Chronicles for 29 August 2006
Chronicles for 29 August 2006.
Work is gearing up again; I'm feeling both excited and regretful. Blogging has proved to be a wonderful and absorbing hobby for me, and I'm rather sorry that I can't give it my full attention anymore. At the same time: I do love my work. I am fortunate to work with people I greatly admire and respect and to do work I'm passionate about. I'm sure once I get back into the swing of it, I'll feel less regret and more enthusiasm.
Speaking of passion for one's work, Nick found this article about chef Gordon Ramsay, whom I so much admire. Funny how different people take away such different impressions from the same experience. [Mind you, I don't approve of foie gras either, despite having rather liked it the only time I ever had it (before I knew how it was created); on the other hand, if in the process of protesting it, I disrupted someone's business, I would not feel hard done by if the owner emptied duck's feathers on my head---not, of course, that Ramsey actually ever did that....]
I give props to his "missus" (hee) for understanding that for some people, it's work first, last, and always.
[quote from article "Gordon's Just Desserts" begins]
Claridges won't be the only thing he'll be celebrating around the time of the opening. His wife Tana is expecting their fourth child, and if it came down to choosing between the birth of his baby and the opening of his restaurant, he doesn't hesitate with the answer.
"I've not made any of the three births yet so it'll look a bit bizarre it I managed to make it to this one..."
To me, this is the sign that this couple has their priorities straight. There's more:
[quote from article "Gordon's Just Desserts" begins]
So what does the Ramsay clan eat? Gordon leaves it to Tana. "Cooking for children is incredibly difficult - can't use salt, it's got to be incredibly simple and pureed which doesn't excite any chef at any level. Most of it ends up in their ears and on the walls anyway."
"Tara's really concerned about cooking at the moment and she asked me if she could go to a cooking class. But what are all the other chefs going to think if I send my missus to a cooking class? They'll think it's a joke!"
"I suppose the funny thing is that on a Saturday night when we have Tara's family around, we have a cottage pie and some fucking great red wine, and they're [sic] faces will be looking at me like that." he pulls a sad face, then laughs. "No, a fresh salad, shavings of parmesan, really nice seared tuna - that for me is the ultimate dinner."
Are his friends nervous when they invite him around for dinner? "I don't get dinner invitations anymore, " he jokes. "Not since opening up independently and Boiling Point."[quote from article ends]
"The missus" sounds as if she's mastered the business of being married to this man.
We recently watched an episode of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares in which the English chef of an Italian restaurant was saying that he thought he was probably a pretty good chef. Sigh. Hearing that sort of thing ought to make people appreciate a Gordon Ramsay. "Italian/English. And that's the style of food, is it?....Where are the courgettes from?...Courgettes from a butcher's?....Pepper from Tesco's....So far: fuck all Italian." The secret of great Italian food, it seems, is "simple, fresh Italian ingredients." Uh-oh. Testing out the sausages: "Dear oh dear. It looks like two..penises, doused in parsley." The verdict? "This is about as authentic as a fucking Chinese takeaway."
BBC America bleeps out the word "fuck" as fast as they can catch it, but "bullshit" and "shit" somehow get through. In this episode, one of my favorite scenes was Ramsay seething in his car as he listens to an ad for the restaurant "when only the best will do!" Also this: "When you see a bottle of "Lazy Lemon" [squeeze-out lemon juice], it means "lazy bastard."" And this: "I've never seen a chef work at this breakneck speed and yet achieve so little." Finally, he was all over the chef ("Lazy") for caring more about golfing during the day instead of getting ready for the customers and for having his priorities all wrong. 'Instead of getting his cooker fixed, he spent $46,000 pound on a new car." One of the first steps was making the guy sell his car.
As Ramsay said then and will always say, "The passion's gone." I especially loved his indignation at the license tag on the "chef's" car, reading "A-1 Chef." "I've got a good mind to tear that fucking number plate after his car and shove it up his arse sidewise." Later: "I've got to awaken his senses." This was after a blindfold taste test showed that the chef preferred pot noodles (boxed pasta, I guess) as an accompaniment to fine swordfish to anything real.
How can anyone not love this man?
In the end, this episode had a provisionally happy ending. Will the young would-be chef, having been set straight by Ramsay, continue along the path that leads to chefdom? Ramsay expressed a concern that the chef might try to "run before he can walk"---an expression my father was particularly fond of---but his outlook for the restaurant owner/aspiring chef appears to be "cautiously optimistic."
I wonder what it's like to care so much about food. I once stumbled across a wave of chef's blogs when I was looking up some information I needed about a particular type of cheese; I came away without finding what I needed but feeling quite hungry. Apparently there is much more to say about food than I ever imagined; and there were pages and pages of photographs. In one blog----I wish I could find it again---there was a photograph of a giant ring of squishy looking cheese. Under it, the chef charmingly wrote: "I ate a wheel of cheese today, and I have no regrets." I bet he---I'm pretty sure it was a he---had plenty of regrets later. But to seize the day, one must live in the moment.
[spoilers ahead] So Deadwood---the
final season--- is over. Alas. The ending wasn't what I expected;
after so much build-up, the expectation of violence gave way to the
theme "sacrifice of the innocent to protect the guilty" or---if you
prefer---"for the greater good." It wasn't what viewers wanted, but it
was hideously true to life, and equivalent to a bucket of water over
the head for fans who had gone pretty soft on Al, Dan, Wu, and the rest
of them. Across the street from the gem, psycho Cy---as always, Al's
shadow self---sacrifices the guilty but guileless for no reason at all
except fear of going after the person he really wanted to kill.
Nobody came out of that episode looking any too good, except maybe Richardson, Aunt Lew, and little Sam Fields [the "NG"]. And we knew ahead of time they couldn't kill Hearst, on account of history.
In other words, the perfect ending for the season. Thank God they're giving us four hours more to at least wrap things up.
Ah, Brian-Cox-as-Langrishe. We hardly knew ye. <Sniff>. It could have been...so great. He's so wonderful with Ian McShane. Both of them are among my favorite actors of all time.
And I don't think there is half enough shouting about the brilliance of E.B. and the stellar performance of William Sanderson. How would have thought that hi-my-name-is-Larry-and-this-is-my-brother-Darrell-and-my-other-brother-Darrell would be able to deliver the rococo lines assigned to E.B. with such absolute mastery? Thinking about losing E.B. Farnham really makes me want to cry.
For fascinating Deadwood trivia, click here.
If you like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, FORGET about the chopped-up BBC America version! You should download the unedited episodes (yes, swearing and all!) using bitorrent (hint: mininova or isohunt). Truly one of the greatest reality shows ever!
Posted by:Mike | January 03, 2007 at 02:03 AM