It's a Wonder The Food Doesn't Kill People

When I got home from the City Council meeting this evening, Karen and Colleen were watching Hell's Kitchen, a Fox reality show in which hapless wanna-be chefs are verbally abused by a professional Chef as they compete for a prize that appears to be their own restaurant.

I saw about half the show. Two teams of contestants competed to fill restaurant orders (for real customers) while "Chef" yelled and swore at them. The point of the show seems to be to see who will break under pressure, break out in a string of obscenities, or break down in tears.

Questions of emotional voyeurism aside, what I found myself wondering was "how can the food they are making be anything other than horrible?"

I have no scientific evidence for this, but it seems to me that when people make food while under intense emotional pressure -- angst, unhappiness, hatred -- some of that bad feeling must make its way into the food.

There's an angry woman who works in the local convenience/sandwich shop up the street from my office. Sometimes she's behind the register and sometimes she's making sandwiches.

When she's on the sandwich line, I go for the fruit cup.