Winter finally got some sizzle with the copy of the BBC winner Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmare, Fox’s version names Kitchen Nightmares.
I am in a position to especially appreciate the nuances of any show that attempts to describe what goes on behind the scenes in a food-service establishment because I practically grew up in my aunt and uncle’s restaurant. This was a homey, cozy, and very successful hotel nestled on the edges of an Austrian forest. The restaurant was appropriately named Haus am Walde, which in English means House in the Woods.
My Aunt Elisabeth attended the same school as the famous Austrian-born chef, Wolfgang Puck. Puck is a Food Channel celebrity and owner of Spago — one of L.A.’s most successful restaurants, with franchise establishments in Palo Alto, Las Vegas, and Maui.
Aunt Elizabeth showed me a photo of the school where she and Wolfgang were classmates. She shared with me the amazing fact that during his education Wolfgang had been somewhat of an outsider. Other students once tied him to a chair and gave him a haircut by putting a bowl over his head and then cutting his hair around it.
My aunt also remembered that Wolfgang needed help on his finals with his Gulasch, which is a particularly Austrian specialty, my aunt told me. But she had to admit that Wolfgang showed up his classmates by leaving Austria to become one of the most successful chefs in the entire world.
My aunt never became a household name, but she was a wonderful chef and I spent much of my time hanging around her kitchen and helping her cook and waiting on customers. The experience helped me to evaluate what was going on in Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares.
The BBC has a track record of doing entertainment right and Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmare is a show worth watching. Fox took the show over the big pond to us. The show must offer an especially helpful experience for every restaurateur that would watch it.
© FOX – A bored Ramsey makes good TV
Each episode begins with an eatery that is experiencing truly nightmarish defects in cooking, service, staff, and décor and viewers are subjected to sometimes nauseating surveys of rotting food, arrogant cooks, and a kitchen in need of a makeover. The celebrated British chef, Gordon Ramsay, then comes riding into the scene like a dashing but irritated knight to the rescue.
In most cases, the show ends up providing dramatic and compelling case studies of what can happen to a business when it finds the right mix of leadership, staff, and enthusiasm.
Ramsay first appeared before the public as a 15-year-old professional soccer player. Following his career on the field he started a chain of restaurants throughout England and became the only restaurateur in the UK to own seven restaurants, each with its own Michelin star.
After making his appearance in a particular Hell’s Kitchen episode, Gordon attempts to save the languishing restaurant by communicating his own passion for creating excellent cuisine coupled with his furious disdain for sloppy conduct and slovenly standards in food preparation. He is a sometimes-harsh taskmaster who, over the course of two weeks, drives his apprentice cooks towards Michelin star excellence.
Viewers are entertained by Gordon’s assaults on everything from waiters with bad breath to chefs who believe a deep fryer to be the main tool in culinary excellence.
Gordon’s methods sometimes result in chefs quitting and owners facing a huge bill in complying with his requirements, but the reward comes as the renovations begin to result in customers beginning to fill up the formerly empty dining rooms.
In the British version Gordon returns unannounced a month later to see how the results for himself.
The devil is in the details for the success of both a restaurant and a TV show. Gordon Ramsey gets five-stars in both departs. Ramsey made his TV show exciting and left viewers feeling like he ruled the kitchen.
CTU Gone — Almeida Is Back
If you’ve been following my write ups for the past few years, you know I’m a fan of the Fox’s series 24. If you don’t know about the series, 24 is presented in real time, with each season depicting a single 24-hour period in the life of Jack Bauer, who works with the U.S. government as it fights terrorist threats on U.S. soil. The day begins and ends at 8:00 a.m.
Last season was the worst season. The Producer ignored mistakes and turned aside critical questions at the 2007 Summer Press Tour
I didn’t decide to simply stop writing about 24 because they had one bad season, because this season promises to pull out all the stops. CTU is gone, Tony Almeida (believed dead) is back.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
© FOX – Let’s hope it’s Kiefer’s last one
If you never watched an episode of 24, you can Netflix the first six seasons, but feel free to skip Season 6. Except for the fact that Jack survives, the season was pretty worthless. Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) is shown putting a full-court press in thwarting the attacks of nuclear terrorists and prevented critical technology from falling into the hands of the terrorists.
The season ended with Bauer quietly contemplating his future as the impact of the day’s gut-wrenching sacrifices and intense personal pain set in.
Bauer is often in the field for the fictional Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) as they try to safeguard the nation from terrorist threats. The show is based in Los Angeles and follows the actions of other CTU agents, government officials, and terrorists associated with the plot.
Season 7 looks wonderfully promising! As in Season 6, the Season 7 trailer premiered live on Time Square. We’ll have to wait a while to discover if the show lives up to the hype and high expectations that have been raised because the season has been delayed by the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
In a press release, Fox stated the new season was being postponed to ensure that it will be able to air uninterrupted, in its entirety.
Season 7 opens with Bauer being confronted by a new crisis being investigated by an FBI task force setting the scene for yet another shocking day of momentous events.
The action in the new show takes place three years following last season. Bauer is on trial for his actions taken in his pursuit of justice. However a national security computer is hacked causing our hero to spring into action.
Season 7 features the nation’s first female president (wink wink nudge nudge), a woman named Allison Taylor.
Tony Almeida, who ostensibly died last season, has reappeared as one seemingly risen from the dead.
Tony’s apparently redivivus appearance will be greeted with relief by a lot of the show’s old fans, but I’m not necessarily one of them. I never could see what was so special about Almeida. The acting of Carlos Bernard, who played him, has never been particularly great, but I guess since Tony was Jack’s buddy and helped him out in difficult situation he became a fan favorite.
At the 2007 Summer Press tour we were told that Jack’s going green and will fight the environmental abusers of this world.
We’ll see how all that will play out.
This should be Jack’s last season. Season 6 was a downer and this could really be his last good one, if they turn the ship around.
But than there is the movie, and how can Jack die if there is a movie?
Now about that movie….
Jack in the Box?
A 24 feature film was originally scheduled to be released in 2008. The film was officially announced in June 2006. That May Sutherland told the British newspaper, The Sun, that shooting of the film would begin in London in May 2007. Other rumors reported that the film was to begin shooting in Spring and Summer 2007 following Season Six and before the seventh season.
Filming would take place in Prague and Morocco.
But in April 2007, it was announced that plans to shoot the film have been put on hold. The creators of the film originally announced filming was not expected to start until 2008, after the seventh season is finished.
In an interview with MTV News, the show’s star Kiefer Sutherland announced that a script was in development and the film would abandon the real-time format of the show, but would still cover one 24-hour period.
In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Sutherland confessed, “Anytime we got really close to having a great idea for having a film, we needed it for episode 18. So there it went.”
In a question and answer period at Algonquin College in October 2007, director John Cassar commented on the production of the 24 feature film.
He explained that he would much prefer to use his own writers to create the script, however, with their active work on the 24 series, it would be hard for them to write for both the movie and the series. Eventually the movie will be out. I hope it turns out to live up to its potential!
