“Trust me, you are not a f—ing restaurateur.” – Gordon Ramsay
I’ve watched a lot of Kitchen Nightmares in my day. Many episodes feature restaurants in New York, nearby areas in New England, or in Southern California. Therefore, it’s nice to head into the United State’s middle bits in this one for Zeke’s, in what’s described as the “New Orleans suburb of Metairie.”
Zeke’s – which serves New Orleans and French-inspired cuisine – was opened in 2002 by Zeke Unangst, who we see acting “big and goofy” in an old video clip. Indeed, Zeke is six feet, four inches tall and wears a wacky looking green hat as he’s entertaining his customers.
Tragically, Zeke died in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, which led to the husband and wife team, Darryl Cortello and Ellen Cortello, buying it.
The head chef, Emil, who worked at Zeke’s before and after the new owners took over, claims that the Cortello’s cut staff, cut product, and “went to a lesser quality” while at the same time reducing portion sizes and raising prices.
On top of that, as the fortunes of Zeke’s fell, Darryl has both cut pay while increasing hours for his staff.
Sounds like a real party over at Zeke’s, in other words.
Instead of heading to the restaurant to check things out right away, Chef Gordon Ramsay gets on a boat on what’s considered the East Bank of Metairie and finds out that the locals used to eat at Zeke’s “before Katrina” but don’t care for it much these days.
Now at Zeke’s, Ramsay gets the brief history of Zeke’s, he finds out that neither current owner is a chef by training. He then orders a house specialty, the Oysters Cortello, boiled shrimp, and bread pudding from a server named Candace.
Side note that Ramsay casually calls Candace “my darling,” and I’m not sure if that’s acceptable by modern standards, or maybe he gets a pass because of the British accent?
In any event, Gordon’s first take on the boiled shrimp: mushy and disgusting. Ramsay then discovers that the shrimp he’s eating are “fresh frozen” even though one can buy fresh shrimp within a mile of the premises.
Candace herself admits that the shrimp “tastes like s—,” and then she corrects herself, giggling, and says that it “tastes like crap.”
Darryl’s take: “Some things are okay frozen.”
While this is happening, Ramsay takes the opportunity to bag on the “swamp décor” of Zeke’s.
Then, on the chicken fried steak: “it looks like a giraffe’s tongue cut out and deep fat fried.”
The hilarious part here is when Emil hears this, he despondently says in a Cajun accent, “It looks like we cut out a giraffe’s tongue.”
On a slightly positive note, Ramsay actually likes the bread pudding – incredibly rare for Gordon to like anything at the outset – but we learn that Emil makes this with no input from Darryl.
After lunch, Ramsay gathers the staff and gives them his standard dressing down. He also gets the full lowdown on Darryl’s low standards and penny pinching/pound foolish ways. Then there’s this fun exchange:
- Ramsay: “You can’t be that f—ing stupid.”
- Darryl: “Point taken.”
At dinner service that night, we quickly get a “bloody hell” from Ramsay in reaction to Darryl’s expediting food out of the kitchen skills. And then he calls Ellen “dower” to her face and let’s her know that she “can keep herself busy.”
And that’s before Ramsay learns of the “stupidity” that they are serving lasagna as a special that was cooked and frozen the previous week. Darryl keeps insisting that “this is a good product, it’s good food” and as suspected Ramsay does not handle this very well.
This prompts Ramsay to clink a glass to get the entire restaurant’s attention. Which means we’re in a for a gimmick! As suspected, the diners ewww in reaction to learning that the daily special was actually prepared the pervious week.
After dinner service, Ramsay and Darryl continue to have it out. “You don’t give a s— about food,” Gordon spits at him when Darryl gets defensive for the millionth time.
“Trust me, you are not a f—ing restaurateur,” Ramsay concludes.
The next day, Ramsay meets with the staff sans the owners. Usually, this part of a Kitchen Nightmares episode isn’t all that interesting, but I perked up when Emil revealed that his hours on the job had expanded from 40 to 50 hours per week while remaining at a paltry $400 per week salary.
“I just feel like I’m getting pounded with a mallet constantly when I walk into this place,” he adds. “That pisses me off.”
Candace then adds that she doesn’t even get the time to eat a meal during her shift.
Darryl and Ellen are then brought in, and the staff grudgingly lays into the owners about how terrible the working conditions and overall culture at Zeke’s have become across the board.
Even at this point, the owners double down on being combative, with Darryl telling his employees, “If you don’t want to be here, don’t be here.” Ramsay then slides into advising the owners in a series of platitudes: set an example, turn the page, start anew, etc.
And then, like magic, Ramsay declares that the air is cleared.
The next day, Ramsay sends chefs Emil and Jason to the local supermarket to go shopping and “get inspired.” Then back at Zeke’s the chefs are put to work spinning up a creative dish.
Then it’s time for a gimmick! Ramsay presents the Zeke’s chef’s dishes as his own to the rest of the staff. As expected, Darryl and Ellen are delighted by the food, which in turn allows Ramsay to reveal the talent that the restaurant owners have in their very own kitchen.
Darryl now gets all food is art and I wasn’t letting them do their art. The way Emil frames it: “About f—ing time you see it.”
The overnight renovation does a noticeable job of sprucing up Zeke’s with reclaimed doors used as part of the décor on the walls providing a unique and downhome feel.
“You have our identity, this is us,” Ellen tells Gordon.
The menu overhaul calls for a “modern update of classic New Orleans cuisine,” including blue crabs, house boil, catfish, smothered pork chops, and a bunch of other seafood dishes.
There are of course a lot of contrived aspects to Kitchen Nightmares, but as we see the kitchen prepare the new menu during relaunch night, I’m reminded that Gordon Ramsay really does know how to successfully set restaurants for success. So there is a truthful and therefore compelling basis to much of what we see play on this reality TV show.
Meanwhile, an inevitable hitch happens when undercooked food gets served to diners, and we get an iconic it’s raw! From the lips of Chef Gordon Ramsay. “Not tonight!” he then says in holding a brief pep rally for the kitchen staff. “Take responsibility!” he adds in the direction of Darryl.
Eventually, things smooth out and dinner service completes successfully. Afterward, Ramsay and Ellen even appear on camera for a local television news station reporting on Zeke’s relaunch.
“It is now your Zeke’s,” Ramsay tells Darryl and Ellen, and then gives them a final encouragement to work well with their talented staff.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Zeke’s”: is it still open?
In short, and sadly, no! According to The Daily Meal:
Despite the positive changes, Zeke’s closed in October 2012 after the owners decided to sell the restaurant. The new owners built something new in its place a year later. As stated by the employees throughout the episode of “Kitchen Nightmares,” the owners of Zeke’s Kitchen only seemed interested in making a profit off of the place.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Zeke’s”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 13
AIRED ON – May 13th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Food Shows, Reality TV
CAST – Gordon Ramsay