I
think I've only posted once on here before about how I'm a huge fan of Hell's Kitchen. I've watched several seasons of it on the teevee over the past few years and plan to watch this past season on hulu.com once I get back to the US (hulu doesn't work outside the US, and I can't find a VPN that's fast enough to stream).
Anyway, it's hosted by Gordon Ramsay, a hot-tempered chef who yells a lot at young cooks as they fail to live up to his standards. I intuitively understand someone who's passionate about good taste in any art - culinary, musical, visual - and I love watching professional cooks yelling at each other because they can't even manage to cook spaghetti right.
But I don't want to believe this.
He told his audience that current affairs presenter Tracy Grimshaw, who had interviewed him on Friday evening, was "a lesbian" and "an ugly old pig".
He then showed the audience an image of a woman doctored with the features of a pig.
"That's Grimshaw," he told the shocked audience. "Holy crap. She needs to see a Botox doctor."
The chef continued to attack Grimshaw, saying "What? I'm not saying she's a dyke."
He added: "That's Tracy Grimshaw. I had an interview with her yesterday. Holy crap. She needs to see Simon Cowell's Botox doctor."
Apparently he didn't like the way the interview was conducted and decided to call her a lesbian over it. So creative.
He had an out lesbian on his show this past season, even though I only saw episode 1 before leaving the US. I don't know if I want to see how that turned out.
Yes, I get that people are complex and sometimes cool people say awful things. But I'll just mourn the fact that I can't watch pretty much the only TV show I like the same anymore. (Well, there's always The Daily Show.)
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9 Comments
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Ugh. What a dick. Strangely, I'm not surprised.
Bil Browning | June 8, 2009 12:53 PM
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Gordon really isn't that complex; he's just a highly functioning narcissist. He can be completely charming in order to win you to his side because he wants your admiration, but if you indicate in any way to him that you think him less than great, he'll turn on you like a cobra.
I've seen and worked with his type far too often to want to see him on television -- or be within 150 yards of him.
Elsewhere | June 8, 2009 12:59 PM
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Too bad that he decided to go there.
Rob Barton | June 8, 2009 1:42 PM
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I always assumed that his schtick was more just TV, not really the way he is. Apparently I was wrong. :(
Alex Blaze | June 8, 2009 3:32 PM
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As a note, Alex, if transfolks did that, we wouldn't even be here at Bilerico.
It does change how you see things to hear that sort of stuff -- but if we cut out everything we don't like, then we cut out ourselves, as well.
Antonia D'orsay | June 8, 2009 5:46 PM
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Out of everything he's said in the past, you're going to get all righteous now?
You're uhh....not real familiar with him outside the show, are you?
That ass should be ashamed of himself for the things he's done to me in my fantasies.
Anonymous-T-Girl | June 8, 2009 11:55 PM
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Meh. You expected anything better from this monosyllabic semi-evolved simian? Please.... The man always has been and always will be a monumental pile of excrement. AND... according to a lot of people in the trade, he isn't even a good cook (note the usage of the word cook, and not the word chef. Chefs are professionals and he is anything but.)
Cathii Scott | June 9, 2009 1:32 AM
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Titillating but true, the man may be a little more complex than merely narcissistic: "In 1994 Ramsay accepted a police caution for gross indecency involving him and two other men, both chefs, in the lavatory of a London Underground station."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Ramsay#cite_note-61
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-305604/Jen-crowned-queen-kitchen.html
Louella | June 9, 2009 6:06 PM
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Having worked with many chefs, I know it is not necessary to play the stereotypical role of tempermental prima donna in order to be creative -in fact the true culinary artists I have known and admired were also the nicest men and women you would meet in any kitchen. The Gordon Ramsays are JERKS, and that is all. I won't work with or for their kind, and I certainly don't watch them for entertainment.
I don't see how anybody would be surprised that a cook (not chef, thank you Cathii) as abusive as Ramsay would engage in hate speech.
Philip | June 13, 2009 7:16 AM
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