Why I HATE Hell's Kitchen:

Dear Dr. Tiff, if you have any regard for my sanity while here at Georgia Tech, please do not assign tasks such as watching episodes of Hell's Kitchen in the future. I'd rather read War & Peace than struggle through half an hour of "scripted reality tv", which though paradoxical, is exactly what Hell's Kitchen is.

TOP 10 REASONS WHY HELL'S KITCHEN SHOULD NOT BE AIRED:

1. Real chefs do not bark down orders as incomprehensibly as Chef Ramsey does during the dinner services, especially for high-end places. Yes, there is a lot of pressure, but the head chef is not that obnoxious. So, the "simulation" does not even come close to real life. For all i know, the diners could be paid props.

2. Are the contestants really chefs? If I had to guess, I'd wager that these people probably dropped out of high school, let alone the possibility of attending a culinary school. Their entire vocabulary seems to be limited to around 200 words (20% of which includes objectionable language, e.g. fuck, shit, pissed, bitch, etc.). Head chefs are supposed to promote an image of a refined taste and possess a stimulating intellect, none of which I could see in these contestants.

3. There is way too much reality tv today... it seems that show producers running out of ideas are turning towards "reality shows" - it saves time, money and props that would be needed in a show with a proper script and actors. As a result even a game show-cooking show-reality show like Hell's Kitchen seems a little tiring, no matter how innovative the setting.

4. Do you realize the image of chefs around the world is actually being tarnished by this show? If I were a chef and if a large part of the public watched this, then I'd be scared to step out of my house. In the episode we were assigned to watch (season 6, episode 8), only Amanda seemed to be a decent person among all the contestants, and she gets thrown out at the end for precisely the same reason. Talk about skewed perceptions.

5. Where's the food? All I could make out in the hectic dinner preparation was undercooked lamb, overcooked fish and lots of mashed potatoes. Really? I thought this was supposed to be a high-end kitchen - where is all the haute cuisine that you expect from such places. I can make mashed potatoes with my eyes closed (and I consider myself a terrible chef), these people make mashed potatoes to save themselves from elimination.

6. The producers of this show are tricky bastards. In one supposedly heated scene in the "Red Kitchen" during the dinner service, the editors cleverly splice in some old footage from a previous episode in order to make the scene more dramatic. How can you tell? They don't even try to hide it, that's how - in many of these dramatic scenes, old footage is added which prominently features already-eliminated contestants in the background. You think we're stupid?

7. The whole thing is scripted. If it wasn't, the show would fold up in a week. In season 6, episode 8, Team Blue loses the the palate challenge in the beginning so that they feel bad, but they win the dinner service thing which makes Team Red feel bad. As a result, the producers cleverly manage to keep both halves of their audience - males and females, from being alienated from the show. To keep the drama going till the very end, they purposely make Ramsey stop the elimination of Suzanne (the douchebag from Team Red) by eliminating someone nice (Amanda) who could actually help improve the teamwork.

8. The whole thing is a huge gimmick. The diners all have the same opinion about a dish, do they? Interesting. With all the hype, dramatic music and "momentum shifts", a term made popular by ESPN commentators, this is more like a sports match than a cooking show. And I have a question: how do they get instant reactions from the contestants about what's happening unless they scripted the entire thing? Surely if you'd asked about their views after the whole incident was over, they would say something completely different?

9. Nobody should have to bear this atrocious show as primetime entertainment. You show this to inmates at Guantanamo Bay, those guys will tell you what you want to know. There's no need to even pretend waterboarding is not torture. Write it off as prisoner entertainment.

10. Yeah sure, you're censoring the bad language, but does it make a difference? We all know what they're saying even if you blur their mouths and beep over the phrase. No wonder kids swear too much these days.