I was worried the language in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA (9pm, Channel 4, 6 February) would be toned down after the apoplexy in the press following Gordon's Great British Nightmare, in which 312 swear words were used in 103 minutes. The Torygraph even gave us a break-down of what words were used when and by whom, bless.
But I was wrong. I gather the swear words, beeped out of the US version, were edited back in. And thank f*** they were, is all I can say.
Made originally for a US audience, Kitchen Nightmares USA is faster, slicker and, yes, swearier than its UK counterpart. Yet paradoxically, Gordon comes across as less of a caricature.
In the first episode of the new series, he treks 30 miles north of Detroit to sort out the mess that was Guiseppi's, an Italian restaurant run by the dysfunctional Borga family.
Joe and his wife Kathy are keen to pass the business onto their son, Sam, before retiring to Florida. They think he's too lazy, while Sam doesn't like being bossed around by his domineering dad, who, to add further frisson to proceedings, is working himself to the bone despite having diabetes and no health insurance. Unsurprisingly, nobody is doing any cooking (unless microwaving counts). As Ramsay succinctly puts it while chomping through a dodgy looking Eggplant Florentine: "I like the passion, but the palate is f***ed."
The potty-mouthed one promptly swings into action, re-inspiring the father and son by making them go head to head in a cook-off, before giving the restaurant a makeover, getting staff to take part in a bowl-a-thon for the American Diabetes Association and encouraging the three warring family members to write letters to each other.
Needless to say, the programme's letter-reading denouement is as tear jerking as any Kate Winslett acceptance speech. Even Ramsay wells up. In fact, throughout the programme, he's as emotional as I've seen him, having clearly been moved by Joe's teary revelation that his mother and brother died from diabetes. Would the programme be the same if this raw emotion were expressed without recourse to swearing? F***, no.
But I was wrong. I gather the swear words, beeped out of the US version, were edited back in. And thank f*** they were, is all I can say.
Made originally for a US audience, Kitchen Nightmares USA is faster, slicker and, yes, swearier than its UK counterpart. Yet paradoxically, Gordon comes across as less of a caricature.
In the first episode of the new series, he treks 30 miles north of Detroit to sort out the mess that was Guiseppi's, an Italian restaurant run by the dysfunctional Borga family.
Joe and his wife Kathy are keen to pass the business onto their son, Sam, before retiring to Florida. They think he's too lazy, while Sam doesn't like being bossed around by his domineering dad, who, to add further frisson to proceedings, is working himself to the bone despite having diabetes and no health insurance. Unsurprisingly, nobody is doing any cooking (unless microwaving counts). As Ramsay succinctly puts it while chomping through a dodgy looking Eggplant Florentine: "I like the passion, but the palate is f***ed."
The potty-mouthed one promptly swings into action, re-inspiring the father and son by making them go head to head in a cook-off, before giving the restaurant a makeover, getting staff to take part in a bowl-a-thon for the American Diabetes Association and encouraging the three warring family members to write letters to each other.
Needless to say, the programme's letter-reading denouement is as tear jerking as any Kate Winslett acceptance speech. Even Ramsay wells up. In fact, throughout the programme, he's as emotional as I've seen him, having clearly been moved by Joe's teary revelation that his mother and brother died from diabetes. Would the programme be the same if this raw emotion were expressed without recourse to swearing? F***, no.
No comments yet