“The nominees for the most confused restaurant in Hollywood are Sebastian’s, Sebastian’s, and Sebastians.” – Gordon Ramsay
Sebastian’s is located in Burbank, California, well known as a city in Los Angeles County where a ton of TV and film production takes place.
Therefore, as someone who lived in Pasadena for many years (which is located a few cities to the east of Burbank), it’s hilarious that owner Sebastian himself is cited by Narrator Guy as “also a part-time actor” (tying to the cliché that “everyone in LA” is trying to break into the entertainment business).
Sebastian De Modica tells us that he’s owned the restaurant for over two years, and that he can cook “anything.” He also feels that he’s a great owner and boss.
Lou-Bertha, the manager/cook, sees things a bit differently: “When he gets upset you might see pans flying across the kitchen. Better duck, that’s all I have to say.”
“People are scared of Sebastian,” Ali, a server, adds.
Sebastian also fashions himself as an innovator, and we learn that the restaurant menu includes “23 gourmet flavor combinations.” We then hear playful Italian music as we see a montage of the servers trying and failing to explain all of the different combinations.
More seriously, we learn that Sebastian’s wife, Nichole, is supporting the restaurant, and it’s $300,000 in debt and counting as the episode begins. Sebastian explains that unless business improves, it will close in less than six months.
When Gordon Ramsay enters Sebastian’s, he meets the owner and then sits down to order a sampling of dishes. When Sebastian tells Gordon that he took the pictures of the entrees printed on the menu himself, Ramsay replies, “It looks ghastly.”
While that’s obviously at least a bit mean, it is rather fascinating to learn that Ramsay has a rule of thumb about seeing pictures of food in the menu: “get the f— out.”
Sebastian then gets into explaining the menu to Ramsay:
- There are over 20 marinades, toppings, and seasonings
- You choose one and then add chicken, portobello mushroom, New York strip, shrimp, or Angus rib-eye
- The combinations come as an entrée, or with chips and gravy on the side, or with a side salad
- There are “many more,” apparently
In reaction to this information, Ramsay places his hands on his face in a way that looks like Macauley Culkin in Home Alone.
Sebastian then makes a classic Kitchen Nightmares error of assuring Ramsay that the calamari that he just ordered is fresh and not frozen.
As soon as Ramsay tastes the dish, he calls out that it is indeed frozen. Ramsay then reflects that this confirms that he’s dealing with a “s— chef, and a dishonest one.”
Ramsay then comments on the strip steak: “it looks like a can of dog food.” And I must add that Gordon isn’t wrong here: it looks like gross, chopped up meat versus any kind of attractive entrée.
When Ramsay confronts Sebastian about why he lied about the freshness of the calamari, Sebastian deflects by lamely saying, “We’re not a four-star restaurant.”
The conversation soon turns into a full-blown argument, and it’s clear that Sebastian is super angry about getting any kind of negative feedback – particularly when it comes to the “flavor combinations” concept.
As Sebastian heads back to the kitchen to announce to his staff that “I won that one,” Ramsay separately tells the camera that “this guy is f—ing delusional.”
As dinner service begins, Sebastian talks with pride about how his restaurant draws many “directors, actors, industry people.”
In the kitchen, Ramsay learns that hardly anything is cooked fresh at Sebastian’s, with nearly everything made (or simply reheated) from canned and frozen foods. Even the pizza dough at what’s purportedly a pizza restaurant is frozen.
Meanwhile, out front a diner discovers a massive hair on her salad… which she pulled out of her mouth mid-bite. Not great. Shortly after this, Sebastian sits down with some diners to drink beer – industry types, no doubt.
In another confrontation with the owner, Ramsay does a good job in uncovering Sebastian’s desire to become “famous” by way of “franchising” the “concept” of his restaurant versus doing the hard work of actually managing and running a successful restaurant.
After dinner service, Ramsay sits the entire staff down and announces, “The nominees for the most confused restaurant in Hollywood are Sebastian’s, Sebastian’s, and Sebastian’s.”
Every Kitchen Nightmares episode involves some kind of menu overhaul. Usually, it’s treated with cheerful appreciation from even some of the more cantankerous owners, but in this case, I’m starting to fear that it’s not going to be so easy.
The next day, Ramsay announces that Sebastian’s needs to become known for one thing only: fresh, wood-fired pizza. At that point, we learn that the massive pizza ovens in the restaurant are being used “for show only.” However, Sebastian tells the camera that he doesn’t want “to start using fresh dough again” due to its expense.
Ramsay nonetheless proceeds with bring in “expert tossers” to teach the staff how to toss pizza dough in the old school style. It’s unclear though whether the British chef has his tongue in cheek when he tells them he wants to turn them into “perfect tossers.”
The renovation of Sebastian’s isn’t as drastic as it has been for other Kitchen Nightmares restaurants, but it does look cleaner and modern. A new dough mixer is also installed to help back the new focus on fresh pizza.
Ramsay then unveils the new and vastly scaled down menu to Sebastian, which includes all cooked to order fresh pizzas and entrees like wood fire cooked chicken. Q, a cook, and Lou-Bertha both say they are in favor of the new direction.
“It’s the change I was afraid of,” Sebastian says. “It’s the lack of uniqueness.”
You could almost see him wanting to add, “It’s the lack of franchiseability.”
“Stop trying to be so clever,” Ramsay advises. “Don’t try to be too smart.”
“You tried for two and a half years, and it hasn’t worked,” he adds.
Relaunch night just happens to fall on the night of the Academy Awards, so a red carpet is literally rolled out front to help celebrate the new direction. However, a taciturn and volatile Sebastian is seen slamming things and complaining about “doing everything himself.”
Dinner service starts off really well, with the pizzas selling like hot cakes and getting served up quickly. However, Sebastian tells the camera that he’s looking forward to going back to the “20 flavor combinations” because of “the uniqueness I was using.”
And then it seems like Sebastian is possibly sabotaging the “new menu” by instructing his staff to prepare dishes from “the old menu” specifically. Confusion starts to creep in, and the entire dinner service starts to go haywire.
When Ramsay finds out that entrees are getting served from the “old menu,” he says, “It looks like a f—ing dog’s dinner,” which is one of my favorite Ramsay-isms of all.
Ramsay then pulls Sebastian outside and makes an attempt to be reasonable… at first. He then ramps up to saying, “I’ve never ever ever ever ever met someone I believe in as little as you.”
Sebastian storms off, repeatedly saying, “You f—ing kidding me right now?” like he’s a bargain basement Robert De Niro. He then weirdly shrieks, “This is my f—ing life!”
Soon after, he yells, “We’re done, get that f—ing camera out of here!”
Ramsay and Sebastian then get into yet another heated argument that ends with Sebastian hurling out things like, “You’re a phony” and calling Ramsay a “dickhead.”
Then, while a teary-eyed Sebastian drinks beer in the alley, Ramsay works with the staff inside to complete dinner service.
Sebastian eventually comes back inside and slides back into helping out in the kitchen. With new “enthusiasm” now on the team’s side somehow, the dinner service ends up ending on a positive note.
Sebastian now tells the camera that “change is hard” but wants to take advantage of the opportunity that Ramsay’s visit provided.
Usually, at the end of Kitchen Nightmares episodes, there’s a heartfelt scene where the owner or owners thank Ramsay, and Gordon tells them something along the lines of, “Don’t stop now.” However, there’s no final scene at all involving Sebastian De Modica and Ramsay, only a voiceover with Gordon talking about how he has little faith that the owner will stick with the needed changes to get the restaurant back on the road to solvency.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “Sebastian’s”: is it still open?
Short answer: nope! Not only did Sebastian’s close, but it closed fast.
According to this piece, Sebastian’s closed “only a few months after the episode aired,” with Sebastian De Modica and his wife, Nichole, “relocating to New England.” The location later became the site for a restaurant called the Red Door.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “Sebastian’s”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Docuseries, Food Shows
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Sebastian’s prepares frozen food from a complex menu and the wait staff is more concerned about auditioning for their acting roles than serving meals.
CAST – Gordon Ramsay