Hell's Kitchen Fishing For Real Talent

17 September, 2009

What’s that old saying? Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Try to teach a man to fish and you’ll end up beating the living cr*% out of him with the fishing pole... ? Something like that. The sentiment reminds me of Gordon Ramsey’s nurturing management style on his multiple-season hit telelvison program, ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’

It’s not Ramsey’s job, or mission, to teach any of the show’s contestants how to cook. They are supposed to be, on some level, an accomplished or at least promising chef by the time they set foot on the set. The purpose of the popular reality show, with airs on Fox network, Tuesday evenings, is to determine which chef has the best cooking skills, utmost creativity, stellar supervisory abilities and a talent for thinking on their capable, self-sufficient feet.

Any needy, lazy, incapable cooks who wander into the cast looking for a hand-holding schooling session from Chef Ramsey are in for a bit of an educational awakening. They should have learned to fish before they got there.