Class and Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Essay Example

Conclusion The advent of celebrity chefs show as epitomized by Gordon Ramsay’s Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares did not only catapulted chef’s into celebrity status but also underscored class stratification which can be traced back to as far as the 1600s. The distinction was even expanded not only to include the traditional Marxist segregation of class but extended to other spheres of life such as image, language, experience, working environment and taste as conveyed by Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

Celebrity chef shows has become not only as a manner to teach and make the audience appreciate cooking but become a purveyor of values of different class where the demarcation became many. Gordon Ramsay’s Ramsay’s Kitchen has already transcended beyond cooking and good taste. Gordon Ramsay’s success became a gauge and to a certain extent a barometer of the desirable values that society should emulate. Ramsay’s values for example such as hard work and neoliberal individualism was idealized that even his less than ideal characteristics became part of the acceptable culinary identity.

As a show, Ramsay’s Kitchen has to provide entertainment value to its audience for the show to remain relevant but the manner it provides entertainment triggers extreme reactions due to Ramsay’s unorthodox and outrageous approach to entertain its audience. The jokes employed by the show may have served its purpose to elicit emotional response from its audience but it also creates class distinction as those who are not able to contend with the swagger of the jokes of Ramsay are often relegated to as low class.

Even the structure of the show where apprentices are supposed to be students became a symbol of class distinction as they became subservient to the chef and therefore are subjected to classist derision affirming the power and superiority of Ramsay in culinary world not only in terms of culinary competence but also in employing power in the totem pole of chefs. This extends to language where power seems to provide license to the Ramsay show where swear words did not only become an expression of disgust but also an expression of superiority and power.

Class differences also extended to gender as Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares represents the value of male dominated society as the show embodies the middle-class male dominated masculinity. But this may be necessary as most of its audience are composed of middle class where it derives not only its ratings but also its significance as its values are reflective of the middle class. And probably, one of the main reason why the show remains to be one of the top grossing show, is that Ramsay does not embrace the elitist tendency of the chef to cater to the upper class.

Instead, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares educate the general public about the value of good food through its emphasis to the ingredients and manner how food should be prepared. That good taste and good food does not have to an exclusive domain of the elite but could be available to everybody for as long as one makes the effort.