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ICYMI, this went down over the weekend.
Yes, the Joe Beef duo of Dave McMillan and Fred Morin were in Los Angeles to tape an episode of the Gordon Ramsay vehicle Hell's Kitchen for Fox. McMillan gave a brief post-mortem today.
What is the vibe like on the Hell's Kitchen set?
They’re very efficient. Ramsay runs the production like a chef runs a kitchen.
Was it a long shoot?
No, not at all. We were there Sunday morning. We were briefed. We tasted food from each team. It was fast. We’ve done television before but I was amazed at how efficient this production was. Ramsay's been doing it a long time now and it shows.
It was like in a professional kitchen.
It was like in a professional kitchen. People just stand and don’t speak until spoken to. If you drop a fork someone picks it up right away. Someone's there to replace your napkin. We were processed quickly, in and out. It was a super positive experience. I generally have nothing good to say about television production because it's always cut, retake, shoot, over and over. But this was bang, bang, thank you.
More chefs should run more things that aren’t kitchens.
More chefs should run more things that aren’t kitchens. If you apply the inherent discipline to other facets of business it could be interesting.
What made you want to do Hell's Kitchen in the first place?
It's funny but one of the reasons was that it coincided with Metamoris V [a Brazilian jiu-jitsu event] at the Long Beach Convention Center. UFC fighter Rory MacDonald was in the co-main event so it was a giant bonus for us. It took place a day before shooting Hell's Kitchen. It was a crazy beautiful event.
Did you get a chance to talk to Ramsay about his short run in Montreal with Laurier BBQ?
Montreal was a disappointment for him but he loved the city. He mentioned that he’d love to come back, maybe with his BurGR concept. I always thought it was good to have chefs like Daniel Boulud and Gordon Ramsay in Montreal. No matter what people say, what he did at Laurier BBQ was respectful of the institution.
