Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, kindly offered up by BBC American, reeled me into the enormous fanbase of Master Chef Gordon Ramsay; while intrigued by the glimpses yielded here and there of a more complex character in Hell's Kitchen, I had reservations. If it weren't for the Kitchen Nightmares series, I honestly don't think I'd have been interested in The F Word which is---among many, many other things---a weird, complicated cooking show.
Something in my mind resists the whole format, starting with the all-too-reminiscent of Gareth Blackstock's introductory march in the now rather venerable British comedy show Chef. At least Blackstock had a decent theme song, as theme songs go; I like alternative American rock and so forth, but haven't liked British music since, say, the Housemartins. I love Ian Dury and Jethro Tull and quite a few Seventies bands, but the one area in which I consistently prefer American to British output is in contemporary music. So that theme song: no. And naturally Nick doesn't like it; anything that doesn't sound like authentic period jazz from the early Twentieth Century qualifies as noise as far as he is concerned. "What on earth is that supposed to sound like?" he asked in perplexity as we watched Chef Ramsey making the most of the vaunted sex appeal, etc.
And though he is rather beautiful, that isn't why I---and certainly not why Nick---became fans of The F Word. For our first impressions (immediately following a discussion of Steven King's laudable political activities), JUMP TO THE FLATLAND CHRONICLES.