Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

[Airshark]

Am I the only one who watches it? I've just found myself spending more than an hour reading about the results of Gordon's "makeovers" on restaurants. His results are pretty poor, actually.

Of the 22 restaurants Ramsay has done, here are the results -

Season 1 (2003)
Bonaparte's - Dead (The owner even was involved in a losing lawsuit against Ramsay)
Glass House - Open (and with the chef that Ramsay recommended firing)
Walnut Tree - Dead (though it must be admitted that the owner ignored Ramsay's advice to lower his prices)
Moore Place - Dead

Season 2 (2004)
Lanterna - Dead
D-Place - Dead
Momma Cheri's Soul Food Shack - Bankrupted and under new management
La Riviera - Renamed to Abstract, this resturant rejected Ramsay's advice and now has a Michelin Star!

Season 3 (2005)
Oscar's - Dead
Sandgate - Dead
Clubway-41 - Dead
La Gondola - Dead

Season 4 (2006)
La Parra - Open, and probably Ramsay's biggest success
Fenwick Arms - Open, but not much different than it was before Ramsay
Rococo - Dead, resurrected, dead again
Morgan's - Sold, now Oddfellows' restaurant

Season 5 (2007)
Ruby Tate's - Open (another Ramsay success)
Piccolo Teatro - Dead (it died during the show's filming)
The Priory - Open, but has completely rejected everything Ramsay put in place, and has reverted to being a carvery
Fish And Anchor - Open
Curry Lounge - Open
The Granary - Destroyed by arson (Police suspect it was a Ramsay fan with a grudge!)

12 out of 22 are dead;

8 are still open, though two have rejected Ramsay's advice and three others have only had a year to run since they were on the show;

One was sold because the owner was tired of the restaurant business, though she claimed to be profitable

One was burned down, possibly by a Ramsay obsessive.

The most interesting case to me was Abstract (originally called La Riviera), which survived mostly because a multimillionaire and successful restauranteur bankrolled it. Ramsay says in his revisited show that Abstract is heading down the wrong path, and its sister restaurant Contrast should be the model. Well, he was wrong, because Abstract won a Michelin Star (a Rising Star, too) and is currently one of the best restaurants in Scotland.

And the owner of Bonaparte's, now out of business, says that being on Ramsay's show killed her business (Ramsay won a 75,000 quid libel suit about this restaurant). The head chef that Ramsay destroyed in that episode was fired from his new job based on the bad reputation from the show affecting the business, and hasn't been able to find work since.

Not sure I'd want Gordon Ramsay "saving" my business.

[El Establishment 1]

Actually, I think that is probably a pretty good success rate in the restaurant business.

I tend to believe that more than 2 of them have rejected his advice. Almost every restaurant he revisits has strayed from what he told them to do in some way.

[Turd Ferguson]

The dude from The Fenwick Arms was a pretty nutty old dude.

[hansolo]

The dude from The Fenwick Arms was a pretty nutty old dude.

Best episode.

Loved his obsession with the dishes, determined to stay with his ways, and that gravy crap.

Just hilarious.

Ramsay is not a God but his own track record is pretty good. His demeanor is another different story though. Often I think he doubles his assholery for the benefit of TV.

Still love to watch his shows..

[ElviswasaBluesFan]

Often I think he doubles his assholery for the benefit of TV.

There wouldn't even be a show if he didn't act like a ginormous douchebag.

[hansolo]

There wouldn't even be a show if he didn't act like a ginormous douchebag.

Oh no doubt and I'm fine with that

[Turd Ferguson]

Best episode.

Loved his obsession with the dishes, determined to stay with his ways, and that gravy crap.

Just hilarious.

Ramsay is not a God but his own track record is pretty good. His demeanor is another different story though. Often I think he doubles his assholery for the benefit of TV.

Still love to watch his shows..

I loved the fact that the old fart took to "The Campaign for Real Gravy".

And there are some episodes of Kitchen Nightmares where Ramsay drops his act, if only temporarily. And I agree - it makes for entertaining TV, so I don't mind the act.

[Airshark]

I loved the fact that the old fart took to "The Campaign for Real Gravy".

And there are some episodes of Kitchen Nightmares where Ramsay drops his act, if only temporarily. And I agree - it makes for entertaining TV, so I don't mind the act.

There are numerous British articles that say it's not an act. He's really that way, though a bit of a softie with his own long-time employees.

[Airshark]

BTW, you have better Google skills than I if you can figure out what happened to La Lanterna, or its head chef/owner Alex Scott. We know the restaurant is gone, because the spot is now a vacant lot. There's a doctor's office visible in the show next door to the place, and somebody actually took the time to call that office up and speak to the receptionist. She said it had been gone for a while, but she didn't know what happened or even when it happened. Another Ramsay fan said he was thinking about driving there to find out.

I'm somewhat curious about this one, because when he left, Lanterna looked like it was going to be one of his success stories. Of course, so did La Gondola and Maggie's (the renamed Rococo), but they suffered from the same problem: they were still being run by the same management. The real lesson of the show is that some people shouldn't run restaurants.

[hansolo]

If one can learn from the show - better not sink your life savings in a restaurant. If you have worked in the business, have a good understanding on what makes it successful and know the sacrifices and hard work that comes with it, then sure you might pull it off.

However people will continue to think it's romantic to own a restaurant and plow their life savings over and over.

I for one have no plans or desire to own one - and I've worked in restaurants before. No thanks.

[drobny23]

Keep in mind Ramsay's coming alongside a sinking ship. He may be able to keep it from sinking further (an achievement), but the ship will nevertheless sink. That he saves some is a testament to his instincts and acumen.

[triggercut1]

Shark, you've totally missed the point.

Every episode, we see a restaurant that is completely on the verge of utter ruin. That Ramsay has managed to swoop in to some of these places that had weeks or days to go before they shuttered themselves and save *any* of them is pretty amazing.

I love all of Gordon Ramsay's shows. I watch them constantly. I especially watch them before I go into work to get psyched up: every restaurant's standards should be Chef Ramsay's standards. I don't bark and yell the way Gordon does, but I do find myself seeing my restaurant with much less-tolerant eyes; over the weekend we had my company president out from Kansas City, and he pulled me aside on his way out and said the restaurant here was cleaner and more efficient than it ever had been.

[triggercut1]

On Ramsay's "act":

It isn't an act. I've heard Bill Cardwell say *much* worse things to cooks and waiters than Gordon Ramsay on his worst day. I'll even cop to having said worse things (the worst I can remember off hand was when a server reached onto the line to grab a crabcake appetizer to serve that wasn't for their table: "You touch that and I'll rip your f***** arm off and beat the living s*** out of you, you worthless sack of s***"). What's said in the kitchen stays in the kitchen. You have to have thick skin to work in a restaurant in the first place, and the pressure of the work causes everyone to pop off.

The important thing (and Ramsay does this, too, although you don't see it) is that after the rush and after nerves are calmed that "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to holler at you"s get said.

[Iowa_Card]

Plain and simple: When you do shit right, you get praise. When you fuck up, Ramsay will eat you alive and save your bones for soup stock.

The thing with Hell's Kitchen is that he's attempting to see how the chefs will work under extreme duress because if there's one thing that'll shut a restaurant down faster it's people walking out the door pissed at the service and/or food preparation.

With Kitchen Nightmares, that's exactly what they are; Nightmares. Like trig said, it's a testiment that he has saved that many restaurants from going under. I think the best example of this is his work with Alan Love and his restaurant. Love didn't want to change a thing but Ramsay got through to him that if he didn't change then he wouldn't even have a house to live in.

[Airshark]

You guys are right, of course. Almost every restaurant goes bust, many right away. I had a friend who was a tax accountant, mostly for restaurants, and he told me it convinced him that only insane people opened their first restaurant. But he also told me that the overwhelming reason that they failed early was that they were undercapitalized, and the owners couldn't handle long initial periods to build the business up. Some of course, were simply bad managers and a lot more just had no clue about whether the restaurant business was even a good proposition in the area, they just thought it'd be great to own a restaurant. One of my neighbors is like that, owns a local Asian noodle shop - and he's going to go bust, I'm sure.

What I guess surprises me is that some of these people (the owner of The Walnut Tree comes to mind) not only have restaurant experience, they start by taking over successful businesses and just run them into the ground, not the normal method of going bankrupt. The Walnut Tree, for example, has been acquired by a very competent Michelin-starred British chef now who as first act, cut prices dramatically. The business is now supposedly going gangbusters, but then this guy had already owned two successful restaurants. But he's a chef, and he took it over from a well-pedigreed business manager; who should be making the right business decisions?