May 14, 2008, - 10:44 am

Real “Kitchen Nightmare”: Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hypocritical Statism

By Debbie Schlussel
Meet the Nanny Chef, Gordon Ramsay, the anti-carbon print kitchenmaster.
Personally, I don’t like British Chef Ramsay’s two successful FOX reality shows, “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares.” He’s overly abusive with his quick temper, and takes the Simon Cowell schtick too far.
But what I really don’t like is how he’s now trying to use government power to impose his idiosyncracies and politics on other chefs. Oh, and he doesn’t practice what he’s trying to get government to do to his kitchen colleagues across Britain.

Gordonramsay.jpg

Gordon Ramsay, Nanny Chef

Ramsay wants the British government to fine chefs who don’t use his politically correct choice of produce and ingredients–so-called “local ingredients.” It’s the latest rage across America, too: You’re supposed to help your community and reduce the carbon footprint (in terms of packaging and delivery fuel costs to import the food) by only buying local ingredients and only when they’re in season.
Yet, while Ramsay wants others to do this, he himself doesn’t practice what he preaches. And that’s in addition to his nanny state approaches results–putting poor farmers in the Third World out of business. I’m all for buying American and supporting your local economy, and I try to buy products made and ingredients produced in America to support our economy. But that’s a choice, and that’s the way it should be–not a government mandate. What Ramsay is trying to do in British kitchens and haute cuisine is haute statism:

Britain’s most-decorated chef – he has been awarded 12 Michelin stars – demanded the Government outlaw all out-of-season food from every restaurant in Britain.
By making his comments, the chef, author and television presenter was laying down a marker of his personal food philosophy. But he also risked accusations of hypocrisy because he fails quite brazenly to practise what he preaches in his own restaurants, which serve food from thousands of miles away.
Making a call for legislation on Radio 5 Live, Ramsay said: “There should be stringent laws – licensing laws – to make sure produce is only used in season.
“The quicker we get legislation pushed through the Houses of Parliament, the more unique this country will become in terms of its sourcing and level of inspiration. Chefs should be fined if they haven’t got ingredients in season on the menu.”

Again, at Ramsay’s restaurants all over the world (including in New York and the Mid-East), he regularly imports ingredients from all over the world. Do as Chef Ramsay says, not as he does.
And it’s interesting that Ramsay is concerned with the carbon footprint when–to film his two reality shows in America–he constantly flies himself and production staff all over America, and then constantly flies back home to Britain. That’s a lot of fuel wasted, more than was used to make your non-local-ingredients gourmet meal.
Hmmm . . . I think we see what the real “Hell’s Kitchen” looks like. It’s not the one hosted by Ramsay on FOX. It’s the one hosted by Ramsay and the British Government in the UK.
Time to deport this alien chef away from America’s kitchens. Gordon Ramsay’s politics and hypocritical statist goals are a recipe for disaster. Keep them off America’s menu.
Exit question: What’s the carbon footprint for production, sale, and delivery of these many Gordon Ramsay products?
Hard to say, but it surely rivals the cash footprint left in Ramsay’s bank account. That’s the only real green Chef Ramsay really cares about.






8 Responses

You always target the right people Debbie. Another delightful skewering here. Ramsey is an offensive, arrogant nobody who can cook. Big deal. TV chefs are a pestilence, purveying food porn. And Ramsey represents everything wrong with the UK, which through the media and celebrity culture has relentlessly cultivated vulgarity, narcissism and coarseness. And yes, hypocrisy. After all, he needs to give himself some ethical kudos to compensate for the guilt he feels at having inflicted such moral decrepitude on the population for so long with his heartless, abusive and belligerent behaviour towards the poor long suffering victims in his restaurants. What a loser!

johndoe on May 14, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Many “progressives” seem to want to turn all aspects of human life into matters for the police.
Also, many people harping on “carbon footprints” have little if any knowledge of transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture, and hence have not much clue about the footprints of which they speak.

photoncourier.blogspot.com on May 14, 2008 at 5:01 pm

shouldn’t it be up to me to buy what i want

mindy1 on May 14, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Frankly, the only way I’d ever watch either of those shows Ramsey pushing the wrong person who ends up jumping him and beating the living snot outta him. That would worth watching.

Carl on May 14, 2008 at 10:55 pm

Do-gooders will kill us all. They’re always short sighted, it’s all about showing how gooood they are. I like the show, though, where he straightens out those restaurants.

John Harper on May 14, 2008 at 11:02 pm

In a previous incarnation, I worked as a line cook at a Hilton, under the French Brigade cooking system. It was the most co-operative atmosphere that I have worked under. Ramsey sets up people for failure in order to concoct some nasty fake drama. Food is often uncooked only because staff haven’t been properly trained; that’s his problem. No real kitchen operates like that. Ramsey is a user and a phony; I hope his restaurants are boycotted. Enough of his trash-tv.

supercargo on May 16, 2008 at 8:51 am

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