“That’s one person’s opinion, and he’s entitled to it.” – Ricky
Narrator guy introduces us to Lela’s, a “fine dining restaurant” in Pomona, California. It’s located within massive Los Angeles County, but it’s way out east, closer to cities like Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga than downtown L.A.
Lela’s is a little different than other Kitchen Nightmares spots in that it has only been open for eight months at the time of the episode’s filming.
Importantly, we also learn that “it’s days away from closing its doors.”
Tabitha, a server, quickly notes that the restaurant’s location in downtown Pomona sets it up for failure: “There’s a lot of homeless people,” she notes.
It becomes clear that much of the action will center around head chef Ricky as soon as Tabitha says of him, “I mean Ricky is… he’s always loud.”
We then cut to clip of Ricky exuberantly shouting in the kitchen, followed by him telling the camera, “I’m hot, that’s what it comes down to.” Of Tabitha, he adds, “She just needs to chill out.”
Jessica, another server, sees it as a big problem that diners can hear Tabitha and Ricky fighting all the time.
Daniel “Buzzard,” the prep cook, adds that the staff enjoys “clowning” each other in the kitchen. “We have fun when we’re in here,” he adds.
Eventually, we see Lela herself for the first time in a scene in which she’s asking her sister for money with the background that she already owes her $60,000.
When Gordon Ramsay shows up at Lela’s, he notes that the downtown Pomona area is “like a ghost town” while meanwhile the restaurant is completely empty.
When he sits down and reviews the menu, he immediately notices that it’s riddled with misspellings. I must add that this is a pet peeve of mine as well, and it rarely coincides with an overall great dining experience.
“Chives” is spelled chivas, for example, which… it’s not great.
Ramsay also quickly finds out that numerous orders that involve seafood are not available. Then when Ramsay samples the “homemade” tomato basil, he calls out that it’s clearly canned.
Meanwhile, Ramsay can hear Ricky the chef screaming DIAMONDS ON MY FIST I GOT DIAMONDS ON MY FIST from the kitchen. I’m assuming that this is from a song that Ricky particularly enjoys, but who knows?
After trying out multiple dishes, Ramsay uncovers that nothing is made fresh in what is purported to be a “fine dining restaurant.”
Ricky’s reaction from the person: “That’s one person’s opinion, and he’s entitled to it.”
A hungry and irritable Ramsay then moves on to ordering dessert… except no one can find the brownies in the kitchen. The funniest part about this is a reaction we get from Daniel “Buzzard” – who we’ve already seen sneaking bites of food in the kitchen multiple times – when he says, “I didn’t do it… don’t ask The Buzzard.”
Later, we learn that Daniel is called Buzzard because “he’s always pecking at s—,” according to Ricky.
Speaking of irritable: Tabitha announces that she’s ready to quit. This quickly leads to a screaming and cursing match between her and Ricky, with “No, you shut the f— up!” thrown back and forth.
Ramsay eventually makes it to the kitchen and asks what might be the Leading Question of the Year: “What was fine dining about my lunch there?”
“What you mean?” Ricky says.
“I was embarrassed for you,” Gordon replies.
“Okay,” Ricky says.
If it’s not clear, this episode of Kitchen Nightmares turning out to be deeply hilarious. Especially because I’m not looking to go to a fine dining establishment in downtown Pomona, California anytime soon.
This somehow leads to Ramsay asking Ricky, “You got big balls?”
“I got big nuts,” Ricky responds, and we can assume he does not mean macadamia nor pecan.
The next day, Ramsay’s “kitchen investigation” begins, which leads to assessments such as, “All this meat is rotting” and “the smell is just vile, Jesus.” The temperature inside the refrigeration space is 51 degrees, which is kind of horrifying from the perspective of thinking about the diners eating at Lela’s under those conditions.
Keep in mind too that Pomona is way, way inland from the southern California coast, which means it’s scorching hot there through a vast stretch of the year.
When Ramsay orders the staff to do a thorough cleaning, it occurs to me that it’s strange that we’ve only briefly seen the owner, Lela, herself and it’s not really explained what we role is with the restaurant and why she might not (maybe?) really be involved with daily operations.
At dinner service, Tabitha and Ricky continue to go at it while Lela’s isn’t able to serve “many” of the dishes on the menu. And with all that going on, Ramsay catches the Buzzard taking off early with a bunch of food and multiple bottles of wine in tow. Once confronted and brought back to the restaurant to get his comeuppance, the Buzzard man buzzes off into the night. Sorry, I felt compelled to go there.
Later, Ricky tells the camera, “I can’t take responsibility for the whole restaurant failing,” which is quite telling of the entire miserable situation at Lela’s.
The next day, Buzzard shows up and thankfully gets fired by Lela – who, again, it’s not sure what she’s up to overall besides hanging out meekly in the shadows.
This leads to a gimmick! Ramsay leads the kitchen staff in a blindfolded tasting contest. Lex, the sous chef, ends up getting more of the answers correctly than Ricky. “I just found your new head chef!” Ramsay says triumphantly.
While Lela inexplicably gets sent off for “a day of pampering” at a local spa, Ramsay leads out an overhaul of the menu with the idea of making it “contemporary casual.” This leads to a new house specialty dubbed the Pomona Salad, in addition to Lela’s Famous Burger… which presumably will one day become actually famous.
For relaunch night, Tabitha is named the restaurant manager by Gordon while Lex is tapped to “run the kitchen.” At this point, it’s flat out bizarre that Lela isn’t even around when this is announced. But nonetheless, everyone can appreciate Ricky getting demoted, which he clearly deserves.
Dinner service gets off to a “rocky start” with diners – including Pomona’s mayor – left waiting a long time to get their dishes. Ramsay observes that Lela’s staff is simply not used to being busy. It gets worse from there, with servers grabbing food that hits with the window without even knowing which table it’s meant for.
Lex ends up getting so upset that he eventually heads into the back of the restaurant to regroup, which of course Ricky delights in. Lela steps in (finally?) and yells at Lex to get back to work.
This leads to Ramsay trying to calm Lex down outside, but things get even stranger as Lex hops into his car and bails out completely.
Therefore, we get the re-ascendancy of Ricky in the kitchen, who vows to “just kick it out” under pressure. Food eventually gets served, and the diners – including Mayor Norma Torres – end up enjoying their meals. Lex eventually returns and picks up duties back in his customary sous chef slot.
After dinner service, Ramsay tells Ricky that he was genuinely impressed about how he handled things under pressure. “You proved me wrong, and you did a f—ing good job,” he tells Lela’s executive chef.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Lela’s”: is it still open?
An epilogue segment tells us that despite business at Lela’s “picking up” after Ramsay’s visit, “Lela’s debts were too large to overcome and she was forced to close her doors.”
Also, it turns out that I wasn’t the only one who found how the restaurant owner was handled during this episode of Kitchen Nightmares, as we can see on this Reddit thread called, “Lela’s – why was he so easy on Lela?”
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Lela’s”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Docuseries, Food Shows
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Lela’s is an upscale restaurant in desperate need of clientele. When Chef Ramsay starts criticizing the menu, the executive chef sees red, leading to a showdown in front of the staff.
CAST – Gordon Ramsay