An impassioned plea to FOX

[jameshig]

to please cancel all Gordon Ramsay shows.

I am surprised that Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot are on the show. Gordon, sort of expected it, but what Bastianich is doing to his namesake is horrible! I have lost all respect for Graham, well I really didn't have much to begin with.

Ramsay's shows don't have anything to do with cooking.

Ha, just noticed that the ad next to this is for master chef.

[The Chowhound Team]

Folks we've removed a number of off topic and angry posts from this thread. Please keep your responses focused on Fox's Food related programming(or lack thereof).

[chezwhitey]

You have to remember, this show is on fox, network tv, not food network (ok bad example.) A didactic show about food preparation and techniques isn't going to sell to joe plumber. The show is meant for people interested in drama, not chef's and experienced cooks. I have no problem with what they are doing. The key is to set your expectation level accordingly and enjoy it for what it is. Although MC is low on teachable content, I'd still say it's actually more than TC which has gotten worse each successive season. I have no problem with graham, he's just a warm and bubbly dude, what's wrong with that? Bastianich is annoying, but that's the formula for the show.

[Kater]

You're right, the show is not meant to be a instructive. However, it is so over the top cheesy that they've managed to insult the intelligence of even the dimmest viewers. Audiences like drama, conflict, struggle, tension, and suspense. You have to create that. You can't trick people into thinking they're getting it with cheap tricks like dramatic music and bogus cliff hangers at each commercial break.

[LiveRock]

You know, I watched again last night trying to keep an open mind and...I just don't care for it at all. It's pretty much everything I hated about American Idol except with food. I doubt I will waste my time on this one again.

[jameshig]

I am just surprised that Bastianich and Elliott signed on to it. I guess they couldn't get deals with the food network (which I guess would mean it's a step up from fox then). I have alot of respect for Bastianich's mother, I can't imagine what she thinks of this. Then again, she might think that it's great, who knows.

If it's not clear here, I don't have a high opinion of food network, that puts fox even further down. What sort of mentorship do they actually offer here? I mean, are they really actually invested in these contestants? Are they really trying to find someone to elevate? These are rhetorical questions.

[AmblerGirl]

I agree but I do not think its Gordon Ramsey, but instead it is Fox and how it is edited. The Gordon Ramsey shows on BBC are much different. There is less focus on drama and more focus on food. They are running the Fox/US Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America right now and its amazing what a difference the editing makes. I completely agree with applehome, they must be dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator. they are editing it like a reality show instead of a cooking show. Someone must have more faith in the intellect of UK base audiences than audiences in the US.

[grant.cook]

Just a note, Gordon Ramsay brings his own producer onto any show he's on, and that producer is in charge of how he gets portrayed - in many cases, "his" producer gets into conflicts with the actual show producer's activities. So whether or not you like how the show is doen, he has a very large hand in making it that way

[flynntastic]

I agree, the BBC versions are much better.
I really like F Word on BBC. Great show.

I do like the format of Master Chef though. If I remember right there's 3 or 4 challenges per episode.

[chris2269]

Master Chef Australia in the last week has had the following guest judges
Thomas Keller
David Chang
Heston Blumenthal

I wish more people over here could see it.

F word is great and I really liked Ramsay's best restaurant , which I think was actually done on one of the seasons of F word first.

[nextguy]

Wow it is pretty crazy that MC Australia got two of America's best chef/restaurateurs as well as one of the best British ones (and a friend of Ramsay's). I am trying to think of a single chef on the same level as one of those three on any of Ramsay's American shows.

[celeryroot]

I do not believe FOX has anything to do with it.......... The show is produced by some organization and Fox licenses it and broadcasts it. This is how most broadcasting works.

Originally I think the foodnetwork produced their own , not sure they do all now.

[Kajikit]

I've seen all the UK versions and they're much more interesting than the US ones. But that seems to hold true for almost everything that is remade for US consumption, be it a documentary, a drama, or a so-called 'reality' cooking show. There are very few programs that survive the remake. But it's interesting to see the same person in both lights - in the English versions he is focused on educating people (the idiots get their comeuppance pretty quickly and the rest of them get on with it), and in the US it's more about how many bleeps they can fit into an hour. I watch Hell's Kitchen with the remote control in my hand so I can skip past everything except the actual cooking challenges...

[applehome]

I agree - I'd love to see Ramsay get off of Fux - let him find a US outlet that could do him some justice. Kitchen Nightmares UK (on BBC America) is so much better than the idiotic nonsense that Fux produces. I understand that Masterchef in other outlets (e.g. Australia) is also much better, ditto Hell's Kitchen. I really enjoyed The F-Word also on BBC America.

After all, a 12-Michelin star chef ought to be able to teach us something. If it wasn't for Fux's dumb-it-down, lowest-common-denominator values reflecting what that moron Murdoch thinks of America, maybe we'd have a chance at getting some decent programming.

[cstr]

If you have a burr in your saddle about FOX then, that's why your TV has a remote.

[applehome]

I know, right? Useless activities - like starting a thread here that says it's an Impassioned Plea to Fox...

[BiscuitBoy]

+1

[ospreycove]

Food Network invented appealing to the bottom rung demographic in its current program offering. At least The Fox organization has a point of view, wheather you agree with it or not. As for Ramsey, he should spend a little more time on his own failing financial interests.

[picklelicious]

Amen to the Food Network reference...as for Fox, if you're looking for a cooking show (and I know about looking for cooking shows), we've just have to come to grips with the fact that it don't exist on FOX.

[rasputina]

+1