His show "Hell's Kitchen" premiered in the U.S. on the Fox channel Monday night. The producers are surely cashing in on the trend to have elimination contest shows, such as Elimidate, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and some show that was on recently about amateur boxers competing to see who would be the champion of......well.....the champion of that particular TV show. So, now here's a restaurateur variation on this elimination contest theme. Entertaining? Yes. I'm sitting there thinking "what a jerk," but I watched it from beginning to end. The producers know exactly what they're doing. They know the market. Yeah, it's lowest common denominator TV, a sort of "guilty pleasure" experience. Does he strive for perfection in his subordinates through bullying and heaping abuse on them? Yes. Restaurant kitchens are known to be places that are not pretty. As Anthony Bourdain shows in "Kitchen Confiderntial," there's a rough, stressed, macho culture in those kitchens. But, this guy looks to be WAY over the top with it. This vegetarian incident, though, goes much further. Really unethical.

Chanteyranger