“The freshest thing in this kitchen is that pigeon flying around, and he’s lucky he’s still alive.” – Gordon Ramsay
You’d think that when restaurant owners agree to be involved with Kitchen Nightmares, they would take some time to become familiar with the program and its format, and then at least make some small attempt to address the almost invariable issues that Gordon Ramsay finds (wretched cleanliness, terrible food, vicious clashes between key members on the team, overall incompetence, etc.).
I’d actually love to learn more about exactly how the producers and scouting location staff of the show find and engage the restaurants that end up on the air. For example, I’d assume that a restaurant knows that it has signed up and will be filmed at some point during the taping of a forthcoming season. But perhaps they are told they “might” be selected?
I’m searching for these answers because on the surface it seems baffling that restaurants would be caught out as they are so often on Kitchen Nightmares. Nonetheless, we find Spanish restaurant Spanish Pavilion in Harrison, New Jersey and its staff in precisely the same old predicament, nay, nightmare that Gordon Ramsay must use his specialized style of vicious tough love bulldoggery to save the day.
The particulars in this case involve a restaurant seemingly stuck in the 1970s, with a stodgy menu and waiters who wear tuxedos to serve diners who are dressed in far more casual garb. But the brunt of the trouble comes in the form of a kitchen obscenely overstocked, complete disorganization that causes both rancid chicken to be served as well as dead lobsters infesting the lobster tank (Ramsay discovers this bit upon his initial menu sampling meal), and two brothers and co-owners, Michael and Jerry, who don’t get along and are barely managing to stay awake at the wheel in running the restaurant.
The next steps are pretty predictable if you’ve watched the show more than a time or two. Ramsay demands that the kitchen gets cleaned up and then goes to work in making the shop – newly revitalized with the modern Spanish menu of simple but tasty tapas dishes – run more smoothly and efficiently.
Michael completely flips out a few times during the process, going so far as to shove one of his employees rather aggressively at one point. Ramsay stays on point however, advising Michael to focus while empowering front of house manager Jerry to be more of a leader (and focus less on the political side of his life, where he’s become an elected councilman in his town or some such) in getting dishes fired out of the kitchen.
The episode ends on the inevitable up note, though this is a case where I remain a bit skeptical that Michael can truly change his ways to become a dedicated head chef who will not resort to hysterics and worse when things get stressful. On a complete side note, I would really love to see an episode where Ramsay makes good on an occasional threat to walk out on the restaurant he’s helping (that was not the case here but does happen often enough). It would just be kind of fun for Ramsay to reach his own boiling point and literally want to bail on some obviously undeserving restaurant.
What, every episode needs to end happy?
More thoughts on the fourth season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares:
- “You all look immaculately formal in tuxedos. Undertakers at a funeral.” – Ramsay
- “You might call him a chef. To me he not a chef.” – Joe the Manager on Michael
- “Even though it died, it’s good.” – Michael on the dead lobsters in the lobster tank
- When Jerry tells Gordon that the lobsters in the tank look like they are “just sleeping” as opposed to dead, everyone’s brain is immediately zooms to Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage, right?
- Is there a more bleeped man on American television than Gordon Ramsay?
- “The freshest thing in this kitchen is that pigeon flying around, and he’s lucky he’s still alive.” – Ramsay
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares – “Spanish Pavilion”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 1
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Food TV Shows, Trashtastic TV
STARS – Gordon Ramsay
This review was originally published on TV Geek Army.