I have to admit, Ramsay is one of my guilty pleasures. I've watched Hell's Kitchen since the beginning.

Last week, his new show, Kitchen Nightmares had its debut on Fox. He went to Babylon, Long Island, to work with a family-run Italian restaurant. The son (who ran the place with his sister) was like something out of a bad gangster film - he had a temper that made Sonny Corleone look like Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, everything came out all right in the end.

(I've never seen the original UK version of the show - for some mysterious reason my local cable company doesn't carry the BBC America channel, while most other local cable companies do.)

Anybody else here watch his shows?

Signor V.

I've been to one of his Kitchen Nightmare pubs he's sorted out and I've got to say the food was brilliant. A little expensive but you get your money's worth. The starter alone was almost a meal and then the main course was huge. It was real quality food from local producers. I couldn't recommend the Fenwick Arms just outside of Lancaster enough.

Oh and Vitelli, I'm a huge Ramsey fan. Although his face needs ironing.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but the US version of Hell's Kitchen only gets one airing. If you miss an episode, it does not get repeated. Well, that's not totally accurate - sometimes a show will be rebroadcast the following week right before the newest installment. But, this doesn't always happen. And, since it is a competition, that's possibly the reason why each season as a whole isn't repeated; we already know the outcome. But, I'm just guessing.

I don't know if this will be the way Fox handles Kitchen Nightmares, but I can always pop a tape in the ol' VCR. (That is, if I remember.) The UK version of Kitchen Nightmares seems to get repeated showings over here when it airs on the BBC America channel - which, again, my local cable company doesn't carry (*cough*cough*SC*cough*cough*).

Gordon Ramsay recently opened a new restaurant here in NYC. It's at a refurbished hotel now called The London, and I have a friend who works there. Not at the actual restaurant, but in the hotel's bookkeeping department. Every couple of weeks, Ramsay's accounting people come to visit and they go over the books. Ramsay himself checks the restaurant around once a month, from what my friend tells me. He's never actually met him, though. Every description of the hotel and the restaurant uses the word "upscale" over and over - which, in this case, is really a euphemism for "Way too damned expensive for most of us mere mortals."




Signor V.

I've carried this over from the other (locked) thread:



This was the second episode - I think you'd really enjoy the premiere show, if it is available on the Fox website, that is.

The episode that just aired (the Indian restaurant, formerly Dillon's) caused a lawsuit even before the show's debut: Martin Hyde, the manager who quit, filed suit against Ramsay, et al, alleging that he was forced to resign and was made a scapegoat. He also said that the production company faked scenes showing how unsanitary the restaurant was (he claimed the rotting meat and the defective chairs were planted), and that the "relaunching" dinner customers were not actual restaurant patrons, but extras paid by the producers.

Actually, if you read the tiny print in the closing credits, you will find that the producers admit as much - that they pay the dinner charges for people at times. They also admit that some scenes are shown out of chronological order, too. (And did you notice there was one waitress who wouldn't allow her image to be used in the program? Her face was always blurred out.)

As for the lawsuit, a Manhattan Federal Court judge threw it out (with Hyde's consent) in early August. The judge said that, as per the contract that everyone signed, disputes like this would have to be settled by arbitration. (I guess when you agree to be part of Kitchen Nightmares, you have to sign away your right to sue.)

Signor V.

Interesting episode of Kitchen Nightmares this week:

For once, the restaurant's problems had nothing whatsoever to do with cleanliness - nary a cockroach to be found! Nice change of pace.

The restaurant, this time, had to overcome a "tired" menu, too much competition (that did not exist when they opened ten years ago), and, basically had to find its new "voice".

There were no fistfights, nobody got fired, no one was fed spoiled food, etc. Interesting show, IMO.

There was one nagging question left unresolved, though: If the manager was going to stay on (and had undergone a major attitude readjustment), was he still going to pocket 50% of everyone's tips? I felt they shouldn't have left that hanging, especially since it seemed such a bone of contention among the wait staff.

Signor V.

I didn't watch the show yet, but a manager taking 50% of the waitstaff's tips???? WTF is that??? The manager gets a (good) salary, he doesn't need tips. The bartenders and waitstaff should get the tips....

...but after watching the episode I'll let you know if I change my mind...

Another interesting episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

This time it was out to Islip, Long Island to fix a seafood restaurant that had been around for forty years.

I'll hide some of the Spoilers, but first, a couple of comments:

That mother/son combination reminded me of Norman Bates and his mother. Honestly, here was a woman who could be sweet one minute, then in the blink of an eye turn into Queen Bee-yotch (usually directed toward her son). I could see him murdering her one day and keeping her stuffed body in a secret walk-in freezer.

What really impressed me was the physical transformation in the place. It looked 100% more inviting. (Well, except maybe for those strange "curtains" around the windows.)

It seemed as if the life and spirit had gone out of the place when the owner/chef died two years previously. At least, that was the impression we got. But, it appeared to me that the restaurant's decline happened over a period of time far longer than two years. And that arrogant chef and useless sous-chef - how long had they been there? When their chef refused to eat what Ramsay had prepared, well, that was a real slap in the face. I don't care how long you've been cooking professionally - if Gordon Ramsay could show me a better way to boil water, I'd be all ears.



I think, when all is said and done, that after watching Kitchen Nightmares, I will think twice about going out to eat at any restaurant! Perhaps this wasn't the producers' intent, but that's how I'm starting to feel!

Unless, however, Don Cardi gives it his personal recommendation...

Signor V.