“When you attacked my guests, is that how you deal with customers?” – Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay, British chef and host/star of Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen, Next Level Chef, Hotel Hell, and countless other reality TV shows, has a new shtick in mind with Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back: save restaurants with a 24-hour clock running, with the help of “hidden cameras” that catch lazy/incompetent/inept restaurant staffers in the act.
Will it be successful, and will it make for good and/or ludicrous and/or compelling trashtastic television?
Let’s find out.
Bella Gianna’s is located in Congers, New York, just north of New York City in Rockland County near the Hudson River. Ramsay notes that the area is known for its restaurant cuisine. My vantage point on this is that one of the very best Italian meals I’ve had in my life came at a restaurant in Mamaroneck, which is a little bit south of there in Westchester County.
Ramsay notes on his way to Bella Gianna’s that since Vinny Vasti, son of the owners, took over the place, it’s been Downhill City ever since.
Theodora Vasti Babato (call her “Dori”), 51, introduces herself as a part-owner of Bella Gianna’s, and tells us that the restaurant was launched by her father, Frank, and her husband (also) Frank, in addition to her brother, Vinny. Dori’s husband, Frank, passed away around a year ago, which helped precipitate the restaurant’s decline under Vinny’s management.
We then see a montage of Vinny screaming at his sister, saying things like “What do you do anything… with the place?”
“I can get a little crazy every now and then,” Vinny admits to the camera.
We then learn that Vinny’s go to move is to transition from screaming to then immediately crying.
Frank, 82, the owner and Vinny and Dori’s father, is “shoveling” money into Bella Gianna’s from his retirement account month after month just to keep the place afloat. He’s about $1.2 million in the hole all told.
Part of the gimmick with 24 Hours to Hell and Back is that there are hidden cameras in the restaurant, but things go further with Gordon Ramsay investigating the place in heavy disguise and as part of a family to help further blend in.
The makeup and costuming are really well done – with his cap, fake mustache, and thick glasses, it’s really hard to tell that it is indeed the British chef.
It’s kind of fun to hear Ramsay muttering about the “rubbery calamari” and his other customary initial negative assessments of his meal.
“It smells like the backseat of my car,” he adds.
“That looks like a placenta,” the woman (actress?) eating with Ramsay also notes.
Also fun: Vinny ends up getting super nasty and persnickety with the woman at Ramsay’s table.
After eating, Ramsay ditches the disguise, introduces himself to Vinny, and gathers the staff. He then shuts down the lunch service, telling the diners to drop their knives and forks.
“When you attacked my guests, is that how you deal with customers?” he asks Vinny in public view of the dining room’s occupants.
Vinny’s response is equal parts honest and appalling: “I thought they were irritating from the beginning, I just wanted them to know.”
True to form, Vinny transitions from mad to sad when he soon tells Ramsay that he needs to his help “more than my life.”
We then cut to another somewhat odd wrinkle to the typical Kitchen Nightmares-y Ramsay scenario: he takes the staff to a massive mobile trailer that’s dubbed Hell on Wheels, which includes a mobile kitchen and a massive movie screen. It’s staffed by Ramsay’s team of investigators (or something).
Ramsay then shows Bella Gianna’s staff undercover footage from hidden cameras that had been placed in the restaurant (at some prior point under some kind of rouse that in theory was both legal and done without the knowledge of the restaurant’s owners – but let’s not dig too deep in that direction, I suppose).
The best/worst part of the hidden footage is seeing all the times the kitchen staff jammed their hands in and around food that was actively being prepared. Oh, but then there’s all the mold back in the food storage area. We also get plenty of footage of Vinny going thermonuclear, throwing plates, getting so worked up so as to make you somewhat concerned about his health and mental stability.
After watching the footage, Vinny melts down yet again. It’s possible that Vinny is gunning for the most complete breakdowns within one episode of a reality TV show, which would be quite a feat.
The Hell on Wheels monitor that kicks off a 24-hour countdown clock for the restaurant to get its act together, or something.
As Ramsay gathers the staff again back at the restaurant, it becomes ever clearer how volatile and combative Vinny is literally all the time. He honestly seems like an all-time nightmare of a dude to have to deal with.
And that’s not counting when he transitions into blubbering mode, which he does yet again after getting a text from his daughter (Olivia, who at 17 is a busser at the restaurant) encouraging him to cooperate with Ramsay.
Next, Ramsay tours the kitchen and refrigeration area with head chef Lou, and beyond it being generally gross-looking, there are frozen “objects” sitting around in places that Lou estimates have been there for “5-6 years.” There’s also black mold on the lids of salad dressing that they were planning to use that day.
There’s also some kind of rotting squid or seafood sitting in a bin that makes Ramsay gag so much that he can’t speak.
Ramsay’s take: Chef Lou is either incompetent or has completely given up, and he believes it to be the latter in this case. And really the problem goes back to Vinny being a toxic black hole to deal with.
Now it’s time for a menu overhaul: which involves Ramsay’s patented brand of a small number of selections that are fresh, simple, and made to order. Chef Lou and his team seem thrilled, and as a bonus Ramsay tells him that “I will take care of Vinny.”
As the renovation team overhauls the restaurant, Ramsay pulls Vinny and Dori into their sloppy mess of an office. Vinny quickly gets combative and petty with both of them.
“You’ve got to sounding like the victim” and blaming everyone else, Gordon tells him.
Which cuts immediately to Vinny crying.
Ramsay soon tells the camera, “Honestly, I don’t think I can fix Vinny.”
Eventually – and I swear I’m not making this up – after yet another crying jag, Vinny tells Ramsay that he’s going to act in a “calm and professional manner” from now one “because that’s what everyone deserves.”
Part of the gimmick with the 24 Hours to Hell and Back concept is that everyone is pressed to stay up all night, causing the restaurant staff to look like they’re going to pass out by 3 a.m. or so.
In the morning, while sampling the new menu, Vinny apologizes to the staff and tells them he’s committed to improving.
With four hours to go on the clock, the kitchen is now completely cleaned and overhauled, with new equipment installed by the show. Chef Lou is most pleased.
Ramsay next plays therapist-meets-strategist in convincing Joe to give Vinny and ultimatum and deadline of three months to make Bella Gianna’s profitable or pull the plug on pouring more money into the business.
I was wondering how the renovation part of the show would differ from Kitchen Nightmares, and it seems at least in this case that it’s a more intensive overhaul. In any event, the 24-hour reno looks truly incredible from end-to-end.
The 24-hour aspect, by the way, gets stretched in the sense that Ramsay and crew stick around for dinner service after the clock runs down to zero.
Chef Lou gets his turn to melt down as things in the kitchen go sideways, but he gets back at it after a pep talk from Ramsay. Overall, the relaunch night turned out to be a success, and Vinny even claims that he feels he “grew up” overnight.
A “three months later” segment relays that the team is “trying,” Vinny has had some “relapses” but is attempting to improve his attitude, and that Bella Gianna’s is doing “better” than it had been prior to the 24 Hours to Hell and Back circus descending.
🔪 Want more Ramsay rampages? Check out our full Kitchen Nightmares episode guide — every filthy kitchen, every redemption (or disaster), all tracked.
Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, “Bella Gianna’s”: is it still open?
No, Bella Giann’s has closed, according to Yelp!
Some stats and info about Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, “Bella Gianna’s”
TV SHOW – Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 1
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon Ramsay travels to Congers, N.Y., where he visits a family-owned Italian restaurant called Bella Gianna’s that is in desperate need of improvement.
GENRE – Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay