Gordon Bourdain or Tony Ramsay

For those who watch food TV and have seen Gordon Ramsay's Uncharted series (now into season 2) has it struck you that he ie (consciously or not) emulating parts of A Cook's Tour and No Reservations?

He seems decent at doing the food exploring thing and he is a decade younger than Tony was, but I have to wonder if he is doing it for money or out of boredom (no idea how well heeled he may be currently, but doubt that he'd be poorly off...oops - looked it up - with a net worth of $220 million, it has to be boredom or 'I want to show that I a still able to cut the mustard'.

[Jenise]

In all due fairness to Tony, I don't see any resemblance.

For one, Tony didn't have a formula--oh for awhile he had a habit of meeting up with a fixer and some things were obviously staged for the camera, but once he got away from the straitjacket of the Travel Channel's prosaic "family" programming and had the power to do whatever he wanted at CNN, he just went places and thought out loud, both profoundly and profanely. He thought about food, culture, war, unfairness and our effect on one another. Sometimes he bared his own soul in the process. Tony was a storyteller.

Gordon flies into a place making the most dramatic entrance possible (like getting dropped into the sea from a helicopter), meets a local cook/expert, forages for food in the most daring/macho way possible, and then engages in a cook-off with the expert. Gordon is not a storyteller. He's a "star".

So Tony was closer to Somebody Feed Phil.....

PS - next up Louisiana's Bayou Cuisine and Sumatra's Stunning Highlands.

[Jenise]

That Phil guy is sweet and funny, but he's not a philosopher. He's a guy who loves to eat (and can afford to go anywhere on his own dime) and make people laugh. He doesn't come close to having Tony's soul.

Louisiana--saw that one already. I'm probably going to quit recording the series. It's just too rote.

There are two types of stars in food TV - the one with chef cred and the ones without.

Tony and Gordon have it and Rachael and Phil don't although she purports to have some. That's OK, there is a place for entertainers and I think that Tony largely segued into that segment in his travel series, though his commentary was certainly informed by his experience as a chef.

[Jenise]

There are two types of stars in food TV - the one with chef cred and the ones without.

Tony and Gordon have it and Rachael and Phil don't although she purports to have some. That's OK, there is a place for entertainers and I think that Tony largely segued into that segment in his travel series, though his commentary was certainly informed by his experience as a chef.

Phil's just a famous eater. We had lunch once at Pizza Mozza, then jointly owned by Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali but now it's all Nancy's best I know, and ate at the bar. Claire Danes and a few other notables were at nearby tables. The waiter/bartender was setting up the private room (and offered to show it to me) where that night "the guy who wrote Everybody Loves Raymond" was hosting a party that night. He said the guy was a super foodie, tons of fun and extremely generous, and his parties were legendary. I didn't watch that show so it meant nothing to me, but it was nonetheless interesting to see a room set up for such an affair. And interesting when years later here he is with his own foodie show.

Yes, Tony and Gordon both have chef cred but Tony's show was about the place, where Gordon's show is about him and the location's nominally expendable. I miss Tony!

[Jenise]

Pursuant to this discussion, I was cruising aimlessly on Netflix the other night and managed to watch an episode of Somebody Feed Phil. Morocco, the episode was, and from there I watched Chicago, London, Montreal and South Korea. I now remember that the other episode I watched in a much-earlier season was Italy, maybe Tuscany or Rome--with his family along and all they seemed to do was eat gelato which interests me as much as it would you (NOT).

Have to say, once I got used to his deadpanning to the camera, which was initially a put-off, I found myself liking him. He's no philosopher, but his show is more entertaining than I gave him credit for and in some ways similar to Tony's old show. I note that I saw a producer in the credits named Christopher Collins--a Chris Collins was Tony's right-hand guy/filmographer on his travels. Have to wonder if it's the same guy.

I'm going to look for this show, Jenise. Simply because I'm always interested in shows that feature some place on the globe where I've been, just to see whether I have traveled in their footsteps or vice versa, and to hear any comments about places that I have visited/eaten. I tuned in to Ramsey's show because the first one was his trip to Peru, where I visited in 2018. I was thrilled when he featured MIL, where a friend and I had eaten most recently. But, for as much as I enjoy Gordon's personality, I have no love for his show and adventures. What is the point of him trying to compete with native chefs using local ingredients in cooking on their native soil. Even if he could go head-to-head with any of them, there is something about the fete that I find insulting. I find that none of the celebrity chefs have the television personality or chops that Tony did. Like you, I miss him. But, I have to wonder out loud whether he may have been using drugs again. That last season he looked very wan and world weary to me, and too often the conversations with his foodie companions had some drug reference in them. I found it a bit distracting and off putting. But, one of my shortcomings is my inability to suffer the company of drunks and drug users.

[Jenise]

With you all the way down the line, Jo Ann. And travelling voyeurishly thru my television holds very strong appeal to me right now even to places I haven't been. You could find worse company than the lovable Phil--who has a sophisticated palate and seriously loves to dine/graze--family style, any style--and he amiably pulls in anyone who wanders into the shot. (I got a great idea from the Chicago episode where he visits an Italian restaurant that serves a proscuitto butter (exactly what you'd think, best I could tell) for fresh bread. I am *so* going to do that.) He's not a chef or the auteur Tony was--he won't do a B&W Fellini-esque take on Rome--he's just genuinely enthralled with good food and loves people.

So agreed on Gordon. I like the man, but not this Chef Rambo version.

Wondered that about Tony, too. He had started smoking again, a change he'd made for his daughter, and was looking too thin. The two people who would probably know best--his ex-wife and Eric Rippert, will probably never talk.