If You Can't Stand The Heat . . .

Monday night saw the return of one of my favorite reality shows. Hell's Kitchen involves twelve contestants vying to win their own restaurant by working under the fiery, acid-tongued British chef Gordon Ramsey. Ramsey makes Simon Cowell look like Paula Abdul. He is downright verbally abusive to the chefs-in-training who work for him during the show. Ramsey is very candid with his opinions about contestants' performances and very liberal with his use of profanity. In fact, it's awkward to watch at times, since unlike American Idol, where contestants sit there and take what Simon Cowell throws at them before moving on to chat with Ryan Seacrest and do other things, the contestants who are rebuked by Ramsey must return to the kitchen, prepare their dish over again, and re-submit it for his (dis)approval. You cannot run, you cannot hide.

Hell's Kitchen really makes me appreciate the hard work that goes into running a restaurant. All the moving pieces must come together at exactly the same time to prepare a satisfactory meal in a timely fashion. Hell's Kitchen routinely struggles to promptly feed all its diners, most of whom are sent home hungry once Ramsey decides the night's service has been a failure and orders the contestants to "shut it down." But Ramsey's attention to detail and relentless pursuit of perfection can not go unnoticed by those patrons who do get their meals on time. Add in all the prep work and clean-up that goes into feeding people day in and day out, and one can see why the restaurant business is one of the hardest working (and most under-appreciated) industries out there.

The clear favorite to win Hell's Kitchen 2, in my humble opinion, is Heather. The girl is a good chef. During the first service, her team was unable to get any meals out of the kitchen until she was brought in from donkey (clean-up) duty. Then, suddenly, a half-dozen tables received their appetizers within a matter of minutes. Also, Heather has a relentless drive for success and is as tough as nails. During the second service, she burned her hand on the stove and had to submerge it in water. But while she was incapacitated, she kept on shouting orders to her fellow contestants in the kitchen. When an ambulance eventually arrived, Heather left Hell's Kitchen for the hospital only reluctantly. Even Ramsey was impressed. (Compare her departure with that of Ashy Larry, who was too sick to perform the prep work, then suddenly recovered just in time to get drunk and frolic with the female contestants in the hot tub, then quit the game claiming exhaustion after only one service.) Heather's skill and work ethic is unimpeachable. I am rooting for her to win the whole thing.