After a two year absence, Hell’s Kitchen is finally back with season 19. There’s just something about Gordon Ramsay yelling and screaming until he’s red in the face that keeps you wanting more. So why did it take two years for the TV gods to grace us with another season of this delicious entertainment? We’re getting into it.
Season 19 was filmed in Las Vegas. But unlike 2020 productions such as Love Island who were forced to Vegas in order to maintain a bubble of protection from the coronavirus for its casts and crews, Hell’s Kitchen shot way back in April 2018, well before the outbreak. And they didn’t just shoot season 19, they shot season 20 as well. Then kept both seasons sitting on the shelf. If this is sounding eerily similar to the shelving of season 32 of The Amazing Race, you’re not wrong. TAR shot season 32 in 2018 and waited to release it until late last year.
The move to Las Vegas for Hell’s Kitchen is apparently purely a budgetary one. Showrunner Kenny Rosen stated that the sheer volume of Caesar’s properties owned by Ramsay convinced Caesar’s to open up all of their properties to the production - pools, fountains, restaurants, etc. The effort would show off their properties and Gordon’s restaurants, i.e., be very mutually beneficial. But it was more than that. For producers, the move to Vegas offered a breath of fresh air. “It feels like we’ve exhausted every reward and every possibility for a big finale in L.A., having done 18 seasons [there],” said Rosen.
While everyone was excited for the production’s move to the glitz and glam of Las Vegas, it should be noted that one season of Hell’s Kitchen takes just 18 production days to shoot. Yes, all the training these chefs get in preparation for their prize as head chef of a restaurant is 18 days under Ramsay’s tutelage. Though his methods of instruction are certainly extreme, 18 days is still a remarkably short time. So again, why the delay in releasing these 18 days in a season of television? Well, it takes six months to edit those 18 days into a show.
Those 18 days have a total of sixteen hours of footage each. The show employs story teams to tackle four episodes each, three people to a team. In addition to the monumental behind-the-scenes task of editing this show, Kenny Rosen also says there is a lot that the audience doesn’t see when it comes to Ramsay spending time with the contestants. Gordon cares for his contestants. He takes time to discuss the previous night’s dinner services each morning. He takes time to thoroughly explain the day’s challenge. And during service? If a cook is having a particularly hard time with a dish, Ramsay doesn’t just yell at them: he will go to the station and physically show that chef exactly how to execute the dish. At the end of the day, Rosen says Ramsay, “takes it very seriously, whether it’s for a TV show or for his real restaurants; he wants people to get fed … really good food.”
Rosen also says that this season 19 cast of Hell’s Kitchen is one of the show’s strongest ever. He even goes as far as saying, “our final four was the most competitive final four chefs we’ve ever had, and they all had great personalities, so it was kind of an embarrassment of riches at the end of the season.” He promises that the upcoming season 20 has a big twist ready and waiting for us. Let’s hope it’s not another two years before we get it!
Source: Reality Blurred