OK, Dewberry fishing a stone out of the bog - ew. As for kidney stones, I've had em, for him to be on his feet, even, is herculean. Too bad he didn't carry that through in his day to day cooking. RE: I thought it was neat at the end when Michael was offered to study under Ramsay. He had to do that - Michael wasn't READY to start his own kitchen. He cooks well and is young and hip but had less control over his kitchen than Ralph did. However, Ralph is older, balding etc. so they want with the young guy with the tattoos.
I saw almost all of the series. I noticed that every competition was set up so Chef Ramsey could choose the winner. Whether a squid was "clean" or pasta correct or whatever was his sole choice. I also note that the finalists two were the two professional cooks. I suspect that he chose the original group for its entertainment value and weeded them down to the two he had pre-selected. Any real competition was between the professionals. (I include the executive chef as one of the potential winners.) I'm also cynical enough to note that I had never heard of "internationaly famous" Chef Ramsey until the series. Not that I keep track of such things, but it may be that "Reality TV" is more TV than real. It was good TV (I watched it all), but most of the competition was generated by editing. Notice how they didn't complete a service until there were very few contestants. (i.e. got the amatures out of the way) I think that I would like eating at a restraunt run by either Ralph or Michael, but Michael has the high tone attitude that Chef Ramsey wanted. Imagine giving up being master of your own restraunt in order to be a trainee. That attitude was what Ramsey was looking for.
re: "internationally famous" well, I had heard of him before. Then again, I watch foodtv way too much. I think he was on Iron Chef America a bunch, and had his own cooking show of some sort at some point in time.
