One of the joys of my Sunday evenings (a dreaded time which means the return to work the following day after a far-too-short weekend) the past few months has been sitting down in front of the telly to tune into BBC America's culinary series Gordon Ramsay's F Word.
So I was happy then to discover that the network was launching Season Two of Gordon Ramsay's F Word right on the heels of the Christmas-themed first season, which wrapped up just in time for the holidays.
Hosted by Gordon Ramsay, that foul-mouthed, prickly chef who has built his reputation on the precision, perfection, and elegance of his food as much as he has by the demanding, draconian tactics he uses on sister show Hell's Kitchen, The F Word is meant to be a more, er, personable look into Ramsay's life, bringing us a kinder, softer Gordon in his kitchen and home.
The F Word is not a reality show per se, not in the traditional sense of the word, anyway. Yes, sometimes people are sent home and at times it's hard to distinguish Gordon from his usual screaming-until-his-voice-is-raw self. Sure, that letter f in The F Word's logo (both the show itself and its eponymous restaurant) is as sharp as a dagger's blade, but if I want Hell's Kitchen-style berating, I'll tune into that show. What I'm coming to Gordon Ramsay's F Word for is insight into Ramsay's style of cooking, his ethos about food preparation, some good TV food journalism (from much-missed Giles Coren), and a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into dinner service at an actual running restaurant.
Therefore, I was a little perturbed to learn that in Season Two, Ramsay and the series' producers had mixed things up a little too much, for my taste. Last season, each week Gordon invited a new aspiring chef to act as commis in the kitchen and would send one of them home and one of them onto the next round. Instead, this time around, he's inviting each week a crew of amateur chefs to act as his kitchen staff for the evening. Which makes it more than a little hard to watch as he reprimands and criticizes these guys, most of whom are cooking in a professional kitchen for the very first time. Such shenanigans have a place in Hell's Kitchen, but shouldn't here; the effect is shining the spotlight on such a specific part of the big top circus Ramsay has constructed, but it's the least interesting element to me.
So what does work? Ramsay himself is still compelling to watch, as his passion for his food still shines through beautifully. As a follow-up to last season's experiment in animal rearing (in which Ramsay and his family raised turkeys for Christmas dinner), this season he and the kids are raising Berkshire pigs, which they'll have slaughtered at the end of the show. While it might seem cruel, it is a stark reminder of where our food comes from and that, at the end of the day, it did originate from a living, breathing animal and didn't start live as a plastic-wrapped package at the supermarket.
Ramsay's interactions with celebrities dining at the F Word is also entertaining and unexpectedly funny, such as last night's rendezvous with British actress Kathy Burke, a notorious smoker and drinker who doesn't eat meat; in a funny aside, he forces her to take a blind-folded taste test to see if her palate can differentiate between what she calls poncey food and processed food. In nearly all cases, she fails, preferring even swill beer to a high-quality Czech lager.
And I do think that opening up the weekly culinary challenge to any dish (and not just limited it to dessert, as in the first season) is a good thing. Last season, the winner's dessert would be served in the restaurant that evening as the pudding course, but this time around it's simply pure competition, with the winner walking away just with bragging rights. Of course, it's usually the guest, rather than Gordon, who wins... and last night's episode was no exception, with actress and foodie Angela Griffin (Cutting It) triumphing over Gordon with her recipe for lasagna.
Plus, Gordon has expanded his mission to get Britain's women back in the kitchen to getting the entire nation cooking again and the results are as eye-opening as they are hilarious. If the F Word succeeds at anything, I do hope that it teaches people watching that cooking can be a joy as much as it can be a snap, and that in order to cook a beautifully prepared meal, one doesn't need to be a world-class chef, nor does your kitchen need to be Hell.
"Gordon Ramsay's F Word" airs Sunday evenings at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: How I Met Your Mother/The Class (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Everybody Hates Chris/All of Us (CW); Wife Swap (ABC); Wicked Wicked Games (MyNet)
9 pm: Two and a Half Men/The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); Heroes (NBC); Girlfriends/The Game (CW); Supernanny (ABC); Watch Over Me (MyNet)
10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Heroes (NBC); What About Brian (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching
9:30 pm: Old Christine.
I can't tell you why I like watching this traditional sitcom, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus is like a warm blanket of coziness after a long Monday. On tonight's episode ("Ritchie Scores"), after Ritchie's teacher (and the object of Christine's affections) Mr. Harris (Blair Underwood) tells Christine that Ritchie is having trouble making friends, Christine signs him up for soccer. Um, Christine, remember: this is the kid that keeps trying to walk through the glass door...
10 pm: Anthony Bourdain: No Reseverations on the Travel Channel.
It's the launch of new episodes of No Reservations, just in time for 2007. On tonight's episode, Tony travels to the African nation of Ghana, where Tony visits the Makola Market and enjoys a local drink called palm wine, which is actually a condensed milk-toffee drink with herbs. Yum!
I don't know about you but I simply can't get enough of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. From his series Hell's Kitchen and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, he's presented a persona that is at times mercilessly cruel and passionately involved with food. It's food, of course, that the foul-mouthed Ramsay loves to talk about, reflect upon, and, well, cook up and that's the f-word in the title of Ramsay's latest television outing, Gordon Ramsay's F Word. (What did you think it should stand for, eh?)
Filmed in the UK last year, Gordon Ramsay's F Word is finally making its US debut this week on BBC America and it's unlike anything that Ramsay has shown us before. It's not quite a cooking show and it's not quite a reality show; instead, it's something more analogous to a variety show, with Ramsay--quite possibly the ultimate entertainer--as the bellowing ringmaster. (P.T. Barnum would have been impressed.) While that might seem an odd analogy, it's really not. The cavernous yet luminescently bright restaurant space F Word, designed and built exclusively for the show, acts as a stage on which Ramsay presents several different segments, all taking place while his guests--a mix of everyday people and celebrities--dine on a three course meal that he and his kitchen staff have concocted. There are segments with Ramsay at home with his family (more on that in a bit), a weekly challenge element, impromptu interviews, home visits, and previously filmed investigative bits from food critic Giles Coren. It's worth noting, however, that Ramsay has made a conscious effort to present simple dishes that can be made at home by anyone watching (and he shows you just how to do that). His mission, it seems, is to spark creativity and passion in the viewers.
It's also an opportunity for those viewers to get a very different sense of Ramsay than we've seen before. While this man is certainly not short on, um, confidence, it plays very differently here than in Hell's Kitchen. His passion for food is infectious as he has a real love of teaching people about food, whether it be the commis on the line or one of his dinner guests. Or even adorable actress Martine McCutcheon (Love Actually, MI-5), who claims to be incapable of cooking anything beyond microwave scrambled eggs and toast. (The poor dear doesn't even own plates or saucepans.) Gordon gets her back in the kitchen to learn how to sharpen a knife, gets the former EastEnders star to bus some tables (in high heels, no less), and promises to drop by her house (in a later episode) to teach her how to prepare her dream dish: a proper roast with Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes.
Ramsay's also an unrepentant flirt and it's a hoot to see him surrounded by women in the first episode. Filling the F Word with female guests on its open night underscores his latest undertaking: he intends to get women back in the kitchen. Before I get emails crying chauvinism, Ramsay doesn't mean that he wants women to become chained to their stoves again, but merely to cook again. He's noticed that when diners at his restaurant ask to come back into the kitchen and seem enthused and obsessed with both food and cooking, 95% of the time, it's men who are engaged by the process. A man-on-the-street poll Ramsay conducts discovers something astounding: if anyone is cooking in the home kitchens of Britain, it's British men who are doing the majority of cooking as the women he encounters seem incapable of any culinary creation. Curious. Ramsay, therefore, sets out on a mission to reteach the women of Britain how to cook and he opens up the series' website to women anxious to learn how to write in and ask for help.
But it's Ramsay's oft put-upon wife Tana that seems like she needs some help. Ramsay comes up with the brilliant idea of teaching his four (adorable) children that they need to learn where Christmas lunch actually comes from and has them pick out six live turkeys to care for and fatten up before they butcher them for lunch and he destroys Tana's beloved garden to construct a fox-proof cage for the turkeys to sleep in after they've torn up the rest of the garden during the day. (This woman must be completely jealousy-resistant, given Gordon's overly flirtatious nature, and hugely patient.) Each of the turkeys is given the name of a famous chef and, if you're a fan of British cookery stars, it's quite fun to see whom Ramsay has selected to skewer. (That voluptuous turkey over there? Why, it's named Nigella, of course.) The kids seem to take to raising turkeys like naturals, but something tells me it's all going to end in tears when they realize that they are going to have to kill and eat their feathered friends...
Back at the restaurant, Ramsay hangs with food critic Giles Coren, who does an investigative bit on where donner kebabs (those late-night streetside kebabs favored by drunk Brits everywhere!) actually come from and if they really contain meat. Surprisingly, it's a complicated and rather less nauseating affair than one might have imagined as Giles discovers that there is actually meat (lamb and sometimes beef) in those things and actual spices! Quelle surprise. Giles is a fun addition to the show and is upbeat and flirty nature are a natural fit alongside Ramsay's. Plus, it's always great to see a critic actually dealing with food.
Each week, someone will challenge Ramsay to face off in a dessert competition to make the best version of a dessert, with the winning recipe served to the F Word guests. Blindfolded diners--who have passed Ramsay's famously difficult blind taste test--act as the impartial judges. In the first episode, it's comedian Al Murray who challenges Ramsay to make the best bread-and-butter pudding. As for who wins said challenge, you'll have to watch to find out, but it's a rather, er, fitting conclusion after a night of fine dining. (One word: soggy.)
The good people at BBC America were kind enough to send me the first two episodes of Gordon Ramsay's F Word, but in the end I decided to just watch the premiere installment and savor it for the rest of the evening, like one would a delicious and beautifully prepared three-course meal. Ultimately, F Word is like being invited to a dinner party with Ramsay: there's fantastic food (that herb-encrusted rack of lamb made my mouth water), great conversation, interesting guests, and while there might be a few detours and tangents along the way, the evening comes together in the most unexpected and pleasurable way. And I for one can't wait until I get invited back into Ramsay's kitchen next time.
"Gordon Ramsay's F Word" premieres Sunday, October 22nd at 9 pm ET/PT.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Friday Night Lights (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC; 8-9:30 pm); Desire (MyNet)
9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Veronica Mars (CW); Help Me Help You (ABC; 9:30-10 pm); Fashion House (MyNet)
10 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching
8 pm: Gilmore Girls.
On tonight's episode ("'S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous"), written by new Gilmore writer Gayle Abrams, everyone is in for a double dose of drama as Lorelai can't quite commit to her new relationship with former flame Christopher, Rory makes some new friends at an art exhibit, and Emily gets arrested.
9 pm: Veronica Mars.
On tonight's episode ("Witchita Linebacker"), Veronica is hired by a Hearst College football player to find his stolen playbook before the next practice, but Veronica uncovers a huge betting ring operating within the school... and gets threatened with expulsion by Dean O'Dell (Ed Begley Jr.). And they say college is where you can break away from your high school identity...
10 pm: The Street on BBC America.
On the third episode ("Bold Street: Flasher") of Jimmy McGovern's new drama The Street, a school teacher stops to relieve himself during a jog through the park but is seen by a pupil, leading to accusations that he is a flasher. If you were looking for light-hearted mirth, look elsewhere.
Digital cabler BBC America has announced five series which it plans to launch this fall, including one from that irascible Mr. Alan Partridge, comedian Steve Coogan (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story).
First up is comedy Saxondale, which stars Steve Coogan (I'm Alan Partridge) as Tommy Saxondale, a former roadie with anger management issues who runs a pest control business dealing with rodents and people. Ruth Jones (Nighty Night) co-stars as Saxondale's Welsh anarchist girlfriend Magz who owns a t-shirt business called "Smash the System" selling politically radical clothing. The series' seven-episode run premieres October 13th at 11 pm ET (8 pm PT). Rumor has it that NBC, which has a deal with Coogan's production company (Baby Cow) is developing an American version of Saxondale. Let's hope that it's along the lines of The Office and not, say, Coupling.
Hell's Kitchen's Gordon Ramsay returns to BBC America with Gordon Ramsay's F Word, in which the tantrum-prone chef and restaurateur shares his love of all thing gastronomic with celebrity guests as his restaurant (the conveniently named F Word) and works with aspiring chefs in the kitchen. (Any sign of Virginia?) He'll also tackle hot-button food issues, including the slaughter of two beloved pigs--named after What Not to Wear's Trinny and Susannah--in an episode which recently aired in the UK. Gordon Ramsay's F Word is set to premiere October 22nd at 9 pm ET (6 pm PT).
Next up is the dramedy Fat Friends about the trials and tribulations of eight people who meet at a regular weight loss club in Leeds. Four seasons of the dramedy, which stars Alison Steadman (Worst Week of My Life), Gaynor Faye, Ruth Jones (there she is again!), and Lisa Riley, have aired in the UK on ITV from 2000 to 2005. Fat Friends premieres November 2nd at 10 pm ET (7 pm PT).
Season Two of comedy series The Worst Week of My Life picks up the unfolding comedy of errors of newlywed couple Howard (Ben Miller) and Mel (Coupling's Sarah Alexander). While the previous season charted their rocky relationship during the week from hell leading up to their nuptials, this season will chart the week before they have their first child. Hilarity is sure to ensue... Alison Steadman and Geoffrey Whitehead also star. The Worst Week of My Life will premiere December 1st at 9:40 pm ET (6:40 pm PT).
Sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive is set in the year 2151 and follows the crew of spaceship HMS Camden Lock as they travel the galaxy protecting British interests. The series stars Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost (he of sadly missed Spaced), Kevin Eldon (I'm Alan Partridge), Miranda Hart (Nighty Night), Stephen Evans, Dan Antopolski, and Petra Massey. The series' first season, consisting of six episodes, is set to launch early next year. (A second season is blasting off on BBC2 next year.)
I don't know about you, but the fall season is getting busier and busier with every passing day. Set your TiVos now... or at least add the above to your ever-expanding Wish Lists. There are quite a few of the above that I'll be tuning into regularly.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); George Lopez/George Lopez (ABC); Bones (FOX); America's Next Top Model (UPN)
9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Scrubs/Scrubs (NBC); One Tree Hill (WB); George Lopez/George Lopez (ABC); Prison Break (FOX); All of Us/Half and Half (UPN)
10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Primetime (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching
10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.
Despite crying foul over last week's inexcusable booting of Allison (apparently Tim Gunn was pretty miffed as well), I am still excited about another new episode of my new reality fix, Project Runway. On tonight's episode, another "shocking" challenge for the designers and Angela reaches her breaking point with Jeffrey.
