PVC wrote:

> I agree. Hell's Kitchen is nothing more than a vehicle for Ramsay's
> massive narcissism. Most of those idiot "contestants" wouldn't even land
> a job as a busboy, much less a head chef of an upscale restaurant.

The "head chef" thing is a myth. The winner of Hell's Kitchen goes on to a
job as a senior sous-chef at the "prize" restaurant. But they still garner a
nice chunk of change just for winning the competition.

In a past discussion of Hell's Kitchen, someone referred the contestants as
"kitchen rats," which seems a fairly good term to use: They don't really
have any culinary expertise or great talent, but they've been working in
kitchens so they aspire to chefdom. Ambition is all well and good, but
there's really no valid way to leapfrog your way to the top in the world of
professional cooking; if you don't pay your dues by working (usually for
*years*) with prep cooking, line cooking, and recipe development, then you
lack the knowledge to be an executive chef or head chef. It's no accident
that so many great chefs started out as apprentices when they were
teenagers.

Bob