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Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmares
- Thread starter LionPride
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Emperor Bohe
Member
Lol that video is a parody. That's Julie Chen.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Brilliant! I love James May.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
I have heard a lot about this episode but never watched it. I'm watching it now and holy shit...
This one episode is better than all of US version combined.
Blueingreen
Member
At the very least he has some experience in the industry and from what you described seemingly has a safety net below him. But these morons on Kitchen Nightmares have ranged from Bricklayers to post graduate communal college cooking degree's having not worked a day in the industry.
They have absolutely no idea what they're doing and they drag their families into their financial black holes , what's worse is that almost none of them seem to have basic understanding of Kitchen Hygiene and safety notice how you always find an example of raw meat stored with cooked meat in a low temp walk in, these people generally deserve to fail because they lack the understanding of how cut throat the Restaurant industry is.
Pilgrimzero
Member
Watching Ramsey actually inspired me to start cooking. And I've found I really enjoy it.
Teletraan1
Banned
I will parrot the UK version is better, he seemed to be genuinely interested in turning some of those places around. The US one was just him vs some assholes ego with a gross out part where they clean out the refrigerator. I don't eat at most restaurants because of this show now. Prefer cooking my own meals anyway.
Even though most of the restaurants featured on his show end up closing I don't see that as a bad mark on him. The restaurant biz is pretty harsh and a lot of those people just didn't have the chops to be owners. Even he has had failed restaurants. Not an easy vocation so hats off to those who do it successfully.
I also endorse watching a lot of his other shows. I think it was called great escapes was brilliant. I even watch his daughters cooking show. While HK is over the top this season has been pretty funny. The moments I love in HK is when he encounters someone who might not be ready for the grand prize but still sees enough in that person's drive and attitude to offer them some sort of opportunity.
Even though most of the restaurants featured on his show end up closing I don't see that as a bad mark on him. The restaurant biz is pretty harsh and a lot of those people just didn't have the chops to be owners. Even he has had failed restaurants. Not an easy vocation so hats off to those who do it successfully.
I also endorse watching a lot of his other shows. I think it was called great escapes was brilliant. I even watch his daughters cooking show. While HK is over the top this season has been pretty funny. The moments I love in HK is when he encounters someone who might not be ready for the grand prize but still sees enough in that person's drive and attitude to offer them some sort of opportunity.
JackBauer24
Member
The best episode that Ramsay has ever done in any of his shows. Even better than the former Marine who "ain't your bitch" episode of Hell's Kitchen.
No joke, I was the same way.
I started watching all of his shows a few years ago and got into cooking because of it. I love Hell's Kitchen/Kitchen Nightmes, etc. Even though I know the drama is played up it's still entertaining.
It was from his other shows like the F word, and ultimate cookery course that really got me into just trying to make new things and experimenting.
Charles Brandon
Member
I dislike the way everyone calls him "Chef Ramsey" in the US version. I'm not sure why but it's very annoying.
capitalCORN
Member
Maybe you've never worked in a kichen but chef isn't a job label, it's a title. You earn it.
Charles Brandon
Member
Doesn't seem to apply in the UK though. Seems unnecessarily formal by contrast.
Strangelove77
Member
Masterchef is also a lot of fun to watch.
And yeah, the US version of Kitchen Nightmares is overproduced and edited in the worst way.
Makes for good YouTube clips, but not entire episodes.
And yeah, the US version of Kitchen Nightmares is overproduced and edited in the worst way.
Makes for good YouTube clips, but not entire episodes.
The British version is great television. Most of his specials/shows from that side of the pond are so much better than what we get of him in the US, with exception of MasterChef. His charisma for his craft is amazing.
The old documentary mini-series of him in his first restaurant working towards getting a Michelin Star was really eye-opening too and a great watch. Would definitely recommend checking it out. I believe it's all available on youtube.
The old documentary mini-series of him in his first restaurant working towards getting a Michelin Star was really eye-opening too and a great watch. Would definitely recommend checking it out. I believe it's all available on youtube.
When you watch the UK one, the music is all casual but the insults are still there.
And then in the American version, every time something remotely negative happens, the music changes to sound like you're defusing a bomb.
"This pasta is bland"
*Music intensifies*
Apparently a lot of those restaurants close after the episode is finished. One even closed before they were finished filming.
And then in the American version, every time something remotely negative happens, the music changes to sound like you're defusing a bomb.
"This pasta is bland"
*Music intensifies*
Apparently a lot of those restaurants close after the episode is finished. One even closed before they were finished filming.
I live somewhat close to it and went there once. I agree that's probably what it was. The dude was super shady.
They also thought they were gonna get their own show but I don't think anything panned out thank god.
Frozenprince
Banned
Because in the UK one they are his contemporaries. In the US they use the title as a show of respect for someone, since most chefs and owners there take note form the same french classics school he's part of.
Feels like half the restaurants he visited ended up closing down anyway, but at least they got a moment in the spotlight. I used to watch this show all the time, some of those places were painful to watch. Especially when he would call out someone for being a shitty person with terrible work ethic.
Frozenprince
Banned
A success rate of 40-45% in an industry with a 9% nationwide success rate is actually pretty dang good.
I think most of them are already in really bad shape debt wise. To the point where no matter the turn around, it won't make much of a difference. It's a shame for the ones that follow Gordon's lead and actually improve.
Wow! If those stats are real then that is nuts -- are they?
Frozenprince
Banned
One of the UK ones, the guy did everything right and business turned around, but his landlord hiked up his utilities bill, he couldn't square it, and he went under a month after Gordon's "return" visit at the end of the episode.
The industry is volatile. Debt, poor operating practices, mis-management. These people were in a hole to begin with as you said, someone showing them the proper way to do things often times either doesn't sink in long term or just isn't enough by the point he gets there (you're never going to be open long enough to work off a million dollars worth of debt, for instance).
Failure rates fluctuate between 70% and as high as 95%, unfortunately there are very few hard studies on failure rates long term, one done a decade ago paints that 1/4 of restaurant's are closed with a year of opening.
http://www.restaurantowner.com/downloads/failure_rate_study.pdf
It's a brutal industry, with high operating costs, low margins, and levels of competition everywhere requiring you to be able to stand out. I'm sure that % is higher than 1/4 now given the recession and how hard it hit. That's the primary reason most of the places on the show closed, they just couldn't weather the recession.
triplestation
Member
ROAR ROAR ROAR
First post is the right post.
The American version is utter dog shit. British is god tier A+ entertainment.
Frozenprince
Banned
I hope channel 4 does another series of it. Post brexit is the perfect time given how hard that slammed the pound.
capitalCORN
Member
There's a good number of farms in outside my metropolitan area. Some do marketing themselves and even distribute to supermarkets. There's plenty of cross marketing happening, building each brand up, from farm, to butcher, to restaurant. The bulk of the business is middle men, but I work in a place that lives by it's historical reputation, and we've got the business brunt to pay the bills.
Are chain restaurants more/less likely to fail? Friend of mine, his family just opened up a new type of burger chain.
Waddle Dee
Member
My sister watches the hell out of Kitchen Nightmares and Hotel Impossible. Can't say I'm all too interested in watching them constantly but they are entertaining enough when they come on.
I remember an episode of Hotel Impossible where there was a nest of rats living in a bathroom so the owner just boarded up the bathroom door and still tried to get people to rent the room it was associated with...
I remember an episode of Hotel Impossible where there was a nest of rats living in a bathroom so the owner just boarded up the bathroom door and still tried to get people to rent the room it was associated with...
Frozenprince
Banned
If they are franchisees then they have the support usually of corporate to help guide them to be successful. So they should be okay if they don't overextend and stay smart.
It's not terribly hard to succeed.
Do you have experience with this outside of your area? It seems like it's a lot easier for restaurants to have local food wherever you are than most places.
capitalCORN
Member
Obviously I'm intimate with my area, but it's not like it's an isolated phenomenon. Obviously , marketing locavore assumes infrastructure, but it's not like any other model is lacking in suppliers. If you want to serve mom's special spaghetti in a small town that's fine. But don't expect a lick of leniency in urban areas.
Frozenprince
Banned
Even in a small town you can source fresh food fairly easily if you look.
capitalCORN
Member
Like I said, there's suppliers everywhere. You get what you put in, and a lot of people don't have a clue what it takes to put in to begin with.
Frozenprince
Banned
Which is why the failure rate is so high.
Shit isn't just something you buy and go "yay I have this".
It's a business, you get as much out of it as you put into it. Most people don't realize that. Or have any idea what they are doing or where to even begin. I know a guy who opened a place after 10 years as an executive chef only to not realize that he should be buying from wholesalers. Because he and his boss before had been buying in bulk from fucking grocery stores.
In terms of how good the episode was very true, also she actually has another business and seems active enough on social media.
capitalCORN
Member
That's some gross incompetence. The only reason a store is ever necessary is if it's due to an immediate dire shortage, and it's shit like butter.
Frozenprince
Banned
When my brother (a trained chef) told me he couldn't stop laughing. I was in utter disbelief someone could be that fucking incompetent and still want to start a business.
It's why despite how dramatized it got I never thought that any of the US version was scripted. I absolutely believe people are just that woefully incompetent.
capitalCORN
Member
How someone runs a kitchen for 10 years but blanks on their suppliers is mindboggling.
yanipheonu
Member
UK version: a fairly genuine look into what makes a restaurant fail, and an earnest attempt to turn it around.
US version: a thinly digused version of Maury that happens to take place in a restaurant.
US version: a thinly digused version of Maury that happens to take place in a restaurant.
Snowybreak
Member
No, there is no earning of a title in a kitchen. Chef is just a hold over from classical French cooking. As someone who actually works in a professional kitchen, we refer to each other by first names, not Saucier or Patissier. Only someone with a massive ego would dictate that anyone in the kitchen would call them Chef _____.
Oh, and locavore is an interesting concept, you know, if winter didn't exist up here in the north.
capitalCORN
Member
Chef is tradition where I'm at, but it's usually casual. It's more comradery than formality. Like I said, where it works, it works. No ones expecting Alaska to sprout mango trees, It exists for a reason, and menus change for a reason.
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