I so despise these people like Marco White and Gordon Ramsey who bully and abuse their staff. It would not be tolerated in any other place of work and I don't think why these ignorent bullies think it is ok in the kitchen.

I know when a restaurent gets busy things will get hectic but there is NO need for the chef to start shouting obscenities at his staff which only makes matters worse. You can still run a smooth kitchen without the need to abuse your staff.

I would not eat in any of their places even if it was free. I want to eat in a place where food is prepared with love and not in a place where the staff and EVEN the customers are cowering in fear from tyrants.

Did you see him tonight cooking a steak in a minute. That has to be raw. Undercooked food is horrible and can be dangerous.

You maybe don't realise just how stressful working in a restaurant kitchen is.

An American chef I worked with used to throw pans about the kitchen when he was annoyed. A Scots chef I worked with would curse you out at length and very loudly, if you were not quick enough in getting the food to the table.

Its boiling hot, the restaurant is full and everyone is expecting their food quickly, and perfectly cooked. A restaurant kitchen is a pressure cooker in every sense of the word, there's no environment quite like it.

That's not to say I'm trying to justify such behaviour, but I do understand it.

In the case of Steak you can't really undercook it.
Blue Steak is seared in a very hot pan but the centre is usually uncooked and still cool

OK lets get a grip on reality , Bully chefs are a load of utter bollocks, it just dont happen , yes maybe some head chefs get arsy but if you think about it they are the ones that fail,

The winners are the ones that get on with staff and everything runs smoothly

Hells kitchen is a stereo typical parody that is far from the real world

There's a play called The Kitchen (I'm sure someone can tell me who wrote it) that was broadcast many years ago on which these guys seem to base themselves.So,who came first , the play basis or them..?

It was based on Macbeth wasn't it?? Part of a retelling of Shakespeare I think.

Was VERY good

A real working kitchen is all about efficiency and getting the meals out on time, so there will always be a lot of shouting..
MWP and Ramsay are among the few UK chefs with 3 michelin stars so they must be doing something right..
People will go regardless just out of curiousity.

I would be more scared to eat there because of the amount of nasty stuff on the menu..
Foie gras, pigs trotters, bone marrow, sweetbreads and other offal..
Do people REALLY enjoy eating stuff like that in fancy restaurants?

Just saw this thread and it reminded me of an article I read in the Observer food mag ages ago - an interview with Giorgio Locatelli.

'It is such crap! Crap! It is no way to treat people! And it is not OK! It is just ego ... I grew up in a restaurant and you know, for 17 years I never heard somebody bullying somebody else. I never heard anybody screaming or saying, "You're an idiot". And I was just very much of the opinion that you have to have a joyful team in order to have a joyful restaurant. And I've been proved wrong so many times. There are so many of these restaurants, they have one, two, three Michelin stars, they are the best restaurants in the world, and they treat their staff like dogs! We lived like dogs! All this joy that is given to people is paid with so much suffering from the other side.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodm...876190,00.html

A good read and shows another approach to running a restaurant and kitchen.

I agree, thank you very much for the link, I followed others hence delay in replying; good food, good employer, he pays his kitchen help (dishwashers) £11.10 an hour, it does not have to be the traditional hell hole.

I wonder if the kinder to staff,(celebs) good demonstrator, highly motivational MPW has learned something during his years out of the kitchen?

Years ago, I had to teach Catering students IT skills; when I reported bullying and sexism amongst the students to the Course tutor, his response was they had to learn about real life in kitchens.

I took it to a higher level when a 16 year old female student* was groped (hands down her top) by male students as a *punishment* for some obscure word game they were playing. Management accepted the Course Tutor's word that she was an attention seeker who exploited the young males. I found another job soon after.

* She was an at risk student, from an abusive background, under the care of Social Services, specially funded for the course.

This is the first programme featuring a chef that I've ever watched.............

I'm amazed at the whole milieu surrounding this..........building these guys up as the modern day Gladiators..........the 'hard men' of the kitchen.........

It's more than slightly ridiculous if you stop to think about it.

'Streetfighter chefs'..............

I'd watch PPV -
Ramsey vs White (Rumble for the Crumble)

Don't forget the partridge, which when the celebs were gutting them, smelled so badly, they vomitted.