imlach

David Dempsey died, but in pretty mysterious circumstances, allegedly thought to be drug related. He was the head chef of Amarylis, one of Ramsay's restaurants.

imlach

No, if you read back, I am all for his style, but I was just throwing that fact into the lion's den....

paulr

Tiggs is spot on.

Did GR's method work.....NO.
Did Jamie Olivers.....YES.

imlach

Err....we're only 1 programme into GR's series.

Jamie Oliver had his fair share of failure in his Fifteen kitchen....quite a few quit IIRC. Also, he had months to train them. GR is trying to transform in under a week.

Not really a ideal comparison.

scoobynutta555

read here for the full spec of the programme if you missed it

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsi...ightmares.html

imlach

Actually, you may all want to read this....

http://www.thisisbradford.co.uk/brad...IG_NEWS11.html

Just goes to show that what we see on tv usually is the contrived, manipulated, biased version of events that make good tv viewing.....

eg,

During filming, Ramsay -- famous for his fiery temper and reputation for hurling abuse at his staff -- had asked what Tim's signature dish was and instructed him to make it. But the only scallops available were no longer fresh and had been put on the side ready to be thrown away.

Tim explained: "I'm sure he knew they were off. He said they didn't look good, but told me to go ahead.

"I was too nervous to argue but I never thought he would eat one."

Ramsey did, and soon after was violently sick. Tim added: "I felt terrible. I thought, `Oh God I've poisoned Gordon Ramsay', but he said not to worry, it would make great television. When the cameras are on he is a real hard so-and-so, but when the cameras were off he was a bit different, a bit more relaxed."

drumsterphil

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, but I do not see why chef's like GR can treat staff the way they do. There is a HUGE difference between being assertive and being a bully. If, in real life, GR does behave like a bully then that's a big no-no!

People always spout on about GR doing it so he gets perfection etc but if you properly motivate your staff (and that doesn't mean F'ing and insulting them) then you will get the results.

Can't think of any other profession (with perhaps the exception of the army) were bosses can treat their staff so appallingly and get away with it. Would you put up with being treated like that??

Jamie Oliver gets a right going over from lots of people but has a much better attitude towards staff than GR. And we're not comparing like with like as regards Kitchen nightmares and Fifteen as Jamie was working with kids who'd never been in a kitchen before, so wouldn't know whether they were cut out to work in a kitchen, no wonder some left!, whereas GR is meant to be dealing with already trained chefs - a big difference.

dtriggs

Hang on a sec - Does Jamie Olivers way work - well no, not really. Did you see how much money he lost, and the fall out rate ? He was too soft. In a hard physical industry you have to be hard on the staff.
Does Ramsay's way work - course it does - he has the most successful restaurants around and makes a fortune.

If anybody watched a program a few months ago called 'The Carrot and the Stick', the hard approach is a far bigger incentive when looking at physical challenges, than the soft lets have a hug approach.

mattstant

Yes I did and if memory serves there was virtually nothing in it and the "carrot" team won the first two challenges hands down even handicapped with the thinnest weakest looking bloke i think i have ever seen.

The final challenge swung on where to look for a team member and the stick team struck lucky finding there team member first.

So no the hard approach is NOT a far bigger incentive not everyone works the same way.

Dont get me wrong i think a balanced approach is best with a bit of an eye on who responds to which type of incentive best

Tiggs

good post by imlach.......lots of these shows are now becoming so false you may as well watch a drama like the office!

wife swap was another example where you could just imagine the producers egging the ppl on the argue with each other.

ramsay may as well do david brents hammertime dance!

unclebuck

Disco Inferno dance actually. I thought you knew about music.

UB

scoobynutta555

carrot and stick.

You forgot to mention that the stick team and the land rover pull. The game was skewed in favour to the carrot team as one side of the land rover pull was obviously earier than the other. The carrot team had the easy side twice the stick team once

mattstant

I did miss this episode but on the whole i thought it was a very interesting experiment and much closer than i expected as i actually expected the stick team to win by a mile when i saw how truly pathetic the carrot teams "training" was.

On a family skiing trip once my father and i attempted to coax my sister (a slowly improving beginner) down a particulary long blue run which to her was quite a step up from the nursery run.

After an hour of watching my father shout swear and belittle her attempts to slowly traverse down the slope I lost my rag and for the first time in my life Swore at my father and told him to P1ss off to the nearest bar and leave her to me.

Within minutes of overly enthusiast praise and encouragement at anything she did right she was skiing and making good stem turns with confidence and moving down the slope with a fair turn of speed.

My father who was drinking in the bar we skied passed had settled down confidently with a beer expecting us to take ages jumped on his skis to catch up and promptly fell over right in front of my sister.
The smug smile on her face was a picture

Mungo

Ramsay employs about 900 people in his restaurant businesses. Those businesses make him a fortune.
He must be doing something right with his management style - maybe some of his passion rubs off on people and makes them passionate about what they do.

BTW, to those who think he's a ***, I saw him at Goodwood and he was just enjoying the day wandering around with all the other punters (having driven his 575M up the hill...)