But The Hook was there first.
Fifteen years earlier, in fact.
Chef Ramsay, not content with having three shows on television - including Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and MasterChef – has apparently decided to shine a light on the seedy underbelly of the hotel industry.
What a novel idea, right?
Of course, Ramsay is going to focus on dysfunctional hotel owners, rather than guests. The Fox network (who else?) is behind the series where the “even-tempered” chef will partner with a team of hospitality experts, traveling across the country to try and fix every aspect of struggling hotels, motels and bed & breakfasts.I know many of you are thinking “Just what makes this guy think he’s an expert on anything beyond the kitchen?”
I know I though the same thing when I saw the first commercial for this series, which airs in June. As it turns out, Ramsay has hotel experience, having studied hotel management as a young man, and having worked and owned hotel-based restaurants throughout his career. And besides, he’s Gordon frickin’ Ramsay, he can do ANYTHING, right?
In his own words, “These are stories that everyone can relate to, because virtually all of us have had a bad hotel experience that’s turned a holiday or business trip into a total disaster. It’s time to put the hospitality industry to the test.”
Of course, Ramsay’s “winning formula” is so simple, its sick:
- He strips the establishment in question down to size in both operating scale and formula. Restaurants are given a simple, cheap-to-prepare menu that appeals to anyone.
- He surrounds himself with true experts.
- A small army of tradesmen does all the hard work virtually overnight; usually while Ramsay rests his foreign head on a soft pillow and devises a fresh batch of curse words to hurl at anyone in his path.
Ramsay simply infuses common sense into struggling restaurants and I’ve no doubt he’ll be doing the same thing with the hospitality industry. It doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to run a hotel; just a lot of operating capital and qualified, competent personell.
But the traveling public have undergone a change in attitude over the course of the last few years – to say the least. Look closely and you’ll see it everywhere.
The real challenge is dealing with the endless of parade of douchebags that wander through the front doors every day. People have allowed their own common sense to wander to the back of their brains these days.
We simply don’t treat each other with courtesy or respect these days and dealing with that truth is the real challenge when running a hotel in this day and age. I’d like to see Gordon Ramsay do my job for a week without whipping out a cleaver and calling someone a “stupid donkey!”
BEFORE WE PART WAYS YET AGAIN…
June 9. 2012 10 A.M – 7 P.M.
Scotiabank Convention Centre
Niagara Falls. Ontario. Canada
For full details, click here, fan boys and girls!
Related articles
- Chef Gordon Ramsay Coming Back For More ‘Nightmares’ (huffingtonpost.com)
- Gordon Ramsay to star in hotel-themed reality show (hotelier.typepad.com)
Ha! Great post. I thought he was opening a restaurant in Niagara Falls, or was that another annoying tv chef?
Wolfgang Puck opened a restaurant right across the street from my humble establishment. It went down in flames…
I used to frequent Wolfgang Puck restaurant all the time, didn’t Jack’s also go down in flames? Something up in the Falls … hmmm …
There’s always something cookin’ around here…
I’m STILL more interested in what you’re doing! Keep at it Hook
Thanks! What a compliment!
Oh Hook, i hate to be a gossip, but I CANNOT STAND THAT RESTAURANT bubble head! Why do people think he is interesting or helpful? He’s a crass guy who humiliates people. Luckily, as you say, he has other douche bags who do actual “work” and sometimes the restos survive. Otherwise, wtf?
Nice post, course, cuz i agree as usual.
Thanks for the continued support, young lady.
With HIS manners he would probably be more likely to be one of your douchebags!
Very true…
Wow ! You are a fantastic writer , I am hooked !
As for Ramsay , I never did care for him much , now if it were Jamie Oliver , that would be another story :p
Thankyou for sharing
Yes, Oliver rocks! Thank you for commenting, young lady.
Send Fox an email for the spin off on how to be a guest without being a pest!
That’s not a bad idea…
Someone definitely needs to focus on dealing with unruly guests..
Ramsay couldn’t handle it, I guarantee that!
You need to get your book out soon so you can be one of the experts he surrounds himself with!
I don’t know if I would mesh with Ramsay’s… “style”.
I’m sure after all those years in service it will be a nice treat to be able to curse your a$% off.
Very true…
I’d love to be Ramsay and curse someone out, but only if it was the right person!
I can see it now! He won’t put up with anything!
You got that right, Susie!
Restaurant Impossible (with that other foreign guy) is way better anyway!
Yes, Robert Irvine rocks!
Yeah, Ramsey’s a pompous ass, but he knows what he’s doing. i wouldn’t work for him, though…
That makes two of us….
The hospitality of some hotels … sometimes disastrous.
Un abrazo.
Well said!
Gracias.
You’re quite welcome… senorita!
I would love to see Ramsey do your job…now that is a show I would watch!
Me too!
Oh fantastic. More of that Ramsey character. He needs a good ol’ German slap in the mouth.
No doubt!
“…Endless of parade of douchebags that wander through the front doors every day…” You do this every day with awesome humor he tends to do it with hostility, sometimes not so awesome. But both approaches make for great reactions. I think there’d be a Royal Rumble if he had your job and no Bellman Chronicles.
I think you’re right!
OMG, this is perfect. Ramsey will get everyone talking about hotels and their problems…. and you have something to piggy-back off of when seeking a publisher. Heck! Publishers will be coming to you to get the inside scoop on the other part of running a hotel. It could work.
Jeanne ( not Jill)
Let’s hope its that easy!
I find it hard to believe anyone would treat Gordon Ramsey with anything other than respect unless said person felt attacked (which many people do when he first comes to their restaurant). He is just one of those men who are supremely confident and who people wouldn’t dare because there is this sense he’ll get you later (even haters). Of course, I’m talking about in person as such auras don’t work so much through a tv screen. And I don’t think he just infused basic common sense to fix the problems he does. The difference between Ramsey and other restaurant shows are that he has a way with people and finding that thread that keeps these people from being successful. He knows how to put the pressure on and in said limited time can turn you around if you allow some coal to diamond making to happen. Anyway, it still was a really funny post. Cheers
I respect Ramsay’s accomplishments but he is a very polarizing figure and I still think he couldn’t do my job! But then again, he doesn’t have to! I’m actually grateful to him for shining a light on hotels; the extra attention can only help someone like me!
Oh, geez. Because if cooking can be done by a formula, everything can be, right?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’m not just talking about the above, either, but the entire show. Bleh.
Well said, Deborah, as always!
Ha Ha ha hahaha!! He makes me laugh!! I can’t help it.Although he is a bit b-st–d,with people I’m afraid that he knows what he is talking about.I know what restaurant life is about and what is cooked in fact..
Good post.I like to read something different and about things that happens in the real world.
Cheers!!
I’m definitely different!
Dear Hook, Gordon Ramsey could never do your job, he lacks the grace, tact and humility it takes to serve while not being the boss…….it’s a very different world when you HAVE to be there day in and day out. He can show what it looks like, but over the long haul he would give it up, I only say that because he has, that’s how you get tv show is that you stop doing the daily workout of being kind and efficient for small amounts of money and find someplace that will pay you to show of and scream incessantly.
Well said, Sherrie!
Oh man, so excited to watch this show now! My husband ridicules me to no end for indulging in watching Gordon Ramsey’s other shows, but I have no shame. I love to watch him scream at people! It’s kind of cathartic; better him get all riled up than me. Great post!
I hope you enjoy Hotel Hell, young lady!
You said it best….common sense. But what this Ramsey character knows, is that common sense has packed their neurons and left the brain.
It’s easy for one person to say that they can do another’s job because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. But what people don’t know, is that it’s freaking hard!!! But then again, you mentioned that this Ramsey chap did work in the hotel industry and even studied it. He probably kept his tongue in check at that point in his life. But now? It seems since he must devise new ways to snark (your third point) because he has made a name for himself he is forgiven. Which I find odd.
Oh!!! Great post!!
Thanks, Woman!
I don’t know why…but I like Gordon…maybe cause he always makes me laugh.
(BTW – I know I though the same thing – the ‘thought needs a T)…sorry can’t help myself Hook. I like to edit things…
No problem!
Hmmm. usually the loudmouths and ones flapping around and posing are doing that to distract people from the small little person that is actually there. So much fluff and “magic” created by money. Commonsense – now that’s a jewel that’s becoming even more rare. (Fortunately, you’re gifted with that.) You rock, Hook.
Thanks, you rock too!
Mmmmm… well, I hope he brings a translator. The majority of independent hotels are typically owned by people not born and raised in the US… if you know what I mean. Trust me… we work with thousands of hotels all over the country and have to deal with the independents as well as the franchise and major chains. Most are nice people… but there are a few.. ugh…. that have ripped us off and others who have really screwed us by not honoring the contract and we’re stuck with having to move all the guests that we booked in their property to some other location.
There are some real pips out there, its true…
But, will you watch the show?
I’m undecided…
But I don’t see how I can resist!
Gordon can try to understand the complexities of running a hotel “reality style”. But if the networks are seeking “a HIT” they’d do best to hire you as set staff (script enhancing), or better yet they should look into filming YOUR REALITY.
I truly believe no scripting is better than “the raw” that you share with us everyday. YOU LIVE IT. It gets no better than that dear sir, and I am still HOOK’ed. (-:
“The raw” is interesting to write about, its true. Its a mess to live… at times, though! Thanks for being HOOK’ed for so long, my friend!
“We simply don’t treat each other with courtesy or respect these days and dealing with that truth is the real challenge…”
We do seem to have become a society of entitled arseholes. It’s quite sad.
Yes, it is. But there’s always hope for the future, right?
wish my phone would let me on at 11pm…. while sposed to be sleeping I was laughing (at least hubby wasn’t there to annoy)… I love Ramsay! Not sure when I’ll get to see the show here though. And ditto to all the above. Love him or hate him he seems (sic) to know what he is doing.
Don’t worry, he’ll reach you eventually; there’s no escaping Hotel Hell!
Not a Gordon Ramsay fan – except if he happened to be in an establishment where The Hook cooks..! Then you’d find my interest peaking quite considerably….!
I can barely make eggs, so I won’t be butting heads with Chef Ramsay anytime soon…
I think Fox is doing a big mistake here. They should have hired someone called The Hook – that would have made some television. And made a few heads blush, if not hotel owners then at least customers. I think that would have been a winning hand. But on the other hand, who would want to be televised on Fox? That station is good for nothing. What about a TV-series about bad television. Something for the Hook?
Not bad, my friend….
Gut geschrieben wünsche dir einen guten Wochenstart und einen schönen ersten Mai Grüsse Herzlich Gislinde
Thanks for all the good wishes, young lady!
It’s a funny idea, focusing on the dumb public for once! Nobody ever does, cause everyman is kind of sacred.
Very true, my friend…
i am a huge fan of gorden ramsay and his perfection!
i would love to see him implement his ideas now to his another project
accompany him and do let us what makes him so perfect!
I like the way you think!
As a Front Office Manager at a small hotel in a major tourist city the idea of this show fascinates and scares me.
The guests that Ramsey will not deal with on the air are the missing piece. The noise complaints, the people that are mad that they booked a room with 1 bed and actually have only 1 bed in the room or the people that are angry that they are getting charged for smoking in a no smoking hotel are the ones that he will never show.
He will be worse than that gnome.
I fear you’re right!
Great post! (And just as entertaining comments! How often does that happen?!) Good read, thank you!
anne
He’s got some restaurant (Gordon Ramsay) somewhere near Camden town, London, where the service is too slow. Or was, the day I was there. It was nothing reflective of what one would expect of his restaurant, so said my more knowing companions, they concluded he must be simply us g i as a side money mint, with his name as the honeytrap. And that’s all I know about the man.
Great post, as always, and the column is fab too.
Thanks so much for checking out the column! Seriously, I appreciate it.
D*rn typos!
…simply using it as a side money mint…, is what I meant.
No problem! Happens to the best of us…