Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
If you have satellite TV service, chances are you have access to BBC America. I’d been ignoring it until Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” raised my interest in chef Gordon Ramsay. Ramsay’s doing another show for Fox this fall called “Kitchen Nightmares,” which he’d previously done for the BBC (titled “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” for DVR searchers). I looked it up and it’s pretty interesting.
Ramsay comes in to rehabilitate a failing restaurant (most seem to be about 100,000 pounds in debt), taking a week to shape up the staff, the menu, the kitchen, and the general attitude of the place. After watching a few, his game plan seems to be (1) beat down the owner (usually also the head chef) until they’re willing to accept change, (2) identify the employees that can handle responsibility and get them on-task, (3) fix the menu, usually by paring down the number of dishes and focusing on simpler and less artsy dishes, while using local produce to lower costs and enhance freshness, and (4) give the restaurant a relaunch.
There’s also “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Revisited,” where he goes back a few years later to see how they’re doing. Based on what I’ve seen, old habits are hard to completely eliminate.
The show goes a long way towards showing why Ramsay should be taken seriously as a chef and restraunteur. I’m hoping the high-conflict previews Fox has been showing of the American version don’t mean that they’ve changed the focus of the show.
