The Ramsey TV Empire

[TinkerbellAPixie]

Hell's Kitchen
I got hooked on Gordon Ramsey when I watched that first season of Hell's Kitchen and he was so tender with that little mom of 6 (who's name escapes me).

My infatuation increased during season 2 when I saw him stand up for Virginia when K-dawg was sullying her honor. But heck - that's just how the dawg rolls.

Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares
Then I found Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on BBCAmerica - a show where Gordon goes to failing restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. He spends a week with them giving them tips, changing their menu, decor, processes and then he comes back a month later to see how they are doing. For the most part the restaurants did better with his changes. Some were too far gone financially to turn the ship around. But he was so caring (yet gruff) with these people.

Gordon Ramsey's "F" Word
On to my favorite - Gordon Ramsey's F Word. This show is a hodge podge of stuff - You see him in his restaurant each week with a new staff of 4 in the kitchen. If any of the guests don't like the food coming out of the kitchen they don't have to pay. This is on a course-by-course basis. The team that does best overall will get to work with him.

The show has other parts - he has food critics and experts that go off with a camera crew to show some of the English grown cuisine or food that is not being eaten but should be.

He has a pledge to get people cooking again so each week he goes home with a woman to help her learn how to cook Sunday dinner.

He usually has celebrity guests in the dining room and he flirts shamelessly with all of the women.

And he also shows himself at home with his darling wife and 4 little kids. Seeing Gordon the dad really makes you love him.

Beyond Boiling Point
This show just started last weekend with a marathon of about 6 episodes. These were filmed back in 1999/2000 and Gordon looks so much younger. He is an up and coming chef in England trying to earn 3 Michelin Stars (the Lombardi Trophy in the Chef world) and dealing with the bad press for his personality in the kitchen. You get to see an entirely other side of him.

I think I'm officially obsessed with this man - is that wrong?

If you get a chance to watch any or all of these shows - I highly advise it. You will not be disappointed.

[giffordsaz]

I wish I could view these shows... the BBC is not available to me on my limited cable or 70 some stations. I do like Ramsey and understand you infatuation... but then again you have a bend towards all things Brit do you not?

[lbs30]

Tink - I don't remember her name either - but she was a good home-style cook right?

I started watching ep 1 of Hell's kitchen.

I've watched Kitchen Nightmares - just cause I saw his name on the description. Nothing like HK at all!

[elvisgrr]

I love Gordon Ramsey, too! The F-Word is fun to watch, I especially enjoy the opening credits as he walks and strips off his street clothes. S-S-S-Sexy. I couldn't believe it when he brought home those turkeys to raise for Thanksgiving dinner. He wanted his kids to know where food comes from, but I think I would start with growing some corn or something...

Can't wait to check out the "new show" on BBC. Thanks for the tip, Tink.

[TinkerbellAPixie]

OMG I agree - when he pulls off that tie and the exactly matching shirt....purr... I've told my boyfriend I want to get him a striped shirt/tie and a long hallway. ;)

Did you see this season with the pigs? It was heartbreaking watching him take them to the slaughterhouse. :(

[Ryabusa]

I just brought these shows up in the Hell's Kitchen thread. I think Kitchen Nightmares is my favorite though. There is something awesome about the way he is so completely and utterly offended by how poorly people run their businesses that never ceases to amuse me.

I've tried some of the recipes he's done on The F-Word and they've come out brilliantly.

Has anyone else heard of an American version of Kitchen Nightmares? I'd hate to think I made that up.

[Ryabusa]

I got off my ass, googled and found this (sorry if its been previously discussed):

Fox announces Gordon Ramsay's 'Kitchen Nightmares' will air this fall

Fox has announced that Kitchen Nightmares, a previously announced new reality series that will follow sharp-tongued British Hell's Kitchen chef Gordon Ramsay as he travels across America and helps restaurants in crisis, will air as part of the network's Fall 2007 primetime programming schedule.

Each one-hour Kitchen Nightmares episode will see Ramsay visit a different struggling American food establishment. After arriving at the restaurant in crisis, Ramsay will motivate the owners and bully the kitchen's brigade in an attempt to reverse the fortunes of each struggling restaurant in just one week. Whether he'll save them from their current nightmare or just create a new one will depend on how the establishment's lazy cooks and moody wait staff respond.

Unfortunately for Ramsay, Fox will air Kitchen Nightmares in the most competitive time period on broadcast television -- the Thursdays at 9PM ET/PT time period where CBS and ABC's top-rated CSI and Grey's Anatomy dramas already air. Kitchen Nightmares will have one thing going for it -- Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, the new Mark Burnett game show that has enjoyed some ratings success in its current Thursdays at 8PM ET/PT time period, will remain in the same time period this fall and serve as Kitchen Nightmares' lead-in.

Kitchen Nightmares, first announced in early January, is an American adaptation of the Hell's Kitchen star's British Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares reality series. The series -- which mixes Ramsay's fiery passion with a softer, nurturing side -- made its British premiere in April 2004 and has since won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best Feature at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005 as well as the 2006 International Emmy for best non-scripted entertainment.

[Pinky]

Has anyone else heard of an American version of Kitchen Nightmares? I'd hate to think I made that up.

I heard this also. I think I heard it would start in the fall. I can't wait. I wish they would put it on HBO so they could show Gordon full frontal instead of just changing his shirt.