The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Monday, June 18

Hello, all!

I’m afraid today’s ramble won’t be about the World Cup, but the last time I rambled about Gordon Ramsay you all enjoyed it, so I will again.

Ramble of the Day

As I once rambled, I love Kitchen Nightmares, and was quite sad when I realized it was gone. However, Gordon Ramsay has come back with a version of that wonderful show, Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back. It is packaged as Kitchen Nightmares in a 24 hour period instead of a week. I wondered if all of the highs and lows of a good episode of Kitchen Nightmares could be achieved in a 24 hour time frame, but I was not disappointed.

The first episode, which premiered last week, saw Ramsay visit an Italian restaurant in upstate New York (about an hour’s drive north of New York City, for those wondering). For Ramsay to be able to accomplish his goals in a day, he has a camera crew pretend to be part of a different reality show and set up secret cameras catching all of the behind the scenes crimes. Then, he shows up to the restaurant undercover, attempts to eat some of the food, and then the usual process begins.

The series begins with a bang because the main subject of Ramsay’s efforts is a man named Vinny, who might have bigger problems than just a failing restaurant. He did, though, come up with a classic line that, considering the context, was not funny, but came out in such a way that it was difficult not to laugh. While Ramsay was talking, Vinny interrupted him, saying, “I may be bitter, hateful, and disgusted inside, but I never gave up! Don’t say I gave up!” I’m not sure if it directly responded to Ramsay’s comments, but in isolation, it is pretty entertaining.

The rest of the show includes the usual family bickering, awful food, kitchen inspections where, for some reason, Ramsay is not wearing gloves, and dramatic confrontations. Just like Kitchen Nightmares, there are those moments where the restaurant employees finally start getting things right. That boring part, as always, clocks in around the 30 minute mark, with a bit of chaos coming about ten minutes later, only for smooth sailing to finish it. I will have to wait for the other episodes to see if they can match the drama of the first, but it is a good start for a long-awaited (at least for me) show.

Also, I am still concerned about Vinny.

tl;dr: Gordon Ramsay is basically doing Kitchen Nightmares again!

Links of the Day

Sweden and South Korea have basically been spying and playing tricks on each other ahead of their group stage encounter today.

Mexican fans were so joyed at their side’s victory over Germany yesterday that they set off earthquake detectors.

Today’s longer read: Simon Kuper interviews Belgium manager Roberto Martinez for ESPN