I never thought I'd say this but, "Poor Gordon Ramsay." If you don't recognize his name, you probably don't watch the Food Network or his prime time network show,
Hell's Kitchen. At first, I couldn't stand him -- I thought he was just a soccer hooligan turned kitchen hooligan. After watching him in action though, his passion for cooking shines through his, well, "rough" personna.
So... what went wrong? He tried to bring his show,
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, to the U.S.
Kitchen Nightmares is a little like
Restaurant Makeover, but with Ramsay bellowing at head chefs, kitchen help, waiters and owners alike. He frequently makes people cry, and more than once has suggested owners fire people who are not working in the best interest of the restaurant.
That's exactly what happened in one of the restaurants to be featured in the American show, and now Martin R. Hyde, a former general manager at Dillons in Manhattan, is
suing Gordon Ramsay.
Hyde "claimed Ramsay, known for foul-mouthed outbursts as the star of Fox's reality competition "Hell's Kitchen," humiliated him and forced him to quit his job to avoid further abuse." He asked for millions of dollars in damages and a court order to stop the show from airing.
Hyde is also claiming that much of the reality show is "faked" or at least exaggerated, which seems like sour grapes and is pretty much irrelevant since the show's goal is primarily to entertain viewers.
I really hope the judge throws this one out... but just in case, I also hope that Ramsay's producers had good legal advice to begin with and can produce whatever waiver Hyde may have signed.
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