut scenes), which often contradicted Gordon Ramsay’s own instructions. At one point he says to use the back (blunt) edge of a knife to score the top of the pastry. The recap video clearly showed this being done with the sharp edge. Considering he mentioned the “blunt edge” thing two or three times as he did it, adding explanation as well (“so as not to cut all the way through”) it seemed a pretty gross oversight to then immediately contradict this instruction. I can’t imagine anyone watching at home didn’t do a double-take at that point. Like I said at the start, this is the first time I’ve seen Ramsay cooking rather than criticising badly-run kitchens or any of the other things he’s done on TV. I hadn’t ever realised how uncontrollably energetic he was. It seemed like he did the whole hour of the show on the balls of his feet. It was very exciting to watch and I wouldn’t be afraid to try out the recipe they showed, Salmon en Croute.
Hugh \| 2008-11-01 15:55:20 UTC I’m strongly considering doing a “KKCook Live” webcast (and probably then edited mini-episode) with us attempting to follow along with Gordon. Sound interesting to people?
SpudTater \| 2008-11-04 15:56:42 UTC Hugh: if possible, I’d like to see each of you try the Gordon cook-along individually, and see who does it best. Competitiveness is funny.
Amanda \| 2008-11-04 19:11:21 UTC I’ll second SpudTater’s suggestion.
Amanda \| 2008-11-04 19:11:33 UTC Dougal – I wasn’t on my own with with views on Patsy and Gordon. I heard similar opinions the following day at work, and my husband also thought the same when watching. Yes, she is annoying. I wouldn’t have wanted her near me with a sharp knife either, but he was just so disinterested in her from the get-go, that I could actually share her frustration. Better not to have had her there at all than just ignore her. Perhaps just a format issue. I really didn’t enjoy it, at the end of the day, so haven’t bothered tuning into see the next episode. Which, given I’ve watched pretty much everything Ramsay has been on since Boiling Point, says a lot.
Hugh \| 2008-11-04 19:18:35 UTC Spud, Amanda – great idea. I’ll talk to the lads and see what we can come up with.
Dougal Stanton \| 2008-11-05 14:02:53 UTC Interesting Amanda, but I thought the idea of the celebrity there was that they didn’t really get any more help than the people trying it at home. None of us have our own private Gordon Ramsay to quiz. But then, I’ve never seen the format before so it may have been a one-off. Maybe other occasions he tutors the celebrity more.
Amanda \| 2008-11-05 19:40:54 UTC Then it was definitely a fail – mostly she just made a mess. Maybe she’s just useless, but my point was that if she couldn’t manage it standing next to the man, what hope had anyone who was an inexperienced cook – which seemed to be his target audience. I look forward to seeing three more experienced cooks try it out for real on KKC, and keeping to the receipe and to time.

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Dougal Stanton \| 2008-11-01 12:47:10 UTC The episode mentioned here was the first time I’d seen Gordon Ramsay on TV in capacity as a chef rather than as a ball of fury. I’d never seen him present before and I was pleasantly surprised. The only part that I found irritating was the interlude where he dressed up in latex, Mission Impossible-style, and tried to sneak onto celebrity-chef cooking courses. And the only reason I did find this annoying was because they obviously weren’t interested in evaluating the courses - the same thing done across a wider range of courses would have been quite interesting, but they only looked at two. And one of them he was busted from the outset. It was useful to see that the chef who busted him (sorry, don’t know names) was obviously meeting with and teaching his own class. The Delia course looked well rubbish in comparison — large and corporate. (Also the brief snippet with the acting teachers trying to change Ramsay’s body language was utterly fascinating. More of this would have been awesome, even though it’s got fuck-all to do with cooking.) Anyway, I’m getting off the point here. Back to the in-studio cooking. I disagree that the instructions were unclear, and I think the reviewer must have been watching a totally different Patsy Kensit from us. I distinctly remember Ramsay repeating instructions three times because Kensit would interrupt each time while he was trying to explain something fairly intricate and essential to the final dish. She, by comparison, twice attempted to start a food fight and went most of the show accusing Gordon Ramsay of having sabotaged her kitchen gear. I mean, WTF? One large criticism I would level at the show would be the pre-advert recaps (pre-recorded cut scenes), which often contradicted Gordon Ramsay’s own instructions. At one point he says to use the back (blunt) edge of a knife to score the top of the pastry. The recap video clearly showed this being done with the sharp edge. Considering he mentioned the “blunt edge” thing two or three times as he did it, adding explanation as well (“so as not to cut all the way through”) it seemed a pretty gross oversight to then immediately contradict this instruction. I can’t imagine anyone watching at home didn’t do a double-take at that point. Like I said at the start, this is the first time I’ve seen Ramsay cooking rather than criticising badly-run kitchens or any of the other things he’s done on TV. I hadn’t ever realised how uncontrollably energetic he was. It seemed like he did the whole hour of the show on the balls of his feet. It was very exciting to watch and I wouldn’t be afraid to try out the recipe they showed, Salmon en Croute.
Hugh \| 2008-11-01 15:55:20 UTC I’m strongly considering doing a “KKCook Live” webcast (and probably then edited mini-episode) with us attempting to follow along with Gordon. Sound interesting to people?
SpudTater \| 2008-11-04 15:56:42 UTC Hugh: if possible, I’d like to see each of you try the Gordon cook-along individually, and see who does it best. Competitiveness is funny.
Amanda \| 2008-11-04 19:11:21 UTC I’ll second SpudTater’s suggestion.
Amanda \| 2008-11-04 19:11:33 UTC Dougal – I wasn’t on my own with with views on Patsy and Gordon. I heard similar opinions the following day at work, and my husband also thought the same when watching. Yes, she is annoying. I wouldn’t have wanted her near me with a sharp knife either, but he was just so disinterested in her from the get-go, that I could actually share her frustration. Better not to have had her there at all than just ignore her. Perhaps just a format issue. I really didn’t enjoy it, at the end of the day, so haven’t bothered tuning into see the next episode. Which, given I’ve watched pretty much everything Ramsay has been on since Boiling Point, says a lot.
Hugh \| 2008-11-04 19:18:35 UTC Spud, Amanda – great idea. I’ll talk to the lads and see what we can come up with.
Dougal Stanton \| 2008-11-05 14:02:53 UTC Interesting Amanda, but I thought the idea of the celebrity there was that they didn’t really get any more help than the people trying it at home. None of us have our own private Gordon Ramsay to quiz. But then, I’ve never seen the format before so it may have been a one-off. Maybe other occasions he tutors the celebrity more.
Amanda \| 2008-11-05 19:40:54 UTC Then it was definitely a fail – mostly she just made a mess. Maybe she’s just useless, but my point was that if she couldn’t manage it standing next to the man, what hope had anyone who was an inexperienced cook – which seemed to be his target audience. I look forward to seeing three more experienced cooks try it out for real on KKC, and keeping to the receipe and to time.