Television chef Gordon Ramsay is working on a new culinary show that will take him from judging American competitions and yelling at the owners of failing restaurants. According to Variety, the National Geographic channel greenlit Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, a show that has the chef traveling the world to investigate foreign food cultures and try to show regional locals he can master their food better than them.
In a press release shared on July 25, the episodes are described to be Ramsay’s attempt at “unlocking a culture’s culinary secrets through exploration and adventure with local food heroes; tracking down high-octane traditions, pastimes and customs that are specific to the region in hopes of discovering the undiscovered; and, finally, testing Ramsay against the locals, pitting his own interpretations of regional dishes against the tried-and-true classics.”
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Despite the series attempting to showcase international cuisine, its premise ignores how colonization has led to the whitewashing of many cultures. The language used to describe the components of the show, including “discovering” and “unlocking a culture’s secrets,” can be linked back to the pillaging of various countries and islands by European entities.
Several commenters had negative reactions to the direction of the show, critiquing the White privilege. One user wrote, “Who thought, ‘Let’s send a belligerent, angry white man to school local chefs about their cuisine,’ would be a good idea?”
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This past April, a clip from the UK show The F Word went viral after the restaurateur’s attempt at making pad thai was rejected by chef Chang, the executive chef at The Blue Elephant, a highly rated Thai restaurant in London. After tasting Ramsay’s version of the traditional dish, chef Chang made a sour face before saying, “this is not pad thai at all.”
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