“The color’s ghastly.” – Gordon Ramsay
This episode of Kitchen Nightmares takes place in Sherman Oaks, California, which is in Los Angeles’ famed San Fernando Valley a.k.a. “the valley.” When we see the signage for La Frite, we’re able to figure out that the address is 15013 Ventura Boulevard, which is quite close to a huge mall called the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which is right off the 405 freeway.
I mention this because I used to go to a gym – and occasionally eat dinner – at the Sherman Oaks Galleria on the way home from work to break up the grinding, soul slurping commute that I had getting back to Pasadena.
Such is life living and commuting in LA.
Anyway, we learn that La Frite is a “landmark restaurant” and bistro owned by French immigrant Andre Ramillon. Andre tells us that the restaurant opened in 1972 and was the only French eatery around. These days, Andre’s kids Celine and Alex help run the place, and it’s clear immediately that Alex resents his sister being around the family business.
Celine meanwhile feels that the restaurant hasn’t reached its “potential,” Billy the server feels the “food is mediocre, at best” and Martin the chef feels that “nothing is wrong with the menu.” On top of that, Gayle the manager thinks that Martin has “a Napoleon complex.” “A little man with a big mouth,” she adds to clarify.
Gayle, who seems to have no end of opinions, also thinks that Alex resents Celine. “He feels shunned,” she adds.
So our guy Gordon Ramsay will have no end of things to work on here, in other words.
Celine, for her part, feels that working at the restaurant has drastically harmed the relationship with brother.
And meanwhile, business is down by two-thirds. “We’re dead by nine o’clock,” Celine says.
Oh, and Alex thinks there’s nothing wrong. “Why do we need to change things?” is his whole vibe.
In an unusual thing for Kitchen Nightmares, Andre goes to visit Ramsay in the kitchen of one of his restaurants instead of Ramsay showing up at the business that’s the focus of the episode. Andre explains that his two children have never learned to work together, and that he “can’t handle the clash of personalities.”
Chef Ramsay then shows up at La Frite, and Gayle gives him a tour of the place. When Gordon gets to the dessert display, it’s a classic case where he does the thing where he taps it on the tray to display how old and hardened it is.
“The color’s ghastly,” is Ramsay’s first description of the décor.
Ramsay orders up the seafood crepe and a few other items. First assessment on the massive salad: “bland” and “acidic.” Meanwhile, Ramsay learns from Celine that Martin is a chauvinist and won’t listen to anything a woman tells him.
Oh, and it turns out the crepe is not really a crepe. “When it first comes out, it looks like a slurpy mess of blap,” Celine assesses.
“That is hideous,” Ramsay quickly relays as soon as he takes a bite.
“Martin lost his mojo around here many years ago,” Celine adds.
And right after this happens, we catch Martin lying about not using the microwave to help cook the quiche, which comes out way too hot and overcooked.
Ramsay then meets with the kitchen staff and immediately tells Martin that his lunch was a “disaster,” and then quickly uncovers Martin’s lies about using the microwave as part of his culinary toolchest.
A clearly insulted Martin then stormed out of La Frite kitchen. We’ve got a situation, people!
Ramsay then has a one-on-one with Martin, who reveals his distaste with working with Celine for reasons that are somewhat hard to figure out but boil down to, “And I can not work like that.”
Later that day, Ramsay meets with Alex and calls him out for not being around for the lunch service. He then reveals that he doesn’t work well his sister, Celine, and doesn’t want her to be there. Alex also doesn’t think anything is wrong with La Frite, and that angers Ramsay, who repeats: what the f— is wrong the restaurant? Alex doesn’t budge.
That night during service, it’s obvious that Martin’s move is to simply ignore people in the kitchen, especially when Celine asks him anything. He just shrugs his shoulders and keeps on keeping on (with producing mediocre at best food). If that’s not enough, Alex started ignoring Ramsay himself, which really set him off.
Talking to the camera, he says, “And if that’s not enough, the food sucks.”
After that, Alex started responding to Ramsay’s questions and ideas during service, but with sarcastic half-answers that would surely feel like scratching a chalkboard for anyone having to deal with this dude.
Meanwhile, Alex tells the camera that “things don’t need to change.” And at this point Celine is in tears.
Ramsay’s demands that Andre return to the restaurant at this point or he’s prepared to bolt. When he arrives, Gordon tells him that things “are much worse than he imagined,” with Alex’s “arrogance” being the biggest problem.
The next morning, Ramsay and crew set up a weird little gimmick, where they have Andre observe the restaurant on a live video feed. Ramsay then meets in front of the camera with Celine, who relates that there’s massive miscommunication with Alex because he resents her. And additionally she reveals that she feels that Alex thinks that poppa Andre favors her.
Alex then joins them and reveals that he feels that Andre is poised to kick him out of the family business and that has fueled his malaise. Celine tells him that she’s not there to hurt him, and Chef Ramsay’s Family Therapy Clinic seems to be doing some good. At least for the moment. The siblings end up hugging and agree to try harder to get along and work well together.
Meanwhile, Ramsay returns to find Andre still watching the video feed, and the whole purpose of that set-up feels somewhere between not necessary and kind of invasive and weird.
That being said, Andre then pops in on the gathering and all seem to be emotional and willing to work together on communication and save La Frite. Even Alex says “of course I’m going to work with” Celine. Well, he means now, right?
Meanwhile, time for a spruced up menu, working in “lighter” crepes instead of the heavy gloop they had been serving. Celine is now in the kitchen helping to expedite, meaning that Martin has actually not be a total jerk and communicate if this thing is to work.
Things don’t start off well at all as Martin serves a dish that Ramsay alternatively refers to as a “f—ing diaper sandwich” and a “f—ing oil slick.” Colorful, our guy Gordon.
However, the new crepe special is the only thing that the diners seem to enjoy – everything else gets a failing grade from the patrons. This is mostly due of course to a) Martin’s terrible cooking and b) Martin’s even worse attitude.
That night, Ramsay holds a meeting with the family, and it’s agreed that the head chef is the biggest problem, along with “leadership.”
Overnight, La Frite undergoes a full renovation, which replaces the cheesy yellow décor and awning over the bar and replaces it with a much more spacious, modern “French bistro vibe.” The menu is also overhauled to be much smaller and to reflect a modern bistro sensibility, such as nicoise salad and braised lamb shanks.
Even more importantly, Ramsay brings in Chef Chuy, a consulting chef with 15 years of experience with French bistros to guide the team and get them going in a better direction.
Relaunch night starts off well, but swiftly goes off the rails with Celine once again getting stymied by Martin’s taciturn lack of communication. And that causes the ability for diners to get fed to screech to a fault. Billy the server then reports that some tables are walking out of the restaurant after not being served after an hour and a half wait (I know I would!).
Chef Chuy is finally forced to completely take over the kitchen to get things moving, and the people who actually stuck around finally got fed and enjoyed their meals.
Ramsay meets with the family again after service, and encourages them to continue to work on communication and working as a team. Andre relays that he’s proud of his children, and they do a group hug.
Usually, in these situations with Kitchen Nightmares, the consulting chef helps out for a while and then moves on, but in this case they mention that Chef Chuy was hired on full time as Executive Chef.
Interestingly, they never mentioned if Martin was fired or quit or what, but it’s kind of implied that he’s no longer working for La Frite.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “La Frite”: is it still open?
Well, La Frite stayed open for a while but wound up finally shutting down in September, 2017. According to Reality TV Updates, the restaurant was eventually rebranded as Modo Mio under new owners, but that iteration of the place shut down in 2021.
The restaurant business is tough, and perhaps covid was a factor in that latter closing.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “La Frite”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 11
AIRED ON – April 29th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay