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Hell's Kitchen: batlle of the 5-star hotel room service items

post #1 of 7
11/14/10 at 6:17pm
Thread Starter 

As a test, Ramsey gets take out egg rolls, a chicken salad sandwich from a convenience store, and a couple of other items.  He has buffalo wings from his hotel.  First, he tells everyone that all of the items are from room service menus from 5-star hotels (or something close anyway) and asks which ones they like best. 

 

One liked the buffalo wings and was loved on for being able to pick out the fine dining dish from the rubbish.  I am trying to determine how buffalo wings are supposed to meet "fine dining".  It's bar food.  It started out as bar food and should end up as bar food.  I have never considered going to a fine dining restaurant looking for buffalo wings.  In short, I'm simply stumped by the items on the menu and what any of them were doing on a supposed fine-dining room service menu. 

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post #2 of 7
11/14/10 at 11:50pm

 I have given up on HK,, the idiocy on the show pees me off and I am angry at Fox for making such a mockery of our profession.  Anything for ratings I guess.

 

I do have the utmost respect for Mr Ramsay and I do enjoy Kitchen Nightmares and him helping stalled chefs and cooks to see thier passion again

OK ... where am I going?.. and WHY am I in this handbasket??
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post #3 of 7
11/15/10 at 3:14am

Fine dining is an ambiguous term.

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post #4 of 7
11/15/10 at 3:49am

In some peoples world fine dining is McDONALDS WITH A CLOTH NAPKIN

Chef EdB
Over 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US  with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). 
      Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...
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post #5 of 7
11/15/10 at 5:50am

I just re-read the OP thread and the wings came from the hotel's room service menu.

Hotel room service menus run the gambit from pizza to chocolate cake and everything in between. The fine dining part only means that the dining rooms in the hotel are.......not necessarily room service.

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post #6 of 7
11/15/10 at 6:48am

There's also the open-question: Who decides what a sensitive palate is?

 

F'rinstance, that gas-station tuna salad may really have tasted good. Certainly it's as much "fine dining" as chicken wings made in Ramsay's own kitchen. Now the chicken salad may have been made last night, and stocked this morning. And Ramsay's wings might have been fried (from the freezer) to order. But that shouldn't matter at all when testing tastability.

 

Let's face it: At base, hot wings vary by only two things: the hotness of the sauce, and whether the wings are breaded or not. Oh, of course, one other thing; price. Wings from the outside would have cost what? five or six bucks. Wings ordered via room service were likely $30 or more. But the idea that his are palette pleasers and the outside stuff isn't is ludicrous on the face of it. Proof of the pudding: Only one of them chose the wings.

 

What I'd like to see is Ramsay, himself, take that blind taste test. Tests with other respectible chefs have shown time and time again that our eyes and noses are as important as our tastebuds in determining flavors. Also contributing is the texture and consistency of the food. It's very difficult to differentiate when those two are similar.

 

Most established chefs rank about the same as the contestents on those shows. Which, maybe, makes the test good television, but meaningless in terms of determining anything.

They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
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post #7 of 7
11/15/10 at 8:14am

 

Quote:
how buffalo wings are supposed to meet "fine dining".  It's bar food.

 

Quote:
At base, hot wings vary by only two things

 

Just to play Devil's advocate:

At work our "buffalo wings" AKA "hot wings" are duck confit, deep fried, and tossed with a harissa citrus glaze.

 

 

Quote:
Fine dining is an ambiguous term.

Couldn't agree more. Everyone has an opinion.

Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.
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ChefTalk.com › ChefTalk Cooking Forums › General Discussions › The Late Night Cafe (off-topic) › Hell's Kitchen: batlle of the 5-star hotel room service items