/lit/ - Literature

>>9315286
I'll continue that thought a little bit further - and not only for the obvious reason that in a story about Cook Ting we can also talk about Chef Ramsay!

Ramsay is, and certainly the TV shows present him in this light, a tyrannically competent individual. This is why there's no room for talk, debate, or argument with him: his cooking skill resolves all arguments and all debates. Even his television shows play up this interesting aspect of his personality, where he is not only master-cook but also master-therapist and marriage counsellor too. Restaurants fail because, invariably, one of the owners or chefs has some personality disorder or needs some kind of Ego Check that Ramsay provides, usually painfully. This established, he can then renovate the restaurant and restore it to order, the customers enjoy themselves, and all is right under Heaven. It's kind of a fascinating process to watch.

But we watch him and the show for the rage, for the outbursts and the explosions, not to learn how to cook. To me at least Ramsay is - among other things - kind of a fascinating illustration of stuff that Zizek talks about, about the society of enjoyment and the superego. What justifies all of this anger? The fact that customers *are not satisfied.* They are not Enjoying themselves. This is all the justification that he needs.

And you can see this again and again in the shows, how he goes in to these failing restaurants and resolves psychological issues as capitalist problems and capitalist problems as psychological issues. It's pure ideology, of course, but it also works. The functioning, pleasure-producing restaurant is restored to order by a kind of combination master-psychologist and master-craftsman, the Guy Who Knows What To Do. And of course this is massively popular for television audiences. Joe Bastianich seems to have picked up on these tricks as well, the art of completely shaming someone who has made a boring salad. It would be interesting to ask if customers actually *could* enjoy their meals if they knew how much contestants had been tortured to make them...I don't know if I would relish eating a piece of steak that only came to be on my plate after the Red Team was reduced to tears making it!

No room for Taoism in there, I suppose, but it does teach one how to 'care for life' in interesting ways. I also worked in kitchens for a bit, so I have some familiarity with all of that stuff...and it reminds me of times I spent in those places. Everything I needed to learn about Marxism I learned there...even though I'm a boring hikiko now who prefers to read and drink and shitpost and generally avoid the world as much as possible.

Anyways, just some random thoughts, I suppose.