“Even with Chef Ramsey here, there’s absolutely no hope for this restaurant to survive.” – Eduardo
This edition of Kitchen Nightmares is billed as something of a “Latin soap opera,” which is kind of cute or maybe a little bit racist depending on how you look at it.
It’s also very hilarious to this native New Yorker that Brooklyn, New York – a borough of New York City that’s home to more than two and a half million residents – is termed as a “hip neighborhood” by the voiceover guy.
We also learn right away that things are a mess at Mojito’s, a Cuban café. It’s run by Katalina and her estranged husband Marcelo, who is also the chef. Within the first few minutes, Marcelo tells us, “She have the book, ‘How to Drive Marcelo Crazy.” And soon after: “she’s a b—-.” Turns out that the couple is no longer living together, which seems like a good thing.
And then Katalina lets us know that no one respects Marcelo in the kitchen, and that he’s not doing a very good job overall.
“Mojito’s has destroyed our lives,” Marcelo says, with tears in his eyes.
And along comes our snarky Brit chef in not-so-shining armor, Gordon Ramsey. His first take on the décor of Mojito’s Cuban Restaurant: “It’s like a garage sale gone through.”
Of course, Marcelo thinks that Ramsey will love the food coming out of his kitchen, and predictably he’s stone cold wrong. Speaking of cold, somehow the appetizer of soup that was sent out was cold, and meanwhile the side dish of beans is way too salty.
“A shame, can’t even get the basics right,” Gordon concludes, and it’s hard not to agree with him there.
Immediately, this sets off World War III in the kitchen, with Marcelo and Kata screaming at each other. “It’s gonna be a complete disaster,” Marcelo says.
And then the kicker is that the tilapia entrée that Marcelo is absolutely positive that Ramsey will love turns out “not to be cooked.” In other words: raw.
Ramsey meets with Marcelo, Katalina, and Eduardo (another kitchen staffer) after lunch and the latter confirms that the operation is this much of a mess every day. “Even with Chef Ramsey here,” Eduardo tells the camera, “there’s absolutely no hope for this restaurant to survive.”
Before dinner service that night, Marcelo expounds on his feelings about Katalina: “I think she’s on a long-lasting battery because she talk and talk and talk and talk and talk.”
During dinner, Eduardo chimes in again with, “The kitchen staff, we do so much better without Marcelo… He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
Meanwhile, the narrator guy piles on by relaying that the food coming out of the kitchen is at a speed that’s a glacial pace and “not being well received” by the patrons. We then hear one of the diners ask/shout at a waiter, “What’s wrong with the chef?”
Katalina’s take: Marcelo doesn’t have consistency, doesn’t expedite, and “just sends things out” of the kitchen to “get them out of the way.” Other than that though she finds him wonderful.
Well, maybe she didn’t say that last part.
Geo, a server, adds that Katalina is “not actually hands on” and “she’s just adding fire.”
Ramsey finally chimes in: “the kitchen’s in chaos, and the restaurant is f—ing sinking.”
Gordon then investigates the food storage situation and finds it’s a classic case of way too much food being stored for a restaurant that size. “If their cash flow is in the s—, this is a big reason why,” Chef Ramsey notes.
After dinner service, Ramsey tells the staff that it was really more like a disservice, get it? Marcelo once again takes everyone’s ire as he’s identified as the one in charge of the food storage mess. We also learn that Mojito’s is over $300,000 in debt. Not great.
“You’ve got enough food down there to feed a banquet of 5,000,” Ramsey notes.
Gordon then goes to work… playing marriage counselor to the estranged couple, meeting with them separately. It seems that there’s more going on here than meet the eye, with Katalina telling Ramsey that Marcelo was out partying all night when they were together, while Marcelo maintains that she met “someone else” in Miami.
Ramsey’s solution – at least for Mojito’s – is to observe them working together to cook a dish. However, they each end up cooking separate dishes, and Gordon ends up calling them what I believe is “moppets.” Chef Ramsey enjoys Katalina’s shrimp dish more than Marcelo’s entrée, which again must be a blow to our guy.
In tune with the name of the series, Marcelo tells us that Katalina is a nightmare. However, he reluctantly agrees to allow her to take over the kitchen for the next dinner service while he takes over the front of the house.
There are times when Gordon Ramsey’s brand of “very tough love” kind of works, when he shakes people up to get them focused and ultimately more motivated. And then there are other times where he’s clearly just rude and abusive. Example of the latter: when he barks at Marcel to “stop bouncing around like a f—ing monkey” while the guy is simply walking around the restaurant in some seeming attempt to his job.
In any event, the dinner service starts out well enough with the new arrangement, until the diners start complaining about the “strange taste” of the special. Katalina melts down at this point, and things go off the rails pretty quickly.
“Mojito’s is on the rocks once again,” the narrator guy says in what you know they were just so excited to roll out at this point in the episode.
The service eventually smooths out, and afterward Ramsey gives the bickering couple a pep talk and says that they must have a “great leap forward” when Mojito’s relaunches the following day. He also tells them that he knows that they will never reconcile their marriage but that they need to figure out if they can work together amicably in a way that will lead their “baby,” the restaurant, to success.
Marcelo and Kata give each other a high five, hug, and agree to give it a shot.
The next day, Mojito’s is revealed to have been refurbished and the new décor gives the joint a much brighter and airier feel. Ramsey also does a classic reset of the menu, cutting the entrees on offer in half and going for fresh, “contemporary Cuban cuisine” that can be prepared quickly.
Somewhat oddly, Kata and Marcelo opt to both work the front of the house together for relaunch night, while leaving Eduardo to lead the kitchen on his own.
With that brilliant move, diners soon start sending food back because “Edurado got completely lost,” and everything soon verged on the edge of disaster. And then meanwhile, Marty Markowitz, president of the borough of Brooklyn, shows up.
Eduardo reports to Gordon that he’s “all over the place,” which at least puts him in exactly the same category as the co-owners of Mojito’s. Marcelo tries to help out by jumping excitedly in place.
But eventually things take another turn and dishes start speeding their way out of the kitchen. And even Marty Markowitz gives the Cuban food a solemn Brooklyn nod of approval.
The couple promises Ramsey that they are going to continue to work hard to make Mojito’s work, and Marcelo even alludes to how he “wants to get Kata back.” We’re not sure if he means professionally, romantically, or both, but seems like it’s the latter.
Side note that years ago I lived within walking distance of a Cuban restaurant in Pasadena, California owned by Jennifer Lopez. I only got the chance to eat there once, but it was outstanding.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Mojito’s”: is it still open?
Well, Mojito’s (located at 82 Washington Ave Brooklyn, NY 11205) stuck around for a while before finally closing down in 2016.
The Kitchen Nightmares Wiki reports that:
- Marcelo and Kata did not get back together
- Eduardo went off to work as a caterer
- Marcelo “remarried and moved to Chile”
- Kata went on the reality food TV circuit, competing on Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Mojito’s”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 4
AIRED ON – February 25th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay