Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars - General Discussion

[oliviabenson]

Premiers 5/24/2023 on Fox

 

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/gordon-ramsays-food-stars-contestants-fox-1235575554/amp/

[TVbitch]

Wasn't going to watch this, because last season was so laborious, but gave it a shot. Happy to see Gordon has made some nice improvements. The first challenges are much more interesting and have more to do with cooking and food, versus diving off cliffs and spelunking, The pacing seems better too. It is more "Apprentice" than Apprentice UK. (Which I did not even make it through this season.) I do think Gordon has his favorites, but he usually makes valid points in his "grillings."

[oliviabenson]

12 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Wasn't going to watch this, because last season was so laborious, but gave it a shot. Happy to see Gordon has made some nice improvements. The first challenges are much more interesting and have more to do with cooking and food, versus diving off cliffs and spelunking, The pacing seems better too. It is more "Apprentice" than Apprentice UK. (Which I did not even make it through this season.) I do think Gordon has his favorites, but he usually makes valid points in his "grillings."

This is a new show. 

[TVbitch]

Oh, my apologies, this show is on its second season in the UK, and I just assumed this was a thread for that! 😬 Well, hopefully Gordon will stick with the format he is currently using in the UK version and not add in unnecessary sob stories and drama. I will definitely check it out! 

[oliviabenson]

38 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

Oh, my apologies, this show is on its second season in the UK, and I just assumed this was a thread for that! 😬 Well, hopefully Gordon will stick with the format he is currently using in the UK version and not add in unnecessary sob stories and drama. I will definitely check it out! 

I did not realize uk has it. In USA it’s going to be the first season this month. It seems Gordon has 10 shows on air! Kitchen nightmares USA  version is coming back as well. Gordon works a lot!

[mertensia]

I can already tell some of these people have never learned to work as part of a team.

The yellow team is a hot mess.

 

[mlp]

I was hoping they'd get rid of Lan who is arrogant and obnoxious.  I liked the guy who left but I can't argue with the decision.  He had plenty of chances to cook his burgers properly.

[Pepper the Cat]

I really like that they focused on the profits, not how much money they took in. That was always one of my beefs with Food Truck Roadtrip Race.

I think the right person went home. He cooked undercooked burgers and did not accept help when needed

[Zoe]

That lady complaining about how she doesn't get Asian food is gonna be buttloads of fun...

[seacliffsal]

I really enjoyed this show.  I liked the focus on the business aspect (which also, of course, includes the food).  It was interesting to watch the initial interactions, especially during the menu development.  Although I identified several contestants who I think will be among the first eliminated, Kagan had multiple chances to change stations.  The biggest thing?  When Gordon Ramsey suggested he change stations (due to the raw burger) and he didn't, well, what other outcome could he have expected?  Listen to Gordon-especially as it's his show...

This is an interesting concept as not all of them have the same background in the industry.  

When Gordon dropped down from the helicopter it reminded me of the early seasons of Survivor when Jeff would go through various stunts and transportation modes taking the urn from Final Tribal Council to the reunion show.  Sigh-the good old days.  Sigh-yes I'm old...

[KeithJ]

How was Gordon's hair completely dry after jumping into the water from the helicopter?

Who would have guessed that the pretty girls were immediately at each others' throats (well, it was pretty much all Lan going after Caroline for what seemed like no reason)?  I was kinda hoping that team would lose so Lan would get the boot.

 

[Madding crowd]

I also noticed Gordon’s dry hair after supposedly swimming in from the helicopter jump. I think it was faked. I don’t know how people who produce a food product or are app producers are supposed to know how to run a food truck. On the food truck race show they charge a lot of money for everything when they are in California but Gordon thinks $6.00 is too high? Not sure if I like this show yet.

[oliviabenson]

Lan is obviously the villain so she is not going anywhere.

Ashley doesn’t know Asian food? Where is she from?

Right person went home. Kagan repeatedly sent out raw burgers. That’s is not going to fly with GR.

[candall]

Not only was Gordo's hair dry, but we saw at least two different helicopter jumps.  The first man had his feet and legs locked together and the second man (different camera angle) had his legs all akimbo.  Whether either of those men was Gordon Ramsay, who knows?

I'm not sure about following this show.  I mainly watch cooking competitions for the food.  GR employs so many ridiculous shenanigans.  E.g. on Hell's Kitchen, every last showdown between the teams is a dead even tie right up to the final dish.  Unless the final dish brings the teams into a tie and then they get to have a dramatic "tiebreaker"!  <eyeroll>

I can't even believe they're still lowering that tray of ingredients down through the "levels" of chefs.  Hoot mon.

[TVbitch]

I think Gordon probably did jump from the helicopter, BUT, it was probably only a couple meters above the water and then they edited in footage of another person jumping from much higher up to make it look like Gordon did some Navy Seal jump.

In the UK version of this show, Gordon made all of the contestants jump off a pretty high cliff into the ocean on the first episode! Several were in tears, and I think one tweaked his back. In Season 2, he dialed down those shenanigans to just having food/service/product development challenges, so I hope that is what he does for this US version. So far, so good.

I thought it was funny how he kept saying he has "never done anything like this before," when he has this exact show in UK. Between UK and US versions of Masterchef, Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen, and Food Stars, Gordon may be the most prolific person on television! I'm probably even forgetting some of his shows. What kind of coffee is this man drinking! 😁

 

[DanaK]

So is this the show from the UK or a US version of it? thinking about it, I assume the latter since the contestants were Americans

[TVbitch]

Yes, this is the US version. The UK version is just now completing Season 2. 

[oliviabenson]

On 5/29/2023 at 10:46 AM, TVbitch said:

I think Gordon probably did jump from the helicopter, BUT, it was probably only a couple meters above the water and then they edited in footage of another person jumping from much higher up to make it look like Gordon did some Navy Seal jump.

In the UK version of this show, Gordon made all of the contestants jump off a pretty high cliff into the ocean on the first episode! Several were in tears, and I think one tweaked his back. In Season 2, he dialed down those shenanigans to just having food/service/product development challenges, so I hope that is what he does for this US version. So far, so good.

I thought it was funny how he kept saying he has "never done anything like this before," when he has this exact show in UK. Between UK and US versions of Masterchef, Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen, and Food Stars, Gordon may be the most prolific person on television! I'm probably even forgetting some of his shows. What kind of coffee is this man drinking! 😁

 

24 hours of hell

hotel hell 

[candall]

Hotel Hell!  I forgot about that little gem, LOL.

 

So:

Masterchef/Masterchef Junior

Hell's Kitchen

Kitchen Nightmares

Food Stars

Uncharted/Uncharted Showdown

Next Level Chef

#######

Gordon Ramsay's Road Trip/American Road Trip

The F Word

Gordon Behind Bars

Ramsay's Boiling Point

Hotel Hell

24 Hours to Hell and Back

Best New Restaurant

Ramsay's Best Restaurant

Gordon Ramsay's Shark Bait

The Ultimate Cookery Course

Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch

Ramsay's Costa Del Nightmares

Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking

Hotel GB

#####

I'm exhausted.  GordoRam must be on tv more than Law & Order!

 

[Tango64]

Whats with that girl’s eyes?

[Meowwww]

I think they are different colors, but hard to look at.

These people are either dead in the eyes or trying to put the others down.  Mostly dead in the eyes. They are not likeable.  And the woman with the awful screechy voice.  
Gordon, if you see this, this is not appealing.  No chemistry, no nothing.  Just dead eyes, hanging open mouths, and screechy voices.  And one idiot dude insisting other chefs say please. The back and forth over vegan and mocktails.  This show is so far beneath the Gordon Ramsey standards 
 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Meowwww

[Lurk]

Lime Truck? Haven't we seen enough of them on Food Truck Road Race?

 

[mertensia]

Okay, I don't want to hear your sob story about beating cancer.

That young guy on the Blue team was **annoying**.

 

[Madding crowd]

Should we be surprised that a 20 year old who runs a sno-cone shop and a woman who wants to run a cake decorating business aren’t experts at galas and fundraising? Real fundraising events hire professional wait staff and bartenders unless it’s a school thing or neighborhood event. How could people who have never done this expected to be competent at running a gala?

On shows like Masterchef or Top Chef they push the contestants a bit to cook for crowds etc, but they don’t expect them to plan fundraisers, be able to make every kind of cocktail and make fundraising speeches about a charity they don’t know much about. This show is a mess.

[TVbitch]

Season 2 of the UK version is better than this show. Like most of Gordon's shows that do double duty (having a UK and US version), Gordon seems to think that in the US all we want to watch is people fight and fail and be humiliated, and we want to hear all about their sad stories and drama. It's a shame. ... ... I will probably keep watching though. 🤣

[cameron]

Thought the two so called professionals that Gordon brought in undercover to that fundraiser were a bit much.  Complaining on having to wait a whole 5 minutes to get a made to order drink at a bar was over the top.  Would love to get a drink that fast at a bar but it has never happened to me.

[eel2178]

11 hours ago, mertensia said:

Okay, I don't want to hear your sob story about beating cancer.

Is that why Baby Spice was safe from elimination even though her team lost in what may be the biggest humiliation in TV competition history?

[AZChristian]

We laughed at the woman who didn't want her food critiqued by a certain team member.

"He thinks because he knows fine dining that I don't know what I'm doing.  I run a food truck.  I know what I'm doing."

Too bad the fund raiser wasn't a food truck event.

Apples and oranges, lady.

[eel2178]

6 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Should we be surprised that a 20 year old who runs a sno-cone shop and a woman who wants to run a cake decorating business aren’t experts at galas and fundraising? Real fundraising events hire professional wait staff and bartenders unless it’s a school thing or neighborhood event. How could people who have never done this expected to be competent at running a gala?

However, I do believe that there was a preset amount of money to be donated (which probably wasn't the guests' own money, either). The guest list was also prechosen and identical for both teams. It was just a matter of how the money was going to be distributed between the 2 teams.

Their tasks were the basics for food competition shows: choose the menu, maintain the theme, prepare the refreshments competently, serve the guests, don't make any major faux pas and work as a team with the last minute "twist" added in of having to spontaneously serve vegans who want mocktails.

[Madding crowd]

I’ve never seen tasks on cooking competitions where they had to also know how to bartend, had to buss tables themselves and make presentations to a supposed crowd of donors. Even on Top Chef restaurant wars they have serving staff , they don’t serve cocktails beyond wine and don’t make a speech other than describing their dish to the judges. And those are chefs who already own or work in restaurants. Many if not most of these people are not chefs at all but have an idea for a product or service in the food industry. 

[lgandkihei]

Once again, I'm forced to realize how important it is to actually like (and/or root for) some contestants on a competition show.  Or, maybe more to the point, how important it is to not actually dislike them!  I get that producers of these shows are going for the drama factor, so they obviously purposely throw together an assortment of strong personalities, but c'mon!  Most of these folks are uber annoying, and not in a "so bad they're good" kind of way.

That said, I guess I'm just a softie at heart, because, as unlikable as  I find them, I'm also embarrassed for them, having to go out there and make such stupidly egotistical boasts, only to crash and burn on national television.  These days, no one can be an innocent virgin to the ways of reality TV editing, so how can they subject themselves to this, knowing that it could all come back to bite them in the ass when the show is over and they're forced to go back to real life and try to get a job?  Maybe the younger ones truly are that un-selfaware, but don't the older (and you'd think, more experienced) ones ever think about the future?

I get it that they're all supposed to have their own little businesses going already, but I wouldn't bank on some of them lasting for the long haul, especially without an infusion of cash from Gordon.

Also, how is it possible that no one recognized Mindy Weiss and suspected something?  Do they all live in a cave?

So far, this whole thing is cringe-worthy at best.

Edited June 2, 2023 by lgandkihei

[KeithJ]

40 minutes ago, lgandkihei said:

Also, how is it possible that no one recognized Mindy Weiss and suspected something?  Do they all live in a cave?

I had no idea who she was and I'm really not surprised they didn't recognize her.  They all run small businesses that would never require her services.

I'm really not liking Chanel:

"You are critiquing the food a little too much for me."

So you just want to put out crap with no input from others?

"He thinks he understands fine dining. I own a food truck, I know what I'm doing"

I'm not even sure what she was trying to get at here.  Does she think that owning a food truck makes you more knowledgeable than someone who understands fine dining?  A food truck has nothing to do with fine dining.

[seacliffsal]

I was really surprised that the yellow team won as I kept thinking there was no way to beat an actual cancer survivor (and congratulations to her!  They also had an extra contestant so I thought their bar service would have been faster than the yellow team's.  And she was so young when diagnosed with colon cancer).  The blue team must have just been that bad.  I figured the guests were all actors who received a set amount of "money" to donate.  

Elise was in over her head.  Gordon directed her to address the young guy and his inability to serve and host, but it appears she didn't do so.  Oh, and Queen's 'I concede that you were right' along with Luther's 'I'm sorry you felt like...' are not real apologies.

I think after the first few eliminations have been made that maybe the competition will improve as there are some contestants who seem quite competent.

[candall]

--Sorry, I would not let a woman with inflated bosom globes curate my event.

 

--When did "critique" become synonymous with "criticize"?  I hear it all the time on reality competitions these days.

 

--Lady!!!  Eyebrows!!!  

.

[candall]

ETA:  I enjoyed this episode much more than the first one.  This was car-wreck level bad and I just sat and giggled at Gordon morosely testifying that this, THIS was "the most embarrassed [he'd] ever been in his life."  Sure, Chef, sell it!  

[KeithJ]

17 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

They also had an extra contestant so I thought their bar service would have been faster than the yellow team's.

It was 7v7 wasn't it?  The first episode was 3 teams of 5.  Minus one from that and you have 14.

[jabRI]

I hate the 'I'm sorry you feel that way' not 'I'm sorry my actions/words made you feel that way' non-apology. lazy. not looking for empathy, looking for you to own your shortcomings.

[seacliffsal]

4 hours ago, KeithJ said:

It was 7v7 wasn't it?  The first episode was 3 teams of 5.  Minus one from that and you have 14.

You are so right!  Sometimes it seems like simple math is beyond me (or that the contestants are so forgettable that I actually forgot someone...).

[oliviabenson]

What a snoozefest of a show.

[Daff]

On 6/2/2023 at 12:00 PM, jabRI said:

I hate the 'I'm sorry you feel that way' not 'I'm sorry my actions/words made you feel that way' non-apology. lazy. not looking for empathy, looking for you to own your shortcomings.

I cringed at that, too. Maybe it was overdone by his parents who were trying their best to set some limits on his stubbornness. 
I pictured him as a child, insisting that he could jump off the roof and fly like Superman, utterly refusing to listen to reasons why it’s a bad idea.

I’m not really liking this so far. There are some nice people in there, but an awful lot of overly critical, sensitive types. I found myself saying “Pot, meet kettle” too many times.

[Daff]

On 5/29/2023 at 10:46 AM, TVbitch said:

In the UK version of this show, Gordon made all of the contestants jump off a pretty high cliff into the ocean on the first episode! Several were in tears, and I think one tweaked his back.

That’s surprising, because on at least one episode of Uncharted, (where he always made a point of sourcing his own ingredients), he was terrified, having to harvest some obscure vegetable with a machete-growing only on the side of a high, steep cliffside. He was really uncomfortable, and awfully relieved when back on flat land.

[Tango64]

I feel kind of bad for that kid who runs a sno-cone stand. He’s so out of his element. Making a high end wine and snack basket?

[tomorrowgirl]

After watching the second episode, which I finally got around to seeing earlier today, I deleted this show from my dvr.  Maybe tonight's episode and future ones are better, but I found nothing interesting about this at all.

[KeithJ]

I felt a little bad for Megan.  I didn’t see anything wrong at all about her offering to jump in.  Caroline saying that it was disrespectful and then Sydney piling on at the reveal was wrong.  Caroline even said it herself “if something bad happens in business, you need to come up with a new plan immediately”.  That’s exactly what Megan did.

[mlp]

58 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

 I didn’t see anything wrong at all about her offering to jump in.

Neither did I.  She was absolutely doing the right thing which made me think that this show is totally scripted.  The woman with colon problems hadn't complained all day as far as we could tell and suddenly she's sitting on the curb surrounded by first responders while her red-headed friend is being a total b****  and no one on the team said a word.  All staged.  I was sorry they won although they did, in fact, end up with a better product.

[mertensia]

That renoun name was silly. 

 

I'd've kicked off both Lan(?) And the guy he kicked off.

 

 

[fishcakes]

In the first episode, Caroline had a problem with Lan, who was kind of dumb but wasn't doing anything wrong, and now she has a problem with Megan, who also wasn't doing anything wrong. And if the previews are accurate (granted, probably not), next week she's going to have some kind of issue with Precious. So I'm thinking Caroline might want to start looking inward. It's not as if she's done anything impressive yet, and her presentation last night was embarrassing. Luther saved it and he wasn't even prepared.

At the same time, Lan isn't too dumb to know the difference between a noun and a verb, Jake. And I liked that during the grilling she owned her mistakes, including the socks in the wineglass, instead of trying to pass them off on other people or "the group" the way Jake and Tony did. I do think Jake was the right person to go.

[Madding crowd]

Once again, these tasks are totally different than what these people have done or have experience in. What are you supposed to do if you don’t drink wine and/or didn’t understand the things the wine expert was asking for?

I also think there isn’t much incentive here to lead or come up with ideas because your teammates will throw you under the bus. In other cooking shows with teams the judges are looking into each person’s contribution instead of grilling people to find out who they blame. The audience is obviously told to make up problems-the woman actually bit into soap? 

[lgandkihei]

How horrible a person do I sound if I say I pretty much hate them all?  I realize that the producers go out of their way to try to find as disparate a group of contestants as possible, thereby ensuring some natural drama (in addition to what can only be called "staged/manufactured shenanigans") but this crew truly grates.  The guy with the fork earring is okay, I guess, but he's a total wuss.

I totally agree with the above comments about the blond going from zero to sixty, health-wise,  without any warning.  And the pink-haired one is suddenly her best friend, so she's appointed herself as #1 defender and guardian?  That should prove interesting if they're ever head to head, because cynical suspicious me can see a cat fight coming on big time. 

I suspect that some of this crew are just overacting, thinking it's their big chance for fame and stardom, but I don't think they're doing themselves any favors.  Some future prospective employer/investor just might see you making an ass of yourself on TV and take a hard pass.

I know nothing about wine and care even less, but even ignorant me can see that stuffing a pair of socks in a wine glass is stupid. I'm also not buying that someone actually bit into soap!  Even if it was scentless and/or your nose is inoperative and/or you're blind, the texture of a bar of soap is not like most anything else you'd bite into.

Once again, this show has forced me into the position of not rooting for anyone to win, but rather just rooting for people to crash and burn.  Is that the whole point, or are the contestants just that annoying?  Or, am I just that nasty a person?

Hmmm...so many deep issues to contemplate!

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by lgandkihei

[eel2178]

22 minutes ago, lgandkihei said:

Once again, this show has forced me into the position of not rooting for anyone to win, but rather just rooting for people to crash and burn.  Is that the whole point, or are the contestants just that annoying?  Or, am I just that nasty a person?

 

I was really hoping that the team Baby Spice was on would lose just so she could be sent home. Hopefully, with her recent "medical crisis," she'll decide to withdraw herself from the competition. 

The cookies they showed from her cookie business looked horrible. Maybe I'll actually get interested enough to look up more about the business online to see what is supposed to be so special about them. Right now, I don't care enough to waste the time.