Thursday, January 29, 2009

Gordon's "Hell's Kitchen" Is Back!

No-nonsense chef Gordon Ramsay returns for a fifth season of take-no-prisoners mentoring with a new crew of 16 aspiring chefs, whom he puts through a series of stressful, profanity-laced challenges.

The winner who manages to please the demanding Ramsay will win the position of head chef at Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

In other Ramsey news...

Fox plans Gordon Ramsay cook-along, but no F-bombs are allowed.

How will he do it?

Fox is looking to do at least one live special where "Hell's Kitchen" star Gordon Ramsay shows viewers how to make a dinner.

The program will urge viewers to make a three-course homemade meal along with the world-famous chef. "It has been picked up, and I can't wait for it to go live," Ramsay said Wednesday. "My frustration is that most cooking shows don't really cook ... their ingredients are prepped earlier, that's not cooking ... it's nice to show the journey from live ingredient to (finished meal)."

No air date has been set for Ramsay's modern-day take on Julia Child, though the network is eyeing spring or fall. If the one-off is successful, the network hopes to do more specials, though it doesn't see the format as likely working as a weekly series.

The format is based on the chef's U.K. version of the project called "Cook Along," which prompted thousands of viewers to hold cooking parties along with the show. Viewers are told which ingredients they'll need ahead of time and then are breezily led through the cooking process. Fox plans to intercut shots of a few families cooking as well.

Last year, Fox gave Ramsay a blind commitment for an as-yet-unannounced new series and the live special as part of a new overall deal with the chef.

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