“I’m really hoping he’s not getting the seafood ravioli.” – Rita
I’ve watched Kitchen Nightmares for a long time, and so I expected an episode billed as a two-parter to be something special, or at least different. However, the first part of Chef Ramsay’s visit to Boston’s La Galleria 33 simply felt like an exceptionally drawn-out version of a typical edition.
Restaurant co-owners and sisters Lisa and Rita are typically dysfunctional, though at least we get a little charismatic local flavor, what with Boston accents mixed into the Italian American flair. Lisa likes to drink during dinner service while Rita smokes, so that’s kind of fun. Rita’s ex-husband Doug is the head chef, and he has that strange non-responsive passive aggressive attitude to criticism that we’ve seen on Kitchen Nightmares many times before. He does get some bonus points though, I suppose, for seeing nothing wrong with serving food that has fallen on the floor (the “three-second rule” lives outside of the fast food world, it seems!).
It doesn’t take long to figure out that even though the sisters grew up working in their parent’s Italian restaurant – which is bizarrely located around 100 feet away from La Galleria 33 in Boston’s North End – they are in over their heads running their own place. And, of course, Ramsay arrives on the scene to bulldoze and bulldog until things are shipshape and Bristol fashion, as Lane Pryce might say.
During the first dinner service, it’s fun to see both Lisa and Rita try to avoid dealing with an irate customer. Lisa says let Rita deal with it, and Rita says let Lisa deal with it. It reminds me of terrible parents who each try to pass off child-rearing responsibilities to the other spouse. And in a sense, they are horrid parents of their own business. What’s kind of amazing is that people can allow themselves to be filmed in such a light while doing their job. It’s one thing to come off as a buffoon on a contrived reality competition show, but to be revealed as being awful at your profession on national television is something else again.
At the end of the hour, Lisa flips out when Chef heads downstairs and finds a bunch of rotten vegetables amidst all of the very frozen ravioli and pasta. Note to Lisa: it’s a good idea to become a little bit familiar with the reality show that you’re going to be on (as in: this happens on every episode). You know, grab some vino at work like you typically do, and throw it on the TV above the bar.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares – “La Galleria 33 Part 1”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Food TV Shows, Trashtastic TV
STARS – Gordon Ramsay
This review was originally published on TV Geek Army.