[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Hell's Kitchen 2008

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Hell's Kitchen 2008
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1209525397.shtml


   No, I'm not going to start a weekly post on this show. But I'm in a
   compressed Reality Show mode, and it seems a good time to at least say
   why I really like this show.
   Food competition is an eclectic taste. Given enough time, a million
   cooks with a million dollar kitchen and pantry will eventually turn
   out Lobster Thermidor and Crêpes Suzette. Unless dancing or singing,
   you have to constrain something. You give them only so much time, or
   so many ingredients, or isolate them on a beach with primitive
   facilities.
   Hell's Kitchen is unique, however. The thing to fear most is not a
   constraint, quite the opposite: mass production! It's the only show
   where you get to see the life of a line cook. You don't get to perfect
   a single entree. You have to turn out dozens of them. With something
   like Beef Wellington, where you have this delicate race between pastry
   outside and steak inside getting to the proper doneness together, this
   seems almost impossible to do consistently.
   But good line cooks do it. It's their cooking you're usually enjoying
   in better restaurants, and they deserve great credit. Gordon Ramsay's
   fits and rants are fun to a point, but sometimes get in the way of
   this fascinating peek into the kitchen.