a chuckle-worthy end.
I suspect 60% is pretty much average for how many restaurants close within a few years.
anyone watch Bar rescue? I’ve heard most of those businesses go under.
Without Ramsey’s constant nagging and common sense, most of them went back to their original menus and bad work habits. So many of them were not restaurant professionals. That is one hard business to learn from scratch.
Most of those that failed had nothing to do with Ramsey, except that they did not listen to him.
I found Jr. Chef absolutely amazing.
It was actually a pretty good show. I am surprised that so many horribly-run restaurants gave them permission to air that stuff.
Some stuff wasn’t “real”. Many or all of the times they showed customers eating before things were fixed, all the customers knew in advanced it was for TV. The customers on the show always knew the show was taping in advance of showing up I think.
i like his show Master Chef...
I always thought the British version was a lot better than the fake drama of the American version.
A girl I know worked as a production assistant for an episode of kitchen nightmares and thought Ramsay was just the nicest guy. Said he was really good to everyone.
That Ramsay character always made me want to splash hot fryer grease on him. I wouldn't patronize any establishment he was a part of.
All that having been said, my misfortune in life seems to be discovering a fabulous restaurant staffed by friendly staff, serving fabulous food at reasonable prices yet ultimately fails.
The initial issue and a depressionary economy really makes for no surprise.
Several comments on this.
The show was generally entertaining, especially his original Euro series (see the guy in Spain).
But sorry, chefs tend to be prima-donna artsy-fartsies who think everything has to be high-falutin’.
Frankly, while there is much good high-class stuff, much of it is not so good and often unnecessary.
Ramsey is one of those chefs - make it fancy.
He told some pub guy in England to make a “real gravy” - his idea was virtual vegetable soup! Who the hell puts chunks of veggies in gravy? BS!
He came here to Baltimore to tell the local woman of the “Cafe Hon” about everything. She probably did alot of wrong things (never mind about the “hon” thing), but I don’t know if upscaling the decor instead of making it kitschy and caricaturish to the local culture was a good idea. And don’t EVER play with Maryland crabcakes. They are NOT gourmet, they are best when extremely simple!
As for Ramsey, my mother had a contact (friend?) who went to England and wanted to eat at his restaurant. He was the Maitre’D if you will, and perfunctorily told him too bad, he did not make reservations far in advance and they would not help him. Simple as that. “P-off” as English types like him might say. Rude and arrogant.
40% success is excellent considering he had to work with nothing.
I worked in a restaurant back in my early days. Yelling and cursing cooks, clanging pots and pans. Frenetic waitress activity “backstage”. Somebody always mopping the floor. It’s a fun place to work when you are young.
100% probably would’ve failed without his intervention.
Some shows were like this.
My customers in my 2 year old restaurant were all losers and could not tell good food, I had to run them off and tell them to never come back, because they could not appreciate how good my food was, and would complain.
Because of money problems I asked Gordon Ramsey to come in, but he could not tell how good my food was and tried to change it and make me hire a new cook, and I had to run him off.
Three months later, because of Kitchen Nightmares, and running out of money to pay my bills, I lost my restaurant.
That Gordon Ramsey must be a jinx, but it could be my customers not being able to tell good food.
yup...and the seemingly overwhelming need for the owner to return to the lousy food and service that drive them into bankruptcy in the first place
That show was so phony and so formulaic you could have just shot one episode and spliced in some different voices.
It utterly sucked ... almost as bad as that douchebag Ramsey.
I think most of these restaurants were so far gone that they couldn’t be saved.
They only called in Gordon Ramsey to create a little local buzz and get a free makeover of the restaurant so they could sell it for a higher price.