Comments on: Gordon Ramsay’s Melbourne Restaurant

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:46:51 +0000

I think Melbourne is a bit too clever for this. Sure there will be some people that go for the celebrity factor, but they are not the people that will keep going back and sustain a restaurant in the long term. Unless it is really really good and not overpriced most Melbourne food lovers will stick to MoVida, Dino’s Deli, Bar Lourinha and other homegrown places. Look what happened to Starbucks in melbourne.

Food shows that are just about the food are really only going to appeal to the totally food obsessed and not the general audience that the free to air commercial channels need. Personally I loved masterchef, not so much for the food but for what it did for our kids and their attitude towards food. My 7 year old was downloading recipes from the measterchef website and helping shop and cook the food, and more importantly, eating things he would have shunned previously. And the masterclass was a TV highlight of his week. This is stand up cooking but with chefs he came to know through the competition. Although we are food obsessed in our house masterchef made it accessible to kids in a way that The Cook’s Companion and other wonderful books never could. There is room for all types of food shows, although I would prefer they were more about the food and less about the chef’s former life as a failed football player.

By: Phil Lees

Phil Lees — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:34:06 +0000

I've got a weird affection for stand and cook cooking shows, even if I've got very little idea of what the presenter is saying. I've been watching a whole lot of Vietnamese cooking shows on YouTube - like this recipe for bun bo gio cua I only understand the words for each of the ingredients, but still find it compelling.

By: Suzie

Suzie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:38:20 +0000

I like your analysis. No surprise that food on TV has to be about something other than the food because food that you can’t taste, that you can’t touch, that you can’t smell is usually incredibly boring. Even the “stand and cook” model of TV show rests entirely on the personality of the presenter – either it is someone people will want to watch (someone with the proverbial ‘it’) or not. It has never been about the food they are cooking. My take on the Ramsay debacle is that, from a PR point of view, he has almost certainly screwed up the launch of the restaurant. Joe Average will stay away in droves and the critics will be more merciless than usual.

By: Simon Food Favourites

Simon Food Favourites — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:19:08 +0000

interesting read. i wonder how he’s new restaurant venture in Melbourne will sustain itself in the long run. in the end i think it’s the food itself which will need to keep people coming back no matter who owns or runs the restaurant. just like tetsuya’s is still running strong in Sydney after all these years because I think there’s attention to detail in the food. i think most of us can’t afford to throw money away at bad food these days.