The American Looking Glass

While I lived in London, I gained an overwhelming generalized sentiment of pro-Europe. Call it reverse ethno-centrisim although I wouldn't necessarily think it was anti-American. It was more of the idea that we, Americans, should take our heads out of our asses, stop thinking we're better than everyone else, and open our eyes to the world. This comes in two falvors: a very over-arching general way be it politics and world issues as well as a drilled down day to day feeling from annoying Red Sox Fans in Boston to the Starbucks phenomena.

I began to believe that everything was better across the pond from culture and attitude to espresso and men. While I haven't nearly lost that feeling, I've learned to cope with this by feeding my itch every now and again and traveling to new places.

One thing I did not get hooked on while living in London was British TV. While some of my flatmates swore by Eastenders and Big Brother(the UK edition), I found myself fiending for some Sex and the City and good ol' trashy MTV reality shows. Not to say British TV isn't trashy..because, it can damn well be even worse than the US but I feel comfort in mindless and numbing programming.

When Gordon Ramasay's Hell's Kitchen show arrived in the states, I was pretty excited to become an avid viewer. I became an instant fan of the chef while in London when eating at his restaurant on Hospital Road. So when the show first aired, I would insesently try to watch the show but failed miserably. I couldn't get into it. Ramsay seemed like such a dick; no way to get through his cold heart. Deep down, I knew this was all an act but I stopped watching the show shortly after I started.

More recently, his new show Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares debuted. When I saw the ads for this show, I stayed far away. It seemed like just a bunch of yelling at poor souls. I wanted nothing to do with it and never even gave it a try.

Cut to two weeks ago- bored, channel surfing on my couch in a hung over haze one Saturday morning (okay, fine..it was the afternoon). I see Gordon Ramsay's face flash across the screen as I cliked through the channels. Upon first hearing the narration, I knew straight off the bat this was not American. I had never seen Ramsay portrayed as serious or in documentary style. US TV likes to make Ramsay into a fanatical character; the asshole chef who made it big and now makes wanna-be chefs suffer through hell. I hesitated but then began to watch and soon realized I was watching BBC America and the UK version of the show.

I watched the whole segment: Ramsay helping a family run an upstairs-restaurant and make it (with profit) while their chef (also a family member) suffers through alcohol addiction. It was actually quite heart-warming and Ramsay is with the family throughout the entire ordeal helping them along the way...and yes, CARING. It was incredible to me how different this man was by just watching him in UK programming instead of the US. To think how many Americans have wrote off this chef because of his temper and mistreatment when really behind all this is a warm and nurturing human.

Just like Ramsay was presented to me through an American looking glass, the world has been presented to me as well. It's of no surprise that once overseas, the world (and Ramsay) looked different. If nothing else, watching this show made me remember why I loved it across the ocean so much and brought my original sentiment back. Now the big quesiton is when can I return?