Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

and the guy on the bbq grill was amazing, haha. using a wind up torch to look for his steaks.

the part with the bull was silly though, a bit grating the way they tried to fit it with Ramsays's reasoning.

i'd probly watch it again next week, if there's nothing else to do.

HEY! new UK season starts tonight on BBC america!!! i am so overexcited!!!!!!

Fucking USA version started on C4 last night yes? Fucking keep your arse up yes? Fucking Gordon has saved our asses yes?

When that manager was throwing a hissy fit about it being his fault about not booking the footballers' table..

They obviously edited in everyone looking round to the full restaurant, when it seemed clear that it was after all the customers had gone home.

There was a 1/10th second panel at the end whih started "This programme has been edited to make.." and that's as fast as I could read it.

Yeah and that bit where they showed a couple of shots of him carrying

??

carrying a tray laden with drinks, then there was a not very loud off-screen "crash", and a shot of him looking a bit sheepish, but no evidence of broken glass or liquid anywhere or anything like that.

I also find it significant that the voice over on the USA version is not GRamsay.

I felt for the manager, as it was basically inexperience of a 'full restaurant' was why he screwed up. Notwithstanding being defensive, etc.

However, taking 50% of tips for being so 'mein host', he should have got shot for.

I thought the manager was a slimy dick, but the programme sucked a slimy dick. I wish I'd watched the 80s pop thing on the other side instead.

"Hello, Mixing Bowl Mike speaking"

Simple food! Well cooked! Using local produce!

(slaps back of fingers into palm at each exclamation mark)

whenever i go out to eat now i always ask "are the scallops fresh?" even if it's like a mexican place and there aren't scallops on the menu. that way the waitstaff know i know what i'm talking about. sometimes i'll ask it repeatedly.

it's the new "do we use a pencil, miss?"

You know, the editing together of bits from completely different days renders this almost unwatchable.

Like last night, bloke is throwing a wobbler, kicking over a hoover while all his staff are in't kitchen working like happy bees. Or are they?

And later the same show, owner manages to find Ramsay, clearly well after filming had finished for the day after a big blowout, to 'continue' the fight, and suddenly they are all back cooking w/ Gordon, owner turns up seemingly placid pete once again...

ARGH! this is quite a good show IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS when does the next series start WHAT A GIT he;s right though?

this must be referring to the american version.

you are quite right.

For US readers, this was "Sebastian's" the LA one with the multiple options and the 'frozen' pizza base dough and ingredients, etc.

I couldn't watch the US version, it's just so hackily edited and the owners all were such d-bags that businesses deserved to fail.

SIMPLE. RUSTIC.

Seabass apparently the cure for every restaurant's woes.

Sebastians was the WORST thing ever! That's the only american episode I've seen. The UK ones are better, but sometimes I just wanna go "hey ramsay, maybe if you were nicer they'd adopt to your ideas with more ease, make them think it was their idea". But I guess that's not as good TV. I love the show but it's getting pretty predictable.

"Hey owner, why do you make menu so complicated? Let chef make simple foods from his childhood. Cut menu in half, stupid promo stunt in town center, reopen succesfully, then revert to crappy ways 1 week later"

"Simple foods from his childhood" check.
"Cut menu in half" more like a quarter, but check.
"Stupid promo stunt" nope, he even let them keep the 'branding' "If it wasn't for Sebastian's I'd starve" tshirts the staff wore
"Reopen successfully (incorporating new decor which must be in the contract)" check

It is noteable that GRamsay hardly ever makes the 'return trip' or even add much to the voiceover afterwards. On the odd occasion, the artifice slips (e.g. the backstage boff last night, the accident in the kitchen where a chef got knocked unconscious, although even then it looked like they edited GRa into the kitchen that time....

really this show is just useful for exposing the sheer lunacy of many restauranteurs in this country ("you thought THIS would be a good idea?!" etc. dish-wise, decor-wise and brand-wise) altho it's very easy for me to say that in my armchair with my sausage in mug of beans.

Is there no thread just for Gordon Ramsay, 1st class chef, 2nd class footballer and 3rd class human being, as I believe AA Gill once called him?

My dad went to one of his restaurants the other week; apparently it wasn't all that.

Defend The Indefensible : Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay's F Word

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

Gordon Ramsay: Big Man?

Taking Sides: Gordon Ramsay Vs. Anthony Bourdain

xpost quelle surprise.

I've been to his restaurant on Royal Hospital Road SW3 innit. It was OK but not as good as Picasso's in the King's Road where I regularly see him and his family tucking into the full English of a Saturday morning.

(nb: I went about ten years ago so I've no idea whether it's got any better or worse since then)

I've started watching these -- British and American both. The editing does announce itself as pretty severe: in one of the American ones, Ramsay's seen yelling at a guy who then responds while wearing a completely different tie. (Ramsay also seems to offer a lot of "proof" of how to fill a restaurant that seems pretty clearly dependent on having a celebrity chef and a film crew around drawing attention to said restaurant.) Still: these are insanely entertaining! And I can't get over the joy, with the British ones, of seeing bumbling restaurant folks who I only really recognize via archetypes from UK comedy shows -- an English chef who's remarkably like the sidekick from all those Simon Pegg movies, or a Scottish waitress who just kept reminding me of the woman from Extras. The show seems pretty good at latching on to the people as reality-show personality types, and the types seem to ring true.

It seems totally feasible to me that restaurants can be exactly as horrible and incompetent as the show makes them out to be -- there are loads of awful restaurants in the world with no excuse -- but I'm suspicious of the feeling one gets after watching an episode of this, which tends to be along the lines of "good god, if these people have lasted this long, I think I could run a restaurant."

I watched this for awhile, and most of the time I turn it off because I can't bear to see the assholes in question turn it around. I don't think they DESERVE to improve their restaurant. Only very rarely do they show well-intentioned people who simply are doing a few key things wrong. Most of these restaurants should die on the vine.

Very entertaining, though.

Also: mitigating Ramsay's abusive-hardman schtick is the fact that he clearly winds up liking some people -- so far I've seen (a) one where he's clearly taking some joy in horsing around with a couple dim-witted mid-English early-20s chefs, yelling at them like dopey little brothers, and (b) one where a new chef gets brought down to save an ex-pat vegetarian restaurant in Paris, and she seems excited enough about listening to him that when the restaurant fails, he makes a happy-ending show of giving her some slot at one of his own places.

xpost - Yeah, a lot of them seem like restaurants that maybe aren't worth saving, and will at best be made half-functional over the very short term.

Still: these are insanely entertaining!

So OTM. I love both the British and the American versions

(To be honest, though, I question how any restaurant could survive after appearing on this show, unless it turns around into something actively spectacular -- would you eat at any place you'd seen on here? I almost suspect it's a way of closing things out, like whatever money you get out of participating is just going to defray your debts when you sell the place off.)

are there any episodes that don't have a crisis moment where the staff freak out because they are used to slow business, and suddenly they're serving a new menu + the place is packed because ramsay & the cameras are there?

I watched waaaaay too much of this when I was home; they run dozens in a row on BBC America when they're not running old Cash in the Attics.

A soul food place in Brighton did really well after being Nightmared but all the American version restauranteurs are a) meatheads b) douchebags or c) anvilheads. Guy in the Hamptons who drops shit on the floor and flings it back in the fryer? YOU.

he's very craggy looking on tv Yeah but way worse in person. They must layer on the make-up. Here's where our taste in men might differ, Jordan. Despite the cragginess - I think he's so hot.

1/2 the reason I love this show is that my Dad is a (now retired) foul-mouthed chef not unlike Mr. Ramsay himself. Having grown up in the restaurant business makes me love the show all the more.

I also love that most of the american episodes are shitty italian places on Long Island.

So there are four episodes on On Demand and 2 of the restaurants are on LI and within 20 mins of where I grew up. One of them (The Seascape Inn which is the one GR shut down cause it was so gross) is a place I've actually been to many times but not in over 10 years.

The one I watched last night had the biggest LI asshole I've ever seen and it was A++. May have to drive by this weekend when I'm visiting to see how they made out and if they're still there.

There's a Jersey one that, just for good measure, includes drunk customers bitching each other out in the parking lot. In a very "local color" kind of way.

NICE! I'll have to see if that's one of the other ones on On Demand.

The manager guy in the one I was talking about above is the one who went nuts on a guy who showed up to collect a debt. The staff had to restrain him while he went apeshit and nearly beat the guy. It was pretty amazing.

^^ What I learned from it is that if you're going to call anyone an "alcoholic lowlife," you should make really, really sure they don't look way more sober than you

I've been to that place. Its down the street from my gf's parents house. XP

The one in Babylon? So it is still there?

I know the other one I was talking about has been closed for at least 6 mo now.

Whoah, beatings.

Oh, final detail from the Italian restaurant in Jersey: in the beginning, the narration is talking about how much debt the owner has taken on, blah blah blah, but the footage is of some guy in a leather jacket and shades coming in through the back door and basically going "listen, buddy, if I was you I'd make sure to pay us that money back like we agreed, you understand?"

OK yeah - I need to see that asap.

The one in jersey

Ah, ok.

are you talking about the one with the guy who thought he was a wise guy and took money from the till and had a merc?

That's one of the one's I was talking about. The guy who freaked out on the debt collector, right? I'm gonna check it out this weekend and see if it's still there. I anticipate being v v bored while in the area.

I wish I could watch this show regularly, uk or us version.

I just saw the one featuring the Italian restaurant in Stamford ct. Once I saw the "soup of the day" and alpo lasagna bits, I was hooked.

I saw the most amazing episode yesterday. It was an Indian/American/English/something else restaurant in what looked like Times Square that was infested with bugs, had an Indian chef named Gomez who thought he was in New Jersey and the biggest cockroaches I've ever seen. It was incredible.

I really enjoyed the one episode I saw of this show. I need to remember to watch it more often. NBC's Hell's Kitchen rip-off wasn't horrible either.

The fish restaurant one w/ the bodybuilders was excellent.

Last nights was the usual "french mad chef" face off dullness.

purnima - i walked past it once and there was NO ONE in it!
but the chef they got to come in and fix it was so cuet.
xpost

OMG he was ADORABLE is reminded me of Jimi Mistri who is a total WS for me.

http://www.celebritiesworldwide.com/File_Upload/Image/Jimi-Mistry---MOBO2.jpg

"he" reminded me not "is". oof. After seeing that episode I don't care how good Purnima may be now I wouldn't step foot in there. It was so gross.

yeah. kinda sad since that's like, the opposite but inevitable effect the show will probably have on most places.

This week we had the Black Pearl, New York.

Three partners, two pleased with Gordon's work, One was still in a deadly face-off w/ Gordon, right at the end.

So, will Gordon return in 6 months?

http://www.blackpearlonline.com/

hmm, maybe not...

whoa, passive aggressive notes:

NEWS!

As it turns out, Gordon Ramsay is allegedly a philandering hypocrite. Maybe he'll rot in hell, where he belongs!

Wonder which one of the three does the website?

This show is perfect for putting on when I work from home. The edit every show into the same narrative arc (terrible restaurant, (manufactured) personal drama, cleaning/new menu items, healing, REDEMPTION (except for the Black Pearl lol those guys were terrible)) so I only have to pay half attention to it, and the episodes where he unearths disgusting things in the walk-ins and then makes everybody clean the hell out of everything are so so satisfying. I also like it when everybody happy cries at the end.

Oh and the redecorating! And when a recalcitrant owner/manager finally caves under GR's relentless verbal abuse and admits that his entire professional life was a lie.

I like the ones where the food or the fridges or whatever are so bad that he strides out into the restaurant and orders all the customers to stop eating immediately and leave.

Yes! The one I'm watching now is a Mexican restaurant and he just brought a trash can of refried beans out, slammed it on a table, and kicked everybody out. LOL

I'm remembering one about a Greek joint where he did that although the craziest thing was that the owner's daughter who was the waitress just cried her eyes out for most of the show. Like, practically every scene she was in the background weeping.

love the weeping

You guys should watch Bar Rescue, it is horrible and hilarious

DISGUSTING! YOU'RE GETTING PEOPLE SICK!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!!

Bar Rescue is p hilarious. esp Taffer's tirades.

Is it streaming on Netflix? It sounds perfect.

DISGUSTING! YOU'RE GETTING PEOPLE SICK!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!!

YOU'RE GOING TO KILL SOMEBODY! LOOK AT THIS! I ATE HERE!!!

really the best reasons to watch these shows are the irrationally angry responses by the show's figureheads. they're always the best.

though I did prefer the more low key UK version of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, where they didn't just have a production crew come in and spruce up the restaurant overnight.

been gorging on it recently.

"Chimichanga? More like chimichuckitinthebin!"

"Talk about kitchen nightmare...this is a kitchen disaster!"

I prefer Taffer because his character assassinations are out of this world.

i.e. "CROSS CONTAMINATION! YOU ARE GETTING PEOPLE SICK! YOU SEE THOSE KIDS OUT THERE? YOU WANT TO KILL THEM? YOU LIKE KILLING KIDS???"

although the favorite cliché, said on both shows

"This time, I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN FIX THIS <bar/restaurant>".

I'm remembering one about a Greek joint where he did that although the craziest thing was that the owner's daughter who was the waitress just cried her eyes out for most of the show. Like, practically every scene she was in the background weeping.

― everything, Friday, September 27, 2013 3:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

that eps a fav of mine

ive been seeing ads for masterchef jr, where GR alternates between going 'aww, nice job son' and 'i wouldnt feed this to a dog!!!' to a bunch of kids in comically oversized chefs whites... the watchmen babies of his career

For some reason Gordon's people consistently hire the shoddiest FX house in America for his show intros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA37EWSMp3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w26on0Dfd6I

Oh man, the Hell's Kitchen intros are the worst I've ever seen!! For some reason though, I just can't get enough of Chef Ramsay yelling at people!

You guys should watch Bar Rescue, it is horrible and hilarious

God I love that show. Watching Taffer try to express human emotions with that terrifying face of his...

Best part of Bar Rescue is that the sponsor placement is so obvious, even moreso than the Ramsay shows. The people doing bartender training are Diageo employees half the time

that and it taught me what a "butt funnel" is

Yes, and I'm glad it wasn't what I thought it was.

I don't really drink at all so I think the product placement slips past me except when it's really obvious (like all of the drinks are made with one brand of rum or whatever). I had to Google Diageo for instance.

It'll be like that, only all the liquor brands are all owned by the same conglomerate, in every episode

That's kind of amazing but somehow not surprising.

This show is not available on Netflix. :(