Cauchemar en cuisine: Avec Gordon Ramsay

After my wife got me addicted to Hell's Kitchen (US) during its first season, we've jumped at the opportunity to watch every show or series we could with Gordon in it.

We had previously watched several episodes of his show "The F Word" before eventually getting bored with it. This show, however, seems to be much more entertaining and worth watching. If you enjoy documentaries and/or reality shows, this series might be worth watching. To me, this series is to the restaurant industry as The Biggest Loser is to the obese. Although Kitchen Nightmares is not in any way a competitive series, its ultimate goal is very similar to that of The Biggest Loser. Where TBL takes several fat people (some of whom are heart attacks waiting to happen) and "saves" them by whipping them into shape and making them skinny again, Kitchen Nightmares each week showcases a single restaurant on the verge of shutting down due to any number of reasons (food quality, service, management, organization, etc) and attempts to transform the business into one that is popular and profitable.

Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of Gordon's "consultant" skills. He does bring out some of his brutally honest mannerisms in this series, but he doesn't take it to extremes like he's some drill sergeant constantly yelling at recruits. Although he does occasionally get in face-to-face jawing matches with some of the people involved, he does often show a more human side, being very professional and down to earth with the owner(s) of each restaurant and telling them what he thinks needs to change. He helps them by giving their dining area a makeover and occasionally replaces old, run down kitchen equipment with new and fancy ones. He's also good about complementing the restaurants and individuals on any positive changes he observes.

While one of the other posters wrote about the US version lacking some features present in the UK version of the show (which I don't see as a problem because Americans and Britons often have different tastes anyway), I will agree that the series could be improved by including a segment on how each showcased restaurant is doing several months after Gordon's visit. Such an inclusion would certainly be nice to see, but it might have been deliberately left out for a good reason - why cut out other dramatic details that are definitely worth leaving in the show when they can always throw in 1-2 episodes dedicated specifically to the "how are they now" questions later in the season (or even 1 at the mid-point and another at the end of the season)?

The title to this show says it all. Every week Gordon is going to visit a restaurant with problems, show us all the problems, & then suggest & help the folks running the place to fix them up. Will he ever run out of bad places he can find?

Gordon has the right personality to come across very well on TV & this show relies upon that. Ramsey often shows his sense of community service in re-launching these restaurants & promoting them by helping their locale.

FOX has had to tone down the US version from the BBC version. Americans have trouble taking Simon on American Idol & can't take the BBC version of this. I think the FOX version should crank it up to match the British one. I like Ramsey and wish him continued success with this as it is an intelligently done show that gets it viewers interested in good food.

There can never be enough good food in this world. That should be job security enough for this format.

Every episode of Kitchen Nightmares is the same. There's a failing restaurant, and we get an overview of the restaurant and why it's failing. The problems vary from a stubborn chef, a spineless owner, a clueless staff, or some mix of the above, but one thing is common: the food is terrible, but the owners don't seem to believe that. Gordon comes in, sees the restaurant, tries the food (big shock, he doesn't like the food) and he tells the owners that the food is not good, and the owners disagree and insist that their food is good, which leaves Chef Ramsay speechless. Later that night, he observes a terrible dinner service and then later inspects a more than filthy kitchen and Ramsay is furious. After getting the owners on board with change (which takes some time), they relaunch the menu (and most of the time, the decor), and the relaunch is a success, with the exception of a minor hiccup. That is your average Kitchen Nightmares episode........and I love it! There's something hypnotic about watching stubborn people so deep in denial getting yelled at by a decorated chef over how terrible their service and food are. My only concern with this show is how dramatized it is. They seem to focus more on drama between family and coworkers than they do on how a restaurant operates. In addition, some of the exercises Gordon Ramsay does with the owners seemed pointless. There was one episode that took place in a courtroom halfway through and two episodes had the owners boxing their feelings out. Those felt bizarre, like it was purely for theatrics. Other than that, I enjoyed this show. It had a capable formula and even featured some colorful personalities, and it actually made me want start cooking more.

I like reboot because of the more low key Ramsey. It reminds me of the original EU episodes. I don't know if this was by design or that the fact he is older. I do know that when the show was originally filmed they thought it would be more appealing to Americans if Gordon would be more aggressive towards the staff. I guess that worked, it went 7 seasons.

Post covid I feel like many people started to understand the plight of the restaurant worker. Don't worry we still get some of that Ramsey angst as anyone working in the industry would expect out of 80% of chefs. The reboot gives us a little rest from.all that.

I am going to keep watching, like a rubber necking a car accident, so that I can say to my boss " Well at least I'm not that bad!"

Hell's Kitchen introduced me to Gordon Ramsay. The commercials for that show portray him as a harsh tyrant in a chef's jacket. This is not the case on Hell's Kitchen or on Kitchen Nightmares. Kitchen Nightmares is an enjoyable show that allows the viewer to better understand what goes on behind the scenes of the restaurant business. Part of the the show's entertainment though lies in the incompetence and arrogance of those working in the restaurants Gordon Ramsay sets out to rescue. Without Gordon Ramsay, this show would find itself on The Food Network or TLC. He truly makes the show great as he is hard but fair. He seeks to raise the bar to improve skills, decor and ultimately business. As he does this, it makes for a fairly entertaining reality show.