In the midst of the presidential primaries, I suppose I ought to comment on them somehow. Unfortunately, I don't have anything original to say, so I'm going to talk about something completely different: reality TV.
Specifically, Kitchen Nightmares, a show starring famously irascible British chef Gordon Ramsay, in which he finds a failing restaurant and sets it to rights. The original was on the BBC. The American version airs on FOX.
Not to sound elitist, but the British version is better, both in terms of how it's presented - no censorship, more of a focus on food and the restaurant business instead of family drama - and also in terms of the quality of the people involved.
One salient example involving two restaurants should be enough to prove my point. Ramsay managed to turn around both the Taluca Lake pizzeria Sebastian's and Nottingham Indian restaurant the Curry Lounge. Both places seemed to suffer from similar problems. Both are run by dilettantes; pharmaceutical executive Raz and married-to-money Sebastian. Both tried too hard to be hip - Sebastian's with its Hollywood location, the Curry Lounge with its Bollywood-meets-strip-club decor. Both had absurdly expansive menus. Both relied on frozen and prepackaged ingredients; a natural result of having so many dishes to prepare.
Despite being something of a preening ninny at times, Raz at least had the wherewithal to hire decent Indian chefs to make his food. Sebastian freely confesses to fiirng 50 people in the last year alone, and most of his employees are aspiring actors biding their time.
The Curry Lounge's 'speciality', as it were, is to 'Create Your Own Curry'. It doesn't take much to realize this is a terrible idea; curries are made of numerous spices combined just so to give the right flavor and consistency. Letting people mix and match - as Ramsay did, ordering a spicy chicken korma with shrimp - produces some pretty awful monstrosities. Still, Raz's mistakes seem to come from a generosity of spirit; he wants to please everyone and so focus is lost.
Sebastian, on the other hand, is in love with (what he believes is) his own cleverness. He is convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that his restaurant’s ‘concept’ of is brilliant even though no one, not even his wait staff, much less the customers, can understand it. I don't really get it either; it has something to do with a long list of pre-arranged ingredients added to one of four meats and then put on a pizza, or maybe a sandwich… the phrase '20 gourmet flavor combinations' came up repeatedly.
Raz puts up some resistance to Gordon's sensible ideas, but when he actually tastes the food he changes his mind. When Gordon suggests they simplify the menu and use fresh ingredients, Sebastian literally purples with rage, then switches back to the old menu in the middle of dinner service.
Despite his smarminess, Raz is a sensible man and is humble enough to take the advice of experts over his own. Sebastian is a nutcase, and is firmly convinced that his terrible idea is franchiseable and will soon spread all over the world. When Ramsay expresses his disbelief and walks outside for some fresh air, Sebastian does a little dance and declares “I won that one”.
The Curry Lounge is still up and running. Sebastian’s closed less than a week ago.
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