Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted: Season One (All Episodes)
August 4, 2019 8:40 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Gordon Ramsay travels around the world meeting with indigenous people to learn about their foods and cultures. In each location, he harvests new ingredients and samples new dishes. He also teams up with local legends to cook feasts to present to the native peoples.
posted by DirtyOldTown (11 comments total)
 
Ramsay isn't trying to travel to understand the world or use food as a vehicle for giving relatable context to disparate world cultures. That was Tony Bourdain's thing. Many lazy writers are going to pillory Ramsay for this show as a way of eulogizing Bourdain. It's a shit tactic, because he isn't failing at picking up Bourdain's mantle; he's doing his own thing.

This is a very different and altogether more--strange to use this word in describing Gordon F-ing Ramsay--modest show. Gordon just wants to travel to places people don't go to as often, to try local cuisines that aren't as heralded. While there, he's willing to do the work to learn about the ingredients and the techniques and to let the locals judge how well he acquits himself.

This isn't Gordon the foul-mouthed self-aggrandizing bully that shouts at bad chefs and terrible restaurant owners on Fox. This is the working class lad done good Gordon who just wants to share his enthusiasm for great food.

It's not a very deep or Earth shattering show. But it's nice. It's gentler and more joyful than you'd expect. Still has a bit of his classic bullshit ("I'll have just forty-eight hours!") and plenty of bleeped f bombs. But he really treats the food with respect and it's fun to watch.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:52 AM on August 4, 2019 [4 favorites]


I miss that Gordon. I first knew him through Hell's Kitchen on Fox. Then I caught the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America. Then later the US version. Night and day difference! If this new show is low-key Gordon, I'm going to have to track it down.
posted by Fukiyama at 9:40 AM on August 4, 2019 [3 favorites]


Totally agree on the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares vs. the US. The UK version was a seasoned restauranteur trying to help struggling restaurant owners find the thread. The US version is a slapdash reality crapfest about finding people with obvious personality deficits and berating them for ratings.

On the UK one, he'd do things like take owners who lived in seaside towns to the fish market and teach them to buy and cook fresh local seafood. On the US one, he ambushes puffed up meatheads with footage of rats and clogged grease traps and calls them stupid fucking arseholes in front of their employees and kids.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:35 AM on August 4, 2019 [4 favorites]


I really like this show. It did remind me of Bourdain at first but it really is it's own thing. It's as if Gordon watched Bourdain and then watched Great British Bake-off and then watched Bar Rescue and was like you know what, I'm gonna mix it up a little. And I'm glad he did! Original Gordon was fine.
posted by bleep at 1:21 PM on August 4, 2019 [2 favorites]


The more I watch this, the more I think he's also inspired a bit by Bobby Flay, or at least came to a similar idea.

Flay has a few different shows that are supposedly about his competitiveness, but are really a way for him to showcase chefs he thinks deserve acclaim. On Throwdown! with Bobby Flay for instance, he travels to places and challenges a local chef to see who can prepare a better version of the local delicacy. You don't have to pay that much attention to notice that, when the nice people at Lou Malnati's in Chicago whip his ass at making Chicago deep dish pizza, that he's not really chagrined at having lost, he's delighted to have been able to give viewers at home an indication of how good the pizza at Lou's really is.

Similarly, I don't think you have to scratch that deep to see that Gordon isn't trying to prove himself Chef Who Can Make Any World Cuisine... he's trying to demonstrate how much art and expertise local cuisines really involve.

I like it. It's fun.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:15 PM on August 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


He sometimes makes a show of trying to win, but I think he's pretty clear his actual goal is not to embarrass himself, to just see if he can stand up.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:21 PM on August 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


This was a lot of fun - thanks for introducing it!

I really enjoyed the original UK Kitchen Nightmares and Costa del Nightmares, and was shocked at how unspeakably awful the Fox version of Kitchen Nightmares was - I hope they at least paid him well.

I like the structure of this show too - it's supposedly a contest, but really just an excuse to introduce local ingredients, markets, farmers and fishermen and talented local chefs.
posted by Umami Dearest at 8:02 AM on August 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


For some reason, the cover/poster art makes me think of Fishing with John (Lurie).

Fishing ... with Gordon. Fishing ... with Gordon.

In short, I would love a tongue-in-cheek re-do of Lurie's show with Ramsay in his place.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:29 PM on August 14, 2019


I think a lot of people turned off from watching this show by his persona would be surprised at the extent to which he makes that persona (and with it, himself) the butt of jokes and the repeated loser in one-on-one comparisons.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:33 AM on August 18, 2019


From the Morocco episode, to local chef Najat: "I want you to kick my ass in there."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:35 AM on August 18, 2019


ALTHOUGH... trigger warning for people not comfortable with meat-eating/dead animals, the Morocco episode features a fair bit of time at a camel butcher's. He advertises on the street with a camel head handing on a hook.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:00 AM on August 18, 2019


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