It has been announced that the grand prize in the sixth season of Hell’s Kitchen, the Ramsay- screaming vehicle, is a head chef position at Whistler’s well-regarded Araxi Restaurant. “It is an amazing prize,” said Ramsay. “One of the best prizes we’ve ever had.”

I must admit,  I am a Ramsay fan. And I loved the first season of Hell’s Kitchen. But over time the show was perverted, one can only assume by FOX, as they brought in lesser and lesser talent to compete, and focused more and more away from the food. The first season had contestants facing a new menu every night and featured some real talent. The last season I bothered checking up on had the contestants trying to master a single menu over the entire season. The show went completely the way of Jerry Springer, with contestants pulled out of school kitchens, nursing homes, and fast food outlets.  Chefs fight, faint, cut themselves, and admit they don’t know what Risotto is. His other show Kitchen Nightmares has followed a similar path. It begun as an entertaining show advising restaurants in Europe, many with Michelin stars, and now most frequently centers around helping doomed family restaurants in LA-based strip malls, with Gordon presiding over fist fights.

The spectacle of watching Gordon was great in the context of real talent and real training. He has an amazing ability to break people down and then build them back up again.  But the gong show that his shows have become are an embarrassment and they belong in Fox’s stable of reality shows,  not on the food network. So I am surprised to see Araxi, a well known and high quality restaurant, using the show as a pre-Olympics marketing tool, but maybe Gordon’s star power is enough to carry the day on its own.  And I think we can assume there is some significant small print on that “head chef” contract. You can catch the two-hour season premiere July 21 on FOX.