GORDON RAMSAY MUST BE RAKING IT IN

Cooking programs have always been popular with the viewing public, as are reality shows. Some time ago someone came up with the idea of combining the two and shows like Hells Kitchen were born. In the battle of the cooks, none have been as victorious as Gordon Ramsay: the chef with the Midas touch.

The Masterchef US team

At the moment Gordon has programs airing on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US season 10 of Hells Kitchen is underway and is followed immediately on the schedule by Masterchef USA. For two nights in a row he dominates peak viewing time. In the UK Gordon's latest offering Gordon Ramsay Behind Bars is airing on channel four. The Ramsay bank balance must be doing pretty well at the moment.

The Ram with a Lamb

Hells kitchen features a team of men and a team of women that each run a kitchen at the Hells Kitchen Restaurant. In the show there will be in-fighting in the teams, individuals at odds with the Ram ,and participants, sometimes whole teams are thrown out of the kitchen by Chef Ramsay once he has finished insulting and humiliating them. Someone is eliminated each week until the top chef is crowned. Masterchef is part of a franchise that has been sold around the world. Gordon behaves better when dealing with amateur cooks but is only one of three judges on the show. The other two are Graham Eliot and Joe Bastianich (who can be as fierce as Gordon Ramsay). The show has the same format as season one of Masterchef Australia. It is a knockout show with an elimination every week.

The new show, Behind Bars is a diversion from the other two shows. The great Ram, it appears, is concerned about all the people in prison just, in his words "sitting around on their asses" giving nothing back. So his idea to change this "awful" situation is to teach them to cook, start a business and sell the product in the outside world. He assembles a brigade of twelve inmates for his kitchen. The guards that are spoken to by the TV crew are skeptical regarding the Rams chances of success: some of the guards write the prisoners off as incapable of change whereas others feel it is up to them to try and make a difference.

Unique problems are thrown up for the Ram to deal with: each corridor is locked so it takes an age to get from A to B. Knives and other potentially dangerous equipment are kept under lock and key which again slows things down and members of his kitchen can be taken away without notice leaving him short staffed. Naturally there are problems with the inmates, one of whom has to leave the team because of his aggressive attitude. He wasn't a team player.

One poor guy called Jerome (episode 2) kept getting put on report because of his attitude: he kept answering back and not "showing respect" to officers. It seemed to me that the prison was more bothered about getting a bit of backchat than they were with potential violent flare ups. They made a big deal  about Jerome's "disrespect" and it did seem that there were officers who had a grudge against the lad. He was removed from the kitchen despite showing promise and working hard.

There was also a big fuss made over a missing potato peeler. The kitchen was locked down and everybody got searched but it didn't turn up. THEN someone checks the inventory and discovers there is nothing missing: they had miscounted the number of peelers to start with. This incident had the feel of being contrived for the cameras to provide a little drama for the audience. The inmates reaction to this search was hilarious: they were quite indignant and one of them even said " We're supposed to be trainee chefs and we were treated like criminals". That gave me a laugh!

This is quite a good show, although I do want to raise a few points. Gordon: if someone breaks the law they go to prison. By doing so they are repaying society by losing their freedom and individual rights. They don't have to pay back more by making profit for a private enterprise. Secondly, why give jobs to criminals when there are plenty of law abiding citizens unemployed? Answer: because you wouldn't get a new angle for a TV show from that.

The Ram says he wants to do something for these people because he has a junkie brother who has been in and out of jail all of his life. Very commendable I'm sure, but perhaps he also has an eye on the Queens honors list.

Arise, sir Gordon - if you can stand up with that wallet!