Kitchen Nightmares is good TV, but I can understand why it’s not as popular as competition cooking. Hell’s Kitchen will always top the list for American audiences. It’s reality TV with the boss you never imagined could exist.

I don’t doubt that Ramsay has a temper and that he has an humongous ego, but when you watch Kitchen Nightmares you do see another side of him. He’s brutally honest with all of the restaurant owners and staff, but speaks softly in comparison to his outbursts on HK. I’ve always suspected that Chef Ramsay yells at the HK competitors to fine tune them through stress as well as keep a captive TV audience. Some viewers watch him because they think he’s a bastard. I think he’s a bastard with a purpose.

Going back to Kitchen Nightmares, if you watch the episode where he visits “Finn McCool’s,” a hometown family-owned Irish Pub, something happens that I’ve never seen in any of the episodes: he throws up. 

I’ve seen him spit out food before, but this was wretching. He ran to the bathroom and unless they added sound effects he was sick. What he ate was the Shepherd’s Pie, and it was not good. If you’re serving Gordon Ramsay you should anticipate him tearing your cooking apart–but making him throw up. That’s embarrassing.

Surprisingly, Ramsay didn’t come back out of the bathroom cursing his head off. He kept his cool and proceeded to steer the family in the right direction to turn their pub around. And he taught the cocky young chef who needed a good kick in the ass, how to make a real shepherd’s pie. It brings a tear to the eye. 

I’m not sure a lot of people don’t understand genius, because it has a temper. They take offense instead of paying attention. Genius demands perfection to the point of being unrealistic. I’m not a cook, but I would choose Chef Gordon Ramsay as a boss in whatever profession I was working in because while you’re going to be shouted at for mistakes, you’ll also be rewarded when you come out of the fire. You will end up being better at your career and better equipped to survive the brutal competition of the job market. I’ve had too many bosses who had no pride and never really “led” their employees. They settled for mediocrity.

I would have to say I’m guilty of mediocrity too. HK and Kitchen Nightmares have inspired me to do better… but after I make myself a sandwich–a damn near perfect sandwich!

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