Kitchen Nightmares

From LoveToKnow Reality-TV

Kitchen Nightmares is one of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's reality TV shows. Ramsay travels to restaurants that are struggling to make ends meet and guides them toward profitability through drastic transformations, based on their menus and kitchen staff.

Origins of Kitchen Nightmares

Kitchen Nightmares began as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares in the United Kingdom, premiering in April, 2004. Six short seasons have aired so far, with four to eight episodes each, and more are being planned.

In September 2007, the FOX network brought the show to an American audience, dropping Ramsay's name from the title. Since Ramsay's other reality show, Hell's Kitchen (also a British import), was doing well in the ratings, FOX decided that a double dose of the chef would likely appeal to fans. They were correct.

Kitchen Nightmares Format

In each episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay starts things off with a brief introduction to the restaurant and its owners, giving details about how long the business has been running and how much its sales have dropped off. Then Ramsay enters the establishment and observes how a usual service is run, making comments and asking questions along the way.

After his observations, Ramsay presents his opinions to the restaurant owners and pinpoints where he believes the problems lie. This generally includes a critique of the current menu as well as the setup of the kitchen, and the attitudes and abilities of the kitchen staff. Ramsay promises to overhaul the menu and fix the problems within one week. This is where the fun really begins!

Challenging the Chefs

Gordon Ramsay often comes across as rude, gruff, and uncaring, but in this show you can truly see that he is extremely passionate about food and the people preparing it. The cooking segments of Kitchen Nightmares show Ramsay interacting with the chefs and support staff, challenging them to think about food in new ways and encouraging them to use their imaginations.

While Ramsay may be abrupt and lose his patience with some of the staff, it is quite clear that he's taking a tough love approach and hoping to inspire them to fight back and prove that they have what it takes to do their jobs well.

Menu Overhaul

Ramsay takes care to create new menus that will suit both the restaurant's target clientele as well as local offerings and customs. Most of his suggestions aren't complicated to cook, but present very well and provide value and great taste for the customers. Once he's decided on the dishes - with help from the restaurant owners - he brings the ingredients in and coaches the kitchen staff in preparing the items.

After One Week

When Ramsay's week is finished, he sticks around and becomes a customer for one meal. He then offers his final comments to the staff and asks for input from the owners. These segments can be a mixed bag, as sometimes the staff or owners don't agree with all of the changes while other times they wholeheartedly embrace them.

Kitchen Nightmares Resolved

After several months, Ramsay usually returns to the restaurants he's worked with to order a meal and check on their progress. Viewers are updated on how the restaurants are doing now and whether or not Ramsay's suggested changes actually survived past the week he was there.

Often, however, these restaurants are struggling so badly and in so much debt that even a complete overhaul can't save them. Roughly half of the American establishments that Ramsay has worked in have closed or sold to new management.

Kitchen Nightmares Controversy

Ramsay and his production staff on both sides of the ocean have been to court for allegedly staging elements of the show. In the British case, Ramsay actually sued The London Evening Standard for reporting claims that the show had staged scenes from a restaurant to make it look worse than it really was. Ramsay won this libel case.

In the U.S., a restaurant owner sued Ramsay for staging scenes to add drama to the show. This case was dismissed and sent to arbitration.