This week’s guest blogger is Laurent Vernhes, co-founder of the travel Web site Tablet Hotels. Vernhes, who was born in France and lived in half a dozen countries before settling down in Brooklyn, founded Tablet in 2000 as way of helping stylish, culturally attuned travelers find hotels to match. The site’s tight edit of properties spans high and low, includes opinionated commentary and ratings, and is showcased annually in a hardcover guide. Read Vernhes’s previous posts here.

One thing that’s long fascinated me is the emergence of a new kind of luxury, a market for products and services whose appeal lies in something more than simply their sheer expensiveness. TabletHotels.com was founded on the principle that people would prefer the unique and the substantial over the ornate and the ostentatious, if only they had a chance to be exposed to it. For this reason I think the conventional idea of the luxury brand will soon be outdated. More and more, today’s spoilt and jaded customers seek discovery, irrespective of price.

Oddly, one area where name brands are growing more prestigious rather than less is in the world of food. Yes, there’s a trend toward the organic, slow food, simple cooking — but at the same time, the big-name chefs have become global brands.

When I was a kid in France in the '70s, our top chefs were already national superstars. One of them, Paul Bocuse, was ever-present on French TV screens at the time. He was spending so much time promoting himself that it was hard to imagine he found any time for cooking. In fact, whether it was him in the kitchen or not, the food rarely lived up to the hype.

Troisgros restaurant. (Joerg Lehmann)

By contrast, the Troisgros family participated only reluctantly in the media circus. When I finally made it to Troisgros for lunch, I was amazed to see them in the kitchen, through the glass wall separating the kitchen from the diners. It was such a memorable meal that we practically had to be dragged out when guests started arriving for the dinner service six hours later. Total dedication to their art, passing up TV time for kitchen time — for me the Troisgros family’s attitude came to represent the way it should be.

Today, though, it seems a new generation of chefs is finding a way to reconcile cooking at the highest level with the demands of maintaining a global empire. Alain Ducasse, Gordon Ramsay, Joël Robuchon, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, to name just a few, have become global brands, with restaurants all over the world.

How do they do it? If they’re culinary artists — and I’m certain that they are — then how do they delegate their authority? Are they Warhols, with each restaurant a Factory, turning out original artworks by the hundreds? Or are they more like classical composers, employing chefs who work like conductors at the head of an orchestra of kitchen staff?

Jean-Georges. (Getty Images)

I spoke to Jean-Georges, my favorite high-end chef in New York. Here’s just a little bit of what he had to say:

"Many years ago, Paul Bocuse was asked the following question: 'Who is cooking when you’re not in the kitchen?' And his response was, 'The same people as when I am in the kitchen!'

It’s all about the people around you, whom I treat like family. At Jean-Georges, people have been with us for many, many years. My chef at Vong has been with me for twenty-five years. People do not expect me to be behind the stove at Mercer Kitchen or Spice Market.

Chef and restaurateur are two different jobs. I love to pick my vegetables -- cooking is my love, my therapy -- but I am also an entrepreneur. I have dreams as well; I want to do things. It is a spread that is controlled. I never travel more than one week per month, and there are always things to adjust when I come back. The rest of the month in New York, I am at Jean-Georges every day, cooking for six hours per day.

Every afternoon between three and six we do testing. I am involved at every level of the process. No dish makes it to the menu without me eating that dish. By eating that dish, I know exactly what the first bite has to be like, and the last one must be as outstanding as the first one.

It is so intense and it takes so much staff to maintain a three-star restaurant. At Jean-Georges we have sixty people — twenty in the front and forty in the back, with two different teams — taking care of only sixty seats. You cannot make money on only one restaurant if you operate at that level. Which is why you see many top restaurants in hotels. Nobody gave me the keys to a family restaurant like Troisgros or my mentor Paul Haeberlin's at Auberge de l’Ill. These days, to be a successful chef/entrepreneur, you need to open restaurants in more than one category."

Dramatis Personae

Chef Ramsay -- Vigilante of good cooking (also posessed of copious reserves of money)
Owner -- Befuddled man, his noble heart is racked with worry and tremendous debt
Manager -- Fast-talking egomaniac, both lazy and overbearing
Chef -- Beleaguered kitchen worker whose inspiration to cook has seeped out of him
Various Waitstaff -- None-too-bright women who bemoan the lack of customers
Customers -- Average Joe(s), having two functional states: very angry or very satisfied.

ACT I

(Chef Ramsay arrives at a fledgling restaurant. Finds the staff engaging in Group Think)
Ramsay: Bloody hell, look at this restaurant! (tastes the food) This is the worst food I've ever eaten!(enters kitchen) This kitchen is without a doubt the dirtiest, most disgusting kitchen on the face of the planet!
Chef: I am nonchalant...(shrugs)
Owner: I am embarassed! (faints)
Manager: Who is this #*%& to come here and criticize my restaurant? (seethes)
Ramsay: You are all lazy, stupid, and hopeless!

****INTERMISSION****
(commercials, and a re-cap of the situation)

ACT II

Chef Ramsay:(confidently) I have hatched a plan. (To staff) You guys are terrible, but you have the potential to be better. Let's clean the kitchen!
(Cleaning montage proceeds)
Ramsay:(cooking) I am introducing a new menu with high quality ingredients and simple, robust flavors!
Manager: (grumbles)
Chef:(raises eyebrow suggestively)
Owner:(hugs Ramsay with enthusiasm)

ACT III

Ramsay: It is opening night at your new *redesigned* (new decorations unveiled) restaurant!
Manager: (paralyzed)
Chef: (skeptical)
Various Waistaff: (disorganized)
Customers: (some *very angry*, some * very satisfied*) Food!

ACT IV

Manager: I realize now that humility and self-discipline are positive values
Chef: I know now that I enjoy cooking.
Various Waitstaff: I like having customers to serve.
Owner: I hope I can recoup my debts before this publicity stunt is over!
Ramsay: My work here is done!

FIN

I've got years of experience working in government departments, so I have a bit of an idea of what happens. Whitehall departments are stacked with staid out of touch senior civil servants that are employed and paid to nod their heads, and the more senior of them go to the PM every now and then to bullshit about how well their department is performing, and, most importantly, to barter for more money.

So the Whitehall departments get their ridiculous amounts of dough (always much more when Labour get in) and so long as they spend it all, they are pretty much guaranteed as much the next financial year. Therefore, there's no incentive to use the money properly and every incentive to make up jobs, piss it all away and use lingo and bullshit a la carte served on a platter, to justify where it's all gone and why. Labour ministers need no convincing of the merits of cash a la piss up the wall, because so long as they see cash get spent, they can rest their weary blessed consciences that after all, wealth is properly being redistributed, and all is well.

There's one small problem. The system is fucked, it fucks everything up and everything gets fucked because it's all a load of fucking shit. Unless I forget to mention, the word 'fuck' appears a lot because the word aptly demonstrates what happens to a nation when this sort of system is allowed to continue. It gets fucked.

The amount of money that gets wasted in government is the stuff of legend. Savvy journos talk about it, tax payers lament about it, and lefties down play it. Overall, however, it's effects cannot be underplayed. Because unless we want to bankrupt this nation, politicians need to wake up and realise that urinating public money away indefinitely has consequences. And it's also unfair, as it means there's less wedge for important stuff. Like completely re-building the public transport system and infrastructure and overhauling the way we get about.

Solutions? Well, firstly, were I elected PM, as I may be be one day, I would completely change the way government works and how it's various departments are funded. First step: decentralise. And I mean bring about devolution to the regions, in order to encourage and fan the flames of democracy. Then, set in place a system whereby the politicians and apparatchiks and lowly civil servants in those localised regions get paid and praised according to how wisely cash is spent.

Sound weird? Ok, follow this:

As a Libertarian, I tend to have a lot of faith in science, nature and consequently, the free market. Look at any business, and the boss knows that unless he works hard, spends his cash sensibly and appropriately, he will go under. He needs to compete, come up with new ideas and generally be a crafty fucker.

Let's have a look at one amazing example of a top businessman. A perfectionist. Someone so anal, he is able to look after a sprawling empire whilst paying anal attention to detail. I am talking about a chef. His name, as everyone will have heard, is Gordon Ramsay.

I've just come back from holiday and have been blown away by his book "Playing with Fire" which I picked up from Waterstones at Manchester Airport. In this book, Ramsay knocks my bollocks off onto a plate by talking about things like ensuring letters are written properly and posted neatly and that the toilets are completely immaculate and designed to perfection. What a crotch stomper. If I were female, I'd tackle that man to the ground and impress my less noble parts on his cheek.

As a quick sampler, I give you a quick quote from page 98 of the paperback edition:

"The study of a restaurant and the movements, sight-lines and habits of its guests all combine to give a clear indication of what needs to be planned early on. A restauranteur would do well to look at all aspects of the operation. Take the 'ladies and gents' as an example: you should play the role of the guest, listing a thousand considerations, all of which will take you a step towards getting it right. From a seat in the restaurant, your guest will want to navigate a route to the loo with as little fuss as possible. A well trained waiter will gently indicate to you that he knows what's on your mind and lead the way. Nothing beats this for guest attention...

...the doors leading to a lavatory in a restaurant are critical. Gentle swing-doors are to be considered. Who wants to touch handles in a place like this?..."

Now that's what I'm fucking talking about. The man is a God. A genius. Just imagine if we could get politicians and civil servants to be that passionate and anal about their remits? The country would be one big fucking version of Switzerland without the mounds of ice and gaggles of bored checkpoint guards. It would be fantastic.

Have you seen 'Casino' wtih De Niro and Pesci? De Niro plays a Casino manager with mob ties. Unlike many of these gangster characters who slob over pasta and finish the night off wtih a messy murder and a glass of Scotch, 'Ace' Rothstein goes about his business with the grace and elegance of a gilded butterfly. Every single nano-detail is obsessed about, and when he realises that the chef in the kitchen puts disproprtionate amounts of blueberries in various muffins, he bollocks him and demands that an "equal amount of blueberries go in each muffin". Why would he do this? Because he is a perfectionist businessman that knows to a tee what the punter wants and what the discerning punter is looking for. I admire this fucking shit, and if politicians behaved like this, I'd lick their envelopes and stick my ballot in their box.

I'm not just talking about efficiency and savings in departments, I'm talking the whole shebang. And in order to encourage the right sorts of people to go into politics and government, we need incentives. After all, 'Ace' Rothstein, the fictional character, and Gordon Ramsay, the larger than real life chef, wouldn't be in business unless there was a pay off for them at the end. In government, the civil servants have no incentives to work hard (they are impossible to sack and performance related pay is a non starter) and the politicians have no incentive (they are enormously well paid and knowing their opposition on the other side of the House of Commons are equally as inept and clueless, are happy to stick about for the cash, kudos and possible Honours).

So, with the principles discussed in mind, I suggest some form of proper performance related incentive for politicians and civil servants. No more fat budgets to blow every finanical year, but a simple and democratic system whereby the feedback gained by the public in various localities get to vote on their satisfaction and their overall opinion on how their politicians and representatives have served them. The higher the rating, the better the pay and bonuses for the civil servants and politicians. Instead of budgets being spent and demanded again, every year would be a proper sit down session with a board of financial experts (or tight fisted fuckers as I would term them) who's incentive would be to drive down waste and keep costs down. Regional government departments would have to convince the board yearly why they need cash and what it's for, using the scoresheets from the public votes as back-up. Merely spending it all and saying you're broke would not suffice as it does now...the system would be harsh and unrelenting, until every last penny was accounted for and appropriated sensibly.

The panel of financial fuckers would have an incentive themselves, with their decisions being published and held to account. There ain't no rottweiler more vicious than the media and any loose decisions would be seized upon.

My plan is about complete openness, democracy and transparency. The people decide. They get to set, the a greater or lesser degree, the amount of money deserved to be paid to their politicians. Their feedback would determine whether a pay cut or a pay rise is in order. Let's face it folks, when it comes to money, the dirty dollars, the pernicious pounds, the irksome Euros, people soon shape up and act fast if it affects their stash. Harsh and unseemly, but true. Why do you think politicians are so disrespectful and blase about their actions? Because they don't really need to give a fuck or care about you: they are massively well paid and privileged and there's nothing anyone can do about it. They line their pockets, we get shit services. End of.

Going back to the Ramsay discussion, I would love nothing more than to see my system bring about a political class of Ramsay's and 'Ace' Rothsteins. Instead of lolling in offices, they would get out there and see first hand what was wrong and how to put it right. Take a Minister for Transport for example. He or she, along with their localised counterparts, would go cattle class on trains and on dirty buses and knackered roads and figure out, with the eye of a perfectionist, how to put it right. How to make it spot on first class for the public. After all, it is they they must please, not just for votes but for pay. You'd see no more filthy trains, late, overcrowded tubes and buses, packed roads and unsustainable petrol-propelled cars with their enormous running costs.

Department for Health? You'd kiss goodbye to MRSA and dirty wards in no time. Department for Work and Pensions? The welfare state would getting the trimming it needs for starters and the collosal leakage of cash and misappropriation of money wouldn't last long.

And of the Home Office? Well, the most outrageous developments of recent decades would surely come to an end. As everyone knows, the public has been as vocal as it can be on the softness on crime, and no-one has lifted a finger. I dare say under my system we'd see the hopeless criminal justice system and unnecessary bureacracy placed on cops come to an abrupt end and rejuvinated into a proper working and healthy system.

Spiel over. Hope you followed and if you'd like to add your views, do comment below or email us using our new Contact Page.

Adios

John "The Don" Demetriou.

http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/

Oh, and cause I know you're missing your Gordo love...

Stella Artois is sponsoring the London Bloggers' Summer Social next week, so we can look forward to a glass or two of free wife-beater...

They've also challenged us to describe our local watering hole in 150 words or less, stating the reasons that keep us going back, sooooo I wrote a poem. No one said the competition entry couldn't be in poetry... then again, none of the other entrants has waxed lyrical about a pub throughout their entire entry. So far, that is. The closing date is Friday 25th July, so perhaps there'll be more poems by then.

Below you will see my entry, referring to Gordon Ramsay's Warrington Pub, which is located altogether too close to our home. I love it there. It has an amazing polychromic front porch decorated with stunning art nouveau tiles, and a beautiful old double-sided bar in carved mahogany. Thank heavens it didn't go All Bar One on us. We should treasure our old beauties like the Warrington. There's altogether too much sanding of pub floorboards going on.

Before you find out what the competition prize is, I must now subject you to my first ever attempt at poetic pub reviewing:  

The No-F-Words Warrington

The Warrington Pub down on Warrington Crescent’s

The local I frequent for R ‘n’ R.

The specialness lies in its Olde Worlde presence -

So different from cloned and identikit bars.

Last year it closed for some renovation,

As stellar chef, Ramsay, acquired the deeds.

For patrons whose interest is mastication,

The Warrington’s back feeding everyone’s needs.

It hasn’t gone posh with pretentious infection;

Builders swig next to the girls wearing Choos.

The staff will advise on your beverage selection

Whilst fielding your questions on Big Gordon’s news.

From dressed Cornish crab to a Casterbridge Ribeye

The Warrington should seldom disappoint.

The fishcakes are gourmet, they surely ain’t Birdseye

And old-fashioned bar snacks help add to this joint.

The only thing marring my Warrington visits –

A lack of expletives directed at chefs.

The atmosphere calm, there are no flying trivets

Or verbal abuse freely peppered with effs.

On LondonBloggers.net, Andy Bargery writes: "the prize is a trip in the Stella Artois Star over London Airship."

THAT's precisely why I decided to enter this competition. I've always wanted to travel by airship. There's something so Indiana Jones about it.

Drużynie z Homla nic już nie pomoże, czyli o autokarowych perygrynacjach. Legia Urbana i ciche trybuny. Trochę o Beitar Jerozolima, trochę o polityce transferowej Wisły. Kariera Dariusza W. Jak KSZO w piłkę grywało. Biologiczny fenomen - Ricardo Ricco. Transfer Ronaldinho. Baraż mistrzostw świata na żużlu. Cantona na plaży i czeskie manerwy szkoleniowe. Co mają polscy bokserzy do wyznań Marcina? Przyjaźni między narodami, czyli trochę o olimpiadzie. Lechia cywilizuje się za pomocą zawodnika Mysony, a manewry ligowe trwają w najlepsze. Kadra Lozano. Na koniec trochę mówimy od rzeczy, więc trzeba wyrwać kabel i zakończyć program.

The Bad Boys

Think about this one ladies, it's not as easy as it seems...

Who: British Chef Marco Pierre White, formerly of Harveys, The Restaurant Marco Pierre White and Oak Room (all in London). Retired from cheffing in 1999 at the age of 38 after being awarded 3 Michelin Stars (all gained by the age of 33). Now owns The White Star Line, a company with a portfolio of over 8 restaurants in London. Author of several books, most notably The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef. Currently filming The Chopping Block for NBC.

Evidence: During his early career in the kitchen, White regularly ejected patrons from his restaurants if he took offense at their comments. In the '80s a city trader asked if he could have a side order of chips with his lunch, White hand-cut and personally cooked the chips but charged the customer £25 for the honor.A young chef at Harveys, who once complained of heat in the kitchen, had the back of his chef's jacket and trousers cut open by White wielding a sharp paring knife. Once reduced a very young Gordon Ramsay to tears in the kitchen (there's a pic of this in White's book).

Bad Boy Rating: He's the original gangsta. 10.

Who: Scottish Chef Gordon Ramsay of Gordon Ramsay at The London (NYC & LA), Gordon Ramsay at Cielo (Boca Raton, FL) and 20 other establishments in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Awarded a total of 12 Michelin stars. Host of Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen.

Evidence: In 2002 Ramsay was breathalysed and arrested and charged with driving under the influence of excess alcohol in London. In 2007, Ramsay admitted stealing the reservations book from his Aubergine restaurant in 1998 and blaming the theft on Marco Pierre White to prevent him from being appointed as chef in Ramsay's place. Frequent user of profanity and a huge fan of yelling and insulting his cooks on his way to Once stopped waiter with a tie broadly knotted around his collar.

“Young man, what’s your name?”

“Swapon, chef.”

“Your knot,” Ramsay said. “It’s very big, don’t you think?”

“Yes, chef.”

“You know what they say in Britain—the bigger the knot, the smaller the cock. Young man, I’m sure your cock is very big. Will you do something about your knot, please?”

“Yes, chef.”

Bad Boy Rating: 9 out of 10.

Who: At the risk of becoming a Bourdain fan site, I had to pick him, American Chef/Mandy (that's man-candy) Anthony Bourdain. Formerly the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles and schooled at The CIA, AB is currently the host of No Reservations an adventure travel/food show on the Travel Channel.

Evidence: Do you live in a hole? Bourdain is a former user of cocaine, heroine and LSD In Kitchen Confidential he writes of his experience in a restaurant in 1981: "We were high all the time, sneaking off to the walk-in [refrigerator] at every opportunity to 'conceptualize.' Hardly a decision was made without drugs. Pot, quaaludes, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms soaked in honey and used to sweeten tea, Seconal, Tuinal, speed, codeine and, increasingly, heroin, which we'd send a Spanish-speaking busboy over to Alphabet City to get."

Bad Boy Rating: 9 out of 10

I had to really think about this one kids, it was really hard to make some of these decisions but I did it...here are my picks for Do, Dump or Marry: The Bad Boys of the Kitchen.

Do: Anthony Bourdain

Dump: Gordon Ramsay

Marry: Marco Pierre White (surprised I didn't pick AB? Me too but there is something about Marco...his reclusive lifestyle in England...that appeals to me on an intellectual level).

Don’t get me wrong, I do not like The F-Word, but it is worth watching it occasionally for a few cheap laughs. You know the bit I mean: when Gordon tells you how to make his pea and lettuce soup in just one minute, all in words of just one syllable. Riotous! We are somehow meant to see Gordon’s failure to use any adjectives at all as the signature of his virility, “full of balls, energy, and really great food,” as the Channel-4 tag-line puts it. (Full of balls? Sure is. . .) And the gender stereotypes peddled in Gordon’s brisk how-tos are just as strange and crass as those associated with Nigella. Man does not describe. Oh no. Describing words redundant, and unmanly. Man only know how to use imperative. Imperative style of cooking instructions works best with short, firm words. More difficult with two syllables. Very hard to make the word “mushrooms” sound manly. “Mushrooms” does not sound like manly decree. Man quickly mutters “mushrooms” then gets on with real business of shouting Real Man Words. “WHISK! TOSS! STIR!” etc. If Nigella’s mellifluous, adjectival style is supposed to be read in direct relation to her cleavage, then the F-Word’s use of the imperative might be seen as the culinary equivalent of a wanking circle, with wee Gordon in the centre, braying out commands (Shaft! Girth! Beat! Etc)

Gordon.

But I bring the F-word to your attention because of a particular moment in Tuesday’s show. The redoubtable Janet Street Porter appeared on set, fresh from her carefully stage-managed experience of rearing and slaughtering two veal calves. The viewer had already been treated to the money-shot of the poor beasts’ deaths, and what we clearly needed now was Janet to preach at us about our lamentable food-buying habits. We must never buy cheap meat again. No we mustn’t. Instead, we should feast only on luxury meat products humanely reared by media luminaries. While dispensing her new-found farming wisdom, Janet was dressed in a formless top, machine-knit in a vibrant shade of puce. It was a truly hideous garment (sorry, Janet).

“I suppose you knit that yourself?” said Gordon, inferring that Janet’s experience of slaughtering “her boys” had turned her all rustic, or something.
“No I fooking didn’t, Gordon,” retorted Janet, “this is a designer item.”

puce

Now, I know that I’m more sensitive than your average jane to anti-knitting slurs, but this was about so much more than knitting. Janet enthused about how raising the calves, and watching the process of their lives and deaths, had completely transformed her perception of meat. She now knew what was involved with what she put on her plate. And everyone should think about how the meat they eat is raised and killed. Apart from the patronising attitude, and the unavoidable questions Janet did not address about cost, class, and the ethics of raising a niche luxury product like veal, this is sort of fair enough. Yes, Janet. We should all think about process, and production. But, the problem is, that she hadn’t really engaged with process at all. She had merely played a game to camera: a game with a neatly plotted narrative arc, with contrived hooks and encounters, with a particular rhetorical language (that of reluctant maternity—quite bizarre) and with moments of typically ‘direct’ and ‘irreverant’ Street-Porter-like entertainment. “’Oh no, it’s pooing again’, moans Janet,” to quote The F-Word website. Janet had engaged about as much with the slow processes and difficult realities of farming as she had with the making of her sweater, and her quick retort about the obvious superiority of ‘designer’ to ‘hand-made’ spoke volumes.

So is it just me, or does so much of this currently popular moralising about process (particularly as it concerns food) have an incredibly hollow ring? It is just far too easy for Gordon, Janet and their like to preach to the middle classes about the importance of the means of producing edible luxuries, before nipping out to snap up, promote, or sell other commodities with little thought about the process of their making—or the livelihoods of their makers, for that matter.

But one place where such discussions of process are neither hollow or easy is in Richard Sennett’s excellent new book, The Craftsman. If you haven’t read it yet, you definitely should. In a series of radical, lyrical essays, this venerable sociologist makes the case for a reassessment of the idea of work itself. The making of things for use or beauty are never, he argues, a matter of individual brilliance, the romantic imagination, or isolated talent. Rather, for him, excellence lies somewhere between the eye and hand, in material practices and processes, and the slow engagement with them over time. Sennett’s notion of craft is something equally applicable to the design of a mobile-phone or a line of linux code, as much as a Stradivari violin , or a particular recipe for Poulet a la d’Albufera. For him, all these ‘crafts’ involve the same struggle with tools and processes, the same issues of encountering and solving problems, of developing and refining skill and focus, of learning how repetition itself can be creative, and of coming to know the singular pleasure of doing something well for its own sake. It is a book of tremendous breadth and sweep but which is also rich in details. In fact, for me, Sennett’s singularity, both as a writer and a public intellectual, is found in such details: in the bumper that really bothers him in the parking garage of a post-modern building; in his discussion of the symbolic values of bricks; in his thoughtful self-awareness of being an outsider as he watches a group of healthcare professionals transfixed by the image of a troublesome large intestine. And any man who can begin a sentence with the words “consider, for instance, an irregular tomato” and from that opening build an argument about the how an idea of virtue inheres in thing-ness, is OK by me.

Epinglier (pin making) Diderot, Encyclopedie (1762)

Lurking around the back of Sennett’s thesis is a familiar argument about the de-humanising effects of the modern and post-modern division of labour. He is quite explicit about his fondness for the all-encompassing curiosity of the mid-eighteenth century, or the undifferentiated artisanal labour of the medieval workshop. Not for him Adam Smith’s efficiently produced pins. This practical resistance to the division of labour—and the division of knowledge too, perhaps—is something he clearly applies to his own intellectual craft-work. He writes about the way children treat the spaces and equipment of playgrounds just as articulately as he does about Martin Heidegger.

Sennett’s thoughts about process have multiple and resonant contexts for me. For example, his remarks about being-in-the-thing came to my mind very strongly, when I read Mandy’s account of the pleasure of the rhythm of knitting her swallowtail shawl:

“We might think, as did Adam Smith describing industrial labour, of routine as mindless, that a person doing something over and over goes missing mentally; we might equate routine and boredom. For people who develop sophisticated hand skills, it’s nothing like this. Doing something over and over is stimulating when organised as looking ahead. The substance of the routine may change, metapmorhose, improve, but the emptional payoff is one’s experience of doing it again. There’s nothing strange about this experience. We all know it; it is rhythm. Built into the contractions of the human heart, the skilled crafsman has extended rhythm to the hand and eye." (p. 175)

. . .and his section on mess chimes very strongly with Felix’s and Kirsty's Messy Tuesdays posts:

"To arrive at that goal [that of being fit-for-purpose] the work process has to do something distasteful to the tidy mind, which is to dwell temporarily in mess—wrong moves, false starts, dead ends. Indeed, the probing craftsman does more than encounter mess; he or she creates it as a means of understanding working procedures." (p.161)

And what Sennett has to say about the importance of modesty, and the awareness of one’s own inadequacies, while engaging with material processes is very moot too. Perhaps this is something for Janet and Gordon to bear in mind.

*You can hear Richard Sennett talking with Laurie Taylor and Grayson Perry about craftsmanship, and process in this episode of Thinking Allowed.

A while back I wrote a segment on Plane Food, Gordon's newest holding in Terminal Five of Heathrow Airport.  Well, on the way back to the USA, we decided to stop there one more time.  After all, with Europe so expensive we can hardly afford coming back again for a long time.  I'm glad that the standards have stayed high, and there's even been a few changes since we last visited.

The restaurant saw a lot more covers this time around, which is more typical of the restaurant.  We came in at 1 PM for lunch, unlike last time, which was 4 PM for dinner (an odd hour indeed).  It's good to see it bustling, and yet the restaurant still has that calmness and serenity about it because it literally feels like you're in a cavern.  Everything is just so open here.

It did seem like a lot of people complained about the cauliflower soup, because it's no longer on the menu.  It has since been replaced by a white onion cream soup, which on the topmost level looks almost exactly the same as the previous soup.  It's certainly an improvement on the bland taste of its predecessor; there's a lo of fresh onion in here, but it doesn't bite because of the cream.  However, I still think Gordon can't make a really hearty and flavorful soup if his life depended on it.  The taste really came from dipping the foccaccia bread (garlic of course) into the soup.  By itself, the soup was just a little better than before.

The pasta has a new addition too: a macaroni au gratin with mushrooms.  It's not heavy on the cheese like you'd expect in an au gratin preparation.  Instead, Gordon has used fresh mushrooms and some pecorino cheese to give that browned texture on top.  The pastas are still pretty good here, and the prawn pasta I spoke of earlier actually has a slight improvement to it because it's actually a little spicier than before.  Arrabiatta preparations always win in my book.

It appears, however, that the braised lamb is now a special instead of a menu feature.  That's all well and fine, but they took away the best item on the menu, in my opinion.  Maybe it's Gordon's ploy to say it's a special or something...but I digress.  Here, the menu is updated to include a roast chicken with spinach salad, which is an extremely simple preparation.  A bit of balsamic, spinach and arugula, cook until slightly wilted, and there you go.  Add a roast chicken seasoned with salt and pepper and everything comes together in one very pretty looking plate.  The roast chicken is easily one of the best I've tasted in a while.  It's tender, juicy and flavorful, and well enough on its own.  However, adding the spinach salad really contributes to the flavor.  Another newcomer is the basic steak, which is a more French-style item.  A dollop of garlic butter and onion rings finish off the steak, which could have been cooked better.  I asked for medium, and I got well done.  Come on, the cooks should know better than that!

This time around, we DID get to the dessert menu!  *claps* With orders of apple crumble and raspberry meringue, we wanted to get our sweet tooth happy before we boarded an airplane.  The apple crumble here is simply amazing.  It's warm, tasty, and the contrast between the crumbly top and sweet chewiness of the apple filling should not be missed.  Add some creme anglaise and this is a great way to end your meal.  However, it is a bit on the heavy side.  For something that is lighter and more summer-ish, go for the raspberry meringue, which is a little and fluffy "cookie" served with a red berry salad.  Refreshing to the palate, and probably a bit more lean and healthy than an apple crumble.  Then again, who cares?  You're in vacation, right?  Right??

In all, Plane Food has seen some changes, but still manages simple but quality dishes.  I may have been rough on it in the previous entry, but it appears that Gordon has taken some notice to his kitchen and is working to turn it around before it turns into one of his Kitchen Nightmares.

 
Nederland 1
20:30 Blik op de weg
21:10 Vinger aan de pols
21:45 Opsporing verzocht
22:35 De vakantierechter
23:05 Studio Sportzomer
23:55 Journaal

Nederland 2
20:50 Stop de tijd
21:28 Blauw bloed extra: Monarchy: The Royal family at work
22:00 Journaal
22:15 Nova/Den Haag vandaag
22:45 't Zal je maar gebeuren
23:25 55 Degrees North

Nederland 3
21:15 Tribe
22:10 Going north
22:40 Sportjournaal
22:55 Journaal
23:05 Hustle

RTL 4
20:30 TV Makelaar
21:30 Herman den Blijker: Herrie in de keuken!
22:30 Gordon Ramsay: Oorlog in de keuken!
23:30 NL Vertrekt

RTL 5
20:30 CSI: Miami
21:25 The inside
22:20 Las Vegas
23:10 Kidnapped

RTL 7
20:30 The football factory
22:15 Dead heat

RTL 8
20:30 Romancing the stone
22:25 Rich bride poor bride
22:55 As the world turns
23:45 Oprah Winfrey show

SBS 6
20:30 NCIS
21:30 House
22:30 Hart van Nederland - Late editie
22:45 Piets weerbericht
22:50 Shownieuws - Late editie
23:15 De Nijmeegse Vierdaagse
23:45 De opvoedpolitie

Net 5
20:30 Gossip girl
22:10 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
23:55 Will & Grace

Veronica
20:30 The nutty professor II: The Klumps
22:40 Star Trek: First contact

     LONDON: Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay yesterday launched a scolding tirade against God and the Catholic Church as World Youth Day took centre stage in Australia. In a speech made at the Royal Theatre in London before 2,500 guests including Prince Phillip and the Duke of Kent, Ramsay told the packed theatre that he was 'sick and tired' of God getting credit for the world's natural wonders and that religion was "overrated".

     The speech sparked rage and condemnation from the Church, but Ramsay refused to apologise and insisted that people 'desist' from religion altogether and turn to cooking instead.

     "As far as I'm concerned, you have a bunch of f**king morons in every corner of the planet praying to this pathetic peice of sh*t who quite frankly doesn't give a f**k about anyone," he shouted heatedly before the stunned audience.

     "I'm telling you these people need their f**ing heads straightened because society can't continue to take responsibility for their f**ked antics and stupidity."

     Ramsay concluded the speech by throwing his apron into the audience and walking from the stage, prompting many to boo at the TV chef and forcing his legal team to evaluate his professional future. Ramsay was unavailable for comment today but his assistant gave an ambiguous statement to BBC, saying that Ramsay was "taking the matter up with God personally" in the coming weeks.

Today I finished watching the first season of Hell's Kitchen. I recently got on a big Chef Ramsay kick when I checked out his other show, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. On that one he goes from one disastrous restaurant to another, and tries to fix them up. Unfortunately, the people that run these places are completely retarded, and think he has no idea what he's talking about. Ramsay is great, though. He tells people exactly how it is. Some people need to be told that their food is shit, or they are a dumbass. It's the only way to get them to listen. We're just too polite to each other. If we actually grew a pair, and told people the truth, I think a lot more stuff would get done. It's like the goddamn road I live on. They started construction on it in February, and projected it to be finished at the end of April. Well, it's now the middle of July, and there are still huge fucking holes and construction equipment everywhere. You can't even go South on the road, only North. So, it's a huge pain in the ass to go anywhere. If someone would just get these fuckers in gear (I don't know if it's the government running the thing, or the illegal immigrants doing the work) then this project might actually get done, albeit half a year late.

Anyway, back to Ramsay. On his show Hell's Kitchen, he takes on a group of nobodies, and has them cook up his world-class cuisine. These people are largely a bunch of schmucks, and can't cook for shit. This, combined with Ramsay screaming profanities at people for their constant fuck-ups, makes for great television. In true reality TV fashion, someone gets eliminated each week. The twist on Hell's Kitchen is that there are no winners, but rather only those people who were the "least bad." It's a hell of a lot of fun watching him yell at peoples' ineptitude. He's like the House or Simon Cowell of cooking, except way more hardcore. He is the most intense guy on television, by far. I know if I ever worked for this guy, I would probably pee my pants, and then he'd beat the shit out of me for not having big enough bollocks. This fucker is scary. But in a good way. An incredibly entertaining way. Watching Hell's Kitchen is like watching a car crash. You want to see everything that happens, but you don't want to be a participant.

The first season was really good, although somewhat predictable when it came to figuring out who he was going to eliminate. I liked Michael, Elsie, Jessica, and Ralph the best. Jimmy won a special place in my heart for making it so far without having much cooking skill at all. In the end I wanted Michael to win out over everyone else, because he seemed to be the most innovative cook amongst them. Deep down I think that Chef Ramsay didn't want to declare anyone as the ultimate winner. Did any of those jokers really deserve to win their own restaurant? No, not really. That's the kind of shit you have to earn for yourself, not just survive 10 episodes on a reality show to get. Nevertheless, this was really entertaining. There was tons of drama, and a hell of a lot of comedy, mostly coming from Chef Ramsay chewing out his unskilled crew. I kind of feel sorry for the guy, being one of the top chefs in the world, and having to watch his food be prepared by people who know less about cooking than the staff of Del Taco. I find it kind of surprising that someone of his caliber would agree to do this show again, after all the fuckups from the first season. How many times did he have to shut down his kitchen, anyway? All but once? He must enjoy it, getting to yell at clueless morons. Either that, or Fox pays him really well.

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a reality TV junkie. Some of it is awesome, and some of it is incredibly shitty. Yet, I can't stop watching it. If you're looking for a cooking show with some bite, and a reality show that doesn't pull any punches, then Hell's Kitchen is definitely for you. Chef Gordon Ramsay is the man, and if I wasn't dirt poor, I'd eat at one of his restaurants.

Verdict: Awesome

July 14 1789: there goes the Bastille
July 14 2008: time for brioche in memory of the much maligned Queen Marie Antoinette

for although the French Republic in its fifth incarnation has many reasons to be proud, its punitive tax regime, stratosperic social charges and oceans of bureaucracy are not among them, I note.  Two hindrances to happiness:

• strikes: amusing on TV but not quite so fun when you're marooned in a Fiat Panda - surrounded by a forest of blockaded juggernauts on a slip road in the midst of the bleak and barren Calais hinterland, Pérardel and port both tantalisingly within yet crucifyingly beyond reach, behind the blazing barricades - increasingly in need of a pee.
• employment: you'd think that with all the UNemployment in France, finding a reliable someone at a reasonable rate to clean your holiday apartment in an above-board, legit way would be a reasonable ask.  Not so!  I won't go into the tedious details here but sometimes I think buying a slave would be cheaper and less risky when it comes to all the red tape.

And yet despite my frustrations I'm still bowled (or is that bouled?) over by the place and its people and here's why:

• Burgundy
• Bandol
• Bellet
• berets
• baguettes
• bulots
• Bouzigues
• Brie

and that's just the Bs I came up with in two minutes.  Of course I could go on and on and on but I'll save it for another day, as today, le quatorze juillet (don't call it Bastille Day), I have a glass of bubbly to raise to our continent's most cultured country, the belligerent, boasting, Azur-côting and, as even President de Gaulle admitted, impossible to govern, nation of cheese - and wine - makers.

So in all your gastroplodding glory, France I salute you.  I don't know where I'd be without you so socca' t to me and vive la révolution!

And spreading the love in a magnanimous spirit, I also raise my glass in warm welcome to the world to Knox Leon and Vivienne Marchelin, twins new-born to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at Hôpital Lenval in Nice (the big building on the Promenade des Anglais with blue windows but weirdly no balconies) on Saturday night.   Cheers, Brangelina, nearly perfect timing, considering Christian Etrosi, mayor of Nice, promised honorary citizenship of Nice to the tiny twosome last week.

And while we're on the French Riviera, here's an appetizing pic of Gordon Ramsay. Gives a whole new meaning to Lobster Thermidor, don't it?

Credit cruncher footnote : Lidl's champagne is made by Vranken, and although I daresay it won't be filling Brangelina's glass anytime soon, the Premier Cru at anywhere from £11.99 to £14.99 is damn good value all the same.

(As with any video I post with Gordon Ramsay - Language Alert!)

Part I

Part II

I really want some Dim Sum now...

-A

After the two great REM shows I saw in June, I was lucky enough to have won a pair of tickets to see the free Coldplay show at MSG. Our tickets were back of the floor but I had a GREAT time at this show. This was my first time seeing Coldplay and I was totally blown away by Chris Martin's energy onstage and the tightness of this great band.  Thise who know me know that my favorite band is U2. They are also my favorite live band because you walk away froM their shows with a feeling of hope and uplifting that you don't get from most bands.  I walked away from this show with a little bit of that feeling.  The NY Post had a very good review of the show. The Daily News had a not so good review but since my wife and I had a great time, I wont link the Daily News review.  I am now really excited about seeing them in Hartford on August 2.

Spain wins Euro 2008.  This is a rare time I think that football fans can clearly say that the best team of the tournament ended up winning.  Well deserved.

As far as signings go, all the rumors we have heard so far (Ronaldo to Real Madrid, Kaka to Chelsea, Adebayor to Milan, Ronaldinho to Milan or LA or Man City) have NOT happened.  I must admit that I LOVE Arsenal's signing of Samir Nasri.   He is young and while not a good fit for many other teams right now he will fit in perfectly with Wenger's style at Arsenal. 

The team I truly support, Panathinaikos, is on the verge of signing Arsenal's Gilberto Silva (that is if you believe the more often than not unreliable Greek press).  However, i think this will happen and it will be good.  Panathinaikos have done everything right this summer. They locked up Austrian captain Andreas Ivanschitz and with Gilberto him, Giorgios Karagounis and Helder Postiga, Panathinaikos should be well placed to make a run for the title in the Greek league as well as advance to the group stages of the Champions League.

 Finally, in reality TV world, my prediction of Petrozza winning Hell's Kitchen did not come true. Chritina was the winner after what looked like an even final dinner service.  Ramsay says he did it with an eye towards future potential.  I don't agree with this view as it seems to take away from the purpose of having a reality show now but it is his show and restaurant. 

Project Runway starts this upcoming week so that will take up my reality show viewing slot. I'll comment on this once the show begins.

If you haven't seen it - don't forget you can watch it on hulu.com 

The final two were Christina, a 23 year old Culinary Student from MO, and Petrozza a 47 year Catering Director from NC.  If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it over at Hulu.com, because **spoilers** will follow. ... more

'Hell's Kitchen The Video Game'. Just what you want to hear. No? Not me either. Is it me or does Ubisoft like making crappy video games of TV series? That's a lot of questions but I bet we've all got the same answer. Yeah it might be coming to Wii & DS but this was so ridiculous that I had to post it. Apparently that game offers a three tiered challenge whilst you're watched over by a virtual Gordon Ramsey. I wouldn't think that Ramsey would allow himself to be tied in with such a potential piece of crap but I guess it's a paycheck. He did say this:

“I had a great time doing the voice for my own animation,” said Gordon Ramsay. “Being in a video game is a new experience for me and I’m very pleased with the results.”

I guess if he wasn't pleased almost everyone would know about it by now but money does do strange things to people. You can read the rest of the deets over at Kotaku.

It's still a bit crazy and does sound like a piece of crap but who knows it could (definitely won't) be good.

This meandering of Wiki got me thinking when I was reading an article about six degrees of separation. I'd wandered onto the article while reading about something else and I thought, what if the same principle applied to websites? What if the same thing applied to Wiki pages? Could you get from any subject to anything else by just using internal Wiki links on the articles? Well there was only one way to find out...

The game was set. Get from one Wiki article to another in six or less steps without clicking back or working backwards. You were allowed to view the destination page to see the content, but other than that there was no help. Shouldn't be too hard I thought.

First up was going from the planet Uranus to a page about digitaria, a type of grass. This seemed to be actually harder than I thought. I found the links quite easily but it took more steps than I anticipated. First time through I used this link chain;

Uranus and then, Voyager 2, NASA, Washington DC, United States, deciduous, plant, grasses, panicoideae and finally digitaria.

Seven intermediate steps, too many! I tried again using;

Uranus and then, weather, Earth's atmosphere, photosynthesis, plant, grasses, panicoideae and then landing on digitaria. There it was, six intermediate steps.

To prove that this was no fluke I decided to do a couple more. Next up I chose the number one and the Fender Stratocaster guitar. This proved to be a little too easy and I did it in four steps; one and then, Germany, rock music, guitar, Fender Stratocaster. My next challenge was a little harder.

A colleague came up with the suggestion of getting from the Rialto Bridge in Venice to television presenter Anneka Rice. The challenge was set, this seemed much harder. Harder was certainly something it was. Information about Anneka was scarce and I went down many dead alleys and got lost many times. I was on the verge of giving up until I cracked it. Looking at Anneka's wiki page I noticed that she was on the cooking programme, Hell's Kitchen. Being more recent I thought that this would have a greater presence on Wikipedia. With this in mind I came up with this magical line;

Rialto bridge and then, Italy, United Kingdom, culture of the UK, Gordon Ramsey, Hell's Kitchen before ending up with Anneka Rice.

So there we have it, six steps. It may even seem that it's not just people that are separated by six degrees. It may actually be every single thing that exists. Well, if you're bored at work then try it out, it can be fun to think of the most seemingly random things you possibly can and trying to find the link. If you get stumped then let me know what has defeated you and I guarantee I'll find a way to work it.

No, our boy Petrozza did not win this season. Unfortunately, he fell prey to some poor organization skills and lackluster prepping in the final episode. He still made it close with some clutch decision-making and team-leading in the finale, but it was not enough to over Christina's solid performance.

Don't get me wrong, I do not hate Christina, nor do I dislike her. She was a solid competitor and a good, young chef. She certainly has a lot of potential and I can understand why Gordon Ramsay chose her to be his executive chef in Los Angeles.

But I think there was a rallying cry to support Petrozza, especially when he became the last man standing. We all related to his character, his humility, he sensitivity and his passion. He is an everyman, a hard-working American trying to make a name for himself after years and years of suffering in terrible jobs.

Christina, so young, has this gigantic head start in her career now that was not afforded to someone like Petrozza when he was coming up through the ranks. Good for her. She played the game well and she is a good leader.

I just wish our boy would have won the prize, it would have been a fairy tale ending. But then again, they do call this reality television for a reason.

I do not want to bore any of you with the details of the season finale other than my thoughts above. No need for me to rehash anything that happened in particular here. I want this post to be more of a discussion of this season and get your thoughts on the season finale.

So let's hear it in the comments and look forward to the next season of Hell's Kitchen.

On a side note, again, there were a few eye-catching commercials during last night's HK and I wanted to share them with you. Unfortunately, I was only able to locate one online. It may be a little selfish because I am a HUGE fan, but it deserves some play. Enjoy!

Sadly, this is the end of the road for the weekly Hell's Kitchen recap, at least for this season. But the blogging must go on, and I will return to The Microcosm on a weekly basis to post about ... well ... something. You also can find me blogging at my home site, TheHazean.com.

Thanks for following the show with me, see you next season (hopefully)!

Nederland 1
20:00 Journaal
20:30 Blik op de weg
21:10 Vinger aan de pols
21:50 Opsporing verzocht
22:35 De mensen van de recherche
23:05 Studio Sportzomer
23:55 Journaal

Nederland 2
20:25 Netwerk
20:50 Stop de tijd
21:25 Blauw bloed extra: Monarchy: The Royal family at work
22:00 Journaal
22:15 Nova/Den Haag vandaag
22:40 Paul Rosenmöller en... stille rampen
23:20 55 Degrees North

Nederland 3
20:15 Journaal
20:25 Tourjournaal
21:15 Tribe
22:10 Going north
22:40 Sportjournaal
22:55 Journaal
23:05 Law & Order
23:55 Klein Holland

RTL 4
20:30 TV Makelaar
21:30 Herman den Blijker: Herrie in de keuken!
22:30 Gordon Ramsay: Oorlog in de keuken!
23:30 NL Vertrekt

RTL 5
20:30 CSI: Miami
21:25 The inside
22:20 Las Vegas

RTL 7
20:30 Baywatch: Hawaiian wedding
22:15 Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

RTL 8
20:30 Confessions of an American bride
22:15 Rich bride poor bride
22:45 As the world turns
23:35 Oprah Winfrey show

SBS 6
20:30 NCIS
21.30 House
22:30 Hart van Nederland - Late editie
22:45 Piets weerbericht
22:50 Shownieuws - Late editie
23:15 De opvoedpolitie

Net 5
20:30 Gossip girl
22:10 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Veronica
20:30 Wild wild west
22:40 Star Trek: Generations

uitzending gemist?
www.uitzendinggemist.nl / www.rtl.nl/service/gemist/home / www.youtube.com / http://www.sbs6.nl/web/show/id=73863/langid=43

I was bragging about my cooking and know-how right up unitl the moment of truth! I had been cooking souffle which would be the "piece de resitence" of our teams meal. Whilst I was busy chin-wagging and maybe having a bit too much vino, I popped my head round to check on my souffle and discovered a flat pancake in its place! Oh dear!! All of my cooking skills had gone flying straight out of the window. Of course my Gordon Ramsay look alike chef was not impressed at all, which put my ego back where it should be!! lol

In Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay puts aspiring chefs through a culinary boot camp! Experience the show's pressure-cooker atmosphere as you advance through kitchen and dining room challenges. Success depends on how well you cook and serve meals, so master each time management test on your way to becoming a 5-star chef! You can even unlock 35 amazing recipes from the show to try at home! See if you have what it takes to beat the heat of Hell's Kitchen! Download Hell's Kitchen now!

See more time management games.

I'm not really sure who I'm rooting for this Season.. I think all the drama is in which team will be stuck with Jen. I was a fan of Christiana because she seemed like the underdog the whole season.. but now she seems like a cocky brat so.. who knows.

My ultimate dream match-up:

vs.

For some reason I can see Bobby Flay coming into Hell's Kitchen and challenging Gordon Ramsay to a Throwdown and Ramsay telling him to fuck off will you and calling him a donkey.

Also check out the Hell's Kitchen game: http://www.playhk.com/

I'm off to bed now. I know it's not even 11 o'clock yet but the alternative would be falling asleep across the keyboard, which would be much less comfortable and leave me with key shaped imprints all over my face... not quite my preferred look for work.

CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay travelled to Murray Park today to film a special one-off segment for his award-winning food show The F-Word.

The fiery Scot, renowned for his short temper in the kitchen, was on the books as a Reserve player at Ibrox in the mid-80s and was given the chance to show off his football skills again when he joined the current Rangers squad for a training session under the watchful eyes of Walter Smith and Ally McCoist.

Ramsay, who is one of only three chefs in the UK to hold three prestigious Michelin Guide stars, then tested his own patience to the limit by inviting first-team stars into the kitchen to display their culinary expertise.

Was this a recipe for success or did it drive one of TV's biggest stars to gartronomic despair? The results will be shown on Channel 4 later this month.

Source: Rangers