The whole “British person acts like a complete asshole to set people straight” genre of reality tv is basically apologia/propaganda for labor aristocracy and bosses treating their workers like shit
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/06/the-blair-show
This is a good article about how Blair era TV in Britain was all about demonising the working class and blaming "immigrants on benefits" for all of society's ills. It has definitely led to where Britain is today that is an individualist hellhole where everyone hates each other.
Americans just want to be dommed by their former imperial overlords.
J Kenji seems like such a nice guy. this is actually a really bold thing to call out yall...
Yeah, he's definitely a liberal, but he seems better than alot of celebrity chefs.
his content is also way better than any celebrity chef
I don't really care to see gordo frenzy froth at the mouth while making a simple 5-minute steak that any kindergartner can do
the guac one was enlightening. I had a mortar and pestle but never thought to use it while making guac
I just like reading his entries on serious eats, he has really good content there
Not really surprising. I remember him talking in a few videos about how he though Gordon’s shows were basically just glorifying being an asshole and abusing employees.
There's a way to deal with Ramsay types, you organize.
Jesus with these fucking people. Can't catch a break, fuck 'em organize anyway!
Source? That’s really disappointing, he’s my go to source for recipes and cooking vids.
I mean I still use his recipes, just don't lionize the guy is all. This all went down in reddit, there were old posts about his stance on unionizing his restaurant.
Yeah I wasn’t gonna stop using the recipes, he knows how to cook. Still disappointed, thought he was a pro-worker guy.
He is petit bourgeois so I shoulda known.
IIRC it was "they don't need to unionize at my restaurant because I'm nice to them" or something like that. I can't find it because they were posts in the old sub that maybe linked to an AMA.
He's better than others, but I don't really follow him for his politics: https://twitter.com/kenjilopezalt/status/1241262616690847745?s=19
It depends. It's common in workplaces like this and similar situations the workers/people lower in the hierarchy have a kind of stockholm syndrome where they actually want the higher ups to be hard and borderline abusive because "that's the way it is/should be" and so they can perpetuate the cycle of abuse if/when they get the rare chance to be the higher up. It's an extreme version of the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" situation. For instance the person that made this post is against unionisation now that they have a restaurant, wonder why???
Should still try to organise and unionize regardless, you never know if you don't try.
Something about when your ideology isn't about liberation you end up pining to be the oppressor.
Yeah. Also if the contestants on hell's kitchen or something are very likely to be executive chefs of their own restaurant before going on, which is another added factor.
they dont want to stop the exploitation, they want to become the exploiters :quark:
So I do wonder, in Kitchen Nightmares, he mostly yells at the restaurant owners for bad management. Do they just remove the footage of him yelling at the employees for the final cut to make him look like less of an asshole?
There’s been accounts of him being shitty to his own kitchen staff for a while.
However I will echo what you said, in KN the focus of his ire always seemed to be on shitty owners, often he advocates for the staff and calls out shit like tip docking as unethical BS. I think maybe over time he kinda got into his own schtick too much and just became a massive asshole all around.
Point of view is important too. When it's his own employees he is probably able to justify abusing them as being part of his job as the boss, but when he sees it from the outside his empathy kicks in without that self-justification blocking it and ends up advocating for them.
Jacques probably has bad politics cause he's old and French, but he shows so much love for the culture and art of food. Not just the high end restaurants either, every thing he talks about shows deep respect for common communities and there customs.
He’s a lib. He’s never been out of place with the Martha’s Vineyard crowd. But he was a young child growing up under Nazi occupation, and I think that always informed him. I give him a lot of credit for emphasizing flexibility with ingredients and (particularly during quarantine) using pantry-stable items.
Wow has no one here seen Ramsay's Boiling Point?? Its well documented how much of a piece of shit he is to his employees. Ramsay really must have done some good PR over the years to convince everyone he's a nice guy.
Ramsey is abusive, but that’s also what makes it good television.
I’ve tried watching other cooking contest shows. It’s just not as fun.
The way I console myself is by telling myself that most of the people on set are arrogant and awful too.
My only issue with it is Paul looks like the manager at a overpriced used car lot.
I’ll have to give it a shot sometime.
I tried the Netflix cooking contest one, and it was just too positive and polished.
I actually prefer straight demo shows, like America’s test kitchen and a lot of the PBS lineup. Cooking doesn’t need to be competitive.
Yeah I think the focus being on food and craftsmanship sets good demo shows above the rest. Good Eats made me fall in love with cooking as a kid and reality TV cooking shows will never fill that gap.
I dunno if it's true anymore, but I freaking loved Masterchef Australia. The hosts were wholesome as fuck, just always smiling and shit. No cheap drama (afair).
