CHICAGO, Aug. 30 The devil's in the details, or for reality TV show hopefuls in Chicago, the chef's hat as they vie for a spot cooking in Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen."
Ramsay, a three-star restaurateur with eateries scattered across the globe, berates, belittles and bedevils the chef-contestants throughout the series until the final one standing wins a six-figure salary and a job running his or her own upscale restaurant.
More than 350 cooks were at the Illinois Institute of Culinary Arts Wednesday, trying to win a spot on Ramsay's televised boot camp. Several said the Scot's in-your-face behavior and profane language isn't unusual in the restaurant world, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
"You see that in every kitchen,'' Scott Van Dyke, 42, who cooks at a Grand Rapids, Mich., restaurant, told the Sun-Times. He said his boss swears at him regularly "and he's my cousin."
"Hell's Kitchen" casting producer Deborah Tarica said Ramsay is an "an old-school chef (who) loves to yell.''
The fourth cycle of "Hell's Kitchen," taped in Los Angeles, is scheduled for summer 2008.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
