[cape chef]

Anthony,

I appreciate your reply.
As a proffessianal chef I'm sure you can understand the "horror" in which many reacted to the airing of that show.I am very happy that you have been able to enjoy public success behind your books. And like I said in my first post "to each his own"There are a lot of chefs out there today that are in the public limelight due to there books,restaurants,"tv shows" publicist etc,and I think that it is a great oppurtunity for these peers of ours who have the stage to try to elevate the preseption of our industry.Think of the positive influence you can have on young chefs and the like.Hey ,I'm no spring chicken in this buisness and I have certaily done my fair share of loony **** . I like Vodka and sushi to.and since I'm married the only butts I like are Marlboros.Funny story why I call my self Cape Chef. My wife and I have a little cottage in Eastham on the cape, last summer my sister in law's then boyfriend gave me your book K.C.I loved it...read it in one sitting and the parts about your adventuers in P. town we're really well written.We go to P town all the time,so I was able to relate to your story.When we got home cheftalk was setting up the Live chat with you.so seeing that I love the cape,read your book there and then returned to find you doing a chat I just said hey,I'll call myself Cape Chef.
Anthony,Enjoy your success,you have earned it.I am sure you are working your arse off in Le Halles..and are doing many things. Just remember if you ever get a bone in your throat...hopefully one of us will be happy to help you out.
With Respect
cc
Brad

[momoreg]

Can someone please tell us what happened on the show? And what did you say, Anthony?

[Nicko]

Ok Momo, it sounds like I saw more of this show than anyone here since everone turned it off after 10 min. I did not because I was really interested to see how they portrayed our trade to the rest of TV land.


What they did not do is portray our trade at all, what they did do is make a point to slime the Chef profession by blatant Bull**** stero types. I mean this was a joke.


Here is my 5 second spot on what it was all about.
NEWS FLASH!!!!
Chefs caught on camera shocking video coverage. Are you sure the food you are eating ok? News at nine.


News my ***. More like a bogus freak show. So they have a couple of respectable looking chefs who analyze the footage, which by the way looked so bogus(the footage) that I really had a hard time believing it. Here are a few of disgusting things that they caught on camera:

• Guy throwing up on a pastry work table and cleaning it off with a rag, No soap no nothing.
• A guy and girl having sex on a cutting board on top of fresh fruit (really).
• Numerous shots of people spitting into food.
• Numerous shots of people urinating into soup pots, etc.
• And a whole lot more disgusting stuff that I don't feel deserve any attention.

In the show they actually interviews some of the people that they caught on camera. A quote from one grill cook "if you return food to me, it is an insult and if I can't get some of my feces into it then I am for sure going to spit on your food". Let me say that all of the people interviews did not sound like they had much beyond a high school education (rough yeah I know but true).


What they failed to do was show a kitchen like say George Blanc's or the michelin one star I worked at in France Restaurant Jaque Guy which was absoultely the cleanest kitchen I ever worked in. We spent a week cleaning that place for 14 hours a day before it closed down for the season.


It was a piece of trash and I hope someone puts together a piece that shows how clean real kitchens are.


And now... I will get of my soap box.

[ 02-16-2001: Message edited by: Nicko ]

[Nicko]

Actually momo it tells you exactly were they got the footage. Most large chains have surveilance cameras in the work area to cut down stealing etc. So first clue is that they got the footage from mostly chain restaurants (no names here). It also tells you something about the type of people these establishments hired if they were so utterly stupid as to do all of this stuff and not even realize they were on camera.

In all honesty this was like an episode of Jerry Springer.

[Nicko]

You know I actually thought of something that just dawned on me. THE TITLE When Chefs Attack.

How could anyone call those people chefs? What they should of called this piece of junk program was When restaurant owners don't take the time to hire qualified staff

I didn't see the show. A customer standing by the service window yesterday, saw me drop a pork chop on the floor. As I threw it in the trash, he brought up the subject of that TV show. Guess he thought I was going to serve it to someone right off the floor. Amazing how much influence TV has.

[cape chef]

He He,

I wish there was a way to track the ratings for that piece of s**t show...and if Boudran received any other type of criticism from the industry.
cc

[momoreg]

No wonder everyone is so pissed. Thank you Nicko, for enlightening those of us who were fortunate enough to miss that show. I do hope that the dining public is smart enough to realize that that is not the norm. And I'd be really shocked if a hyped up news piece like that was able to hurt the restaurant business. I'm just curious to know where they got such footage. Obviously it was staged. You don't just bust into the back door of a restaurant with a camera and find that!

[foodnfoto]

Why is anyone surprised by this show? This is just the next version of "Amazing Car Chases" "Bad Babysitters Caught on Tape", "Temptaion Island" ,"Real World", and "Survivor". With the popularity of these stupid shows and those like Jerry Springer, which cater to the lowest common denominator in entertainment, no one should be shocked that even more vile stuff is yet to come.
My only response to Anthony is: fire your publicist, get a manager who will help you weigh the pros and cons of such exposure. Don't feel too bad about it. After all, KC kind of started the current, popular fascination with back-of-the-house highjinks. And besides, anyone whose taste really matters didn't see the show.

[Live_to_cook]

As bad as the show was, and it was severely retarded, I wouldn't get too lathered up about its impact on the dining public.

It was clearly a collection of surveillance camera footage, from chains or lower-end hotel kitchens. The kind of stuff that corporate types collect so they can fire people.

Few people who regularly dine in places above the level of Ponderosa and have half a brain could have mistaken that footage for a reflection of kitchen work -- any more than "When Dogs Attack" typifies the pooch-human relationship.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Every industry has had to put up with this type of expose.It was our turn.Yes I've seen people do crazy things,but I'm sure nothing out of the usual .It happened to be our turn.Giving the general public the benefit they know this is the exception and not the rule.Just wait for "when cefs attack part dux;The return of mad cow" ]

Here in Boston a local news station did some "undercover" work, with hidden cameras and then aired it. Same idea, only true and so therefore more disturbing. I didn't see it, (wish that I had) but most people found it alarming. Customers asked me about it for weeks. We are just a small coffee house / sandwich place - I wound up posting my most recent health inspection slip so customers would feel at ease.

It is sad how much power the boob-tube has over the dining public. It's also amazing how many boobs can produce a dumb-a** show like the one mentioned above.
CS