“Nag, nag, nag – she nags constantly.” – Head Chef Jake
El Greco, a Greek taverna, is located in Austin, Texas, close to the University of Texas at Austin – which has over 50,000 students. So almost by default, you’d think that this business should be going gangbusters.
El Greco was opened in 2007 by Jake Konstantinidis, the head chef, and his mother, Athina Konstantinidis. As these stories tend to go, business was strong at the outset, but “Jake is a big reason why everything is screwed up,” at least according to Dustin, a server.
Anthony, the kitchen manager, corroborates this assessment, telling the camera that Jake will spend “three, maybe four hours here” on a typical day.
If that’s not enough, we see a little montage where a kitchen staffer announces, “He freaking abandoned us again!” This is followed by a shot of Jake literally snoring sitting in a chair in his office.
Which, in a weird way is impressive as I’d never be able to fall asleep that soundly while in a seated position like that.
Jake admits to the camera that he’s “not spending as much time at the restaurant as I used to.” He explains that his lazy attitude is driven by having to deal with his mother at work.
“Nag, nag, nag – she nags constantly,” he adds.
Athina’s take on things? “I have to yell at him,” she says.
Also, here’s a slightly odd thing: we at times see Jake referring to his mother by her first name, but then we also see him telling her, “Ma, get the f— out of my kitchen.”
And for all the nagging that he talks about, what we see is him screaming in her face about how “these are not the f—ing potatoes I ordered!”
Perhaps our guy needs to switch to decaf.
Meanwhile, the staff talks about how the food quality and morale of the team are both suffering, while Athina talks about how being “in the streets” isn’t far off.
“I wish I was dead,” she says, placing her hands over her face.
This all sets up our bulldog of a British chef in shining armor, Gordon Ramsay, to enter the fray in an attempt to save the day.
When Ramsay sits down with mother and son, he uncovers that while Athina shows up for work at six in the morning, Jake will often not appear until 11:30 a.m. or even noon. We also learn that Athina has sunk $800,000 into El Greco and counting.
“Not only am I losing all my money, I lost my son too,” she laments.
It’s honestly upsetting to hear Jake respond to this with, “You’re being dramatic… she nags at me all the time.”
When she attempts to explain her view on things further, Jake cuts her off with, “Shut up about that… Christ!”
Ramsay, who is typically a chatterbox whenever he’s on camera, simply sits silently while taking in the dynamic in the family he’s meeting.
Things get even weirder when Ramsay gets to spend a few minutes talking to Anthony, who reveals that Jake’s short hours at El Greco and the reason why we see him yawning and snoozing when he actually does show up is related to the fact that he’s a huge video gamer.
“It’s unbelievable,” Ramsay says. “What a disaster.”
Sidenote that I’m so curious about what Head Chef Jake is into on the home front. He doesn’t have a gamer vibe about him at all, but if I had to guess I’d put him somewhere in the Halo or Call of Duty range.
And then when he even does bother to show up for work, Anthony calls Jake out for having low standards, leaning on the microwave to prepare to dishes, and generally pushing shoddy product out of kitchen.
Not shockingly, this assessment is quickly corroborated when Ramsay samples some dishes. Here are some of his reactions:
- Stuffed zucchinis: “two grenades about to explode” and “something out an alien movie”
- Lamb shanks: “anemic-looking and “looks like it’s been in the microwave for an hour”
Dustin, a server, pulls off a genuinely funny joke when he tells Ramsay that Chef Mic cooked the food, which he quickly explains stands for Chef Microwave.
Overall, Ramsay concludes: “I could cry, what a joke.”
Back in the kitchen, Head Chef Jake mutters, “I don’t give a f— anymore.”
Our reaction as the audience: yep, we’re aware.
Ramsay calls Jake out for not caring after his meal. In fact, he goes on to say that he’s never seen an Executive Chef that’s “like a sack of s— that’s standing in front of me now.”
As dinner service gears up that night, Ramsay discovers that a line cook named Diego has 14 years of experience and seems at least some desire to do his job. So it’s clear that Ramsay is going to keep him in mind should he look to get Athina to dump her son from his Head Chef role.
Meanwhile, we hear Chef Mic beeping over and over as the entire operation leans on reheating as core to operations.
Pretty soon, Jake and Ramsay go at it, with Jake telling the British chef to “f— off” and get out of his kitchen. Ramsay, never one to back down, tells Jake to “get your head out of your ass” and to “take some responsibility.”
After service, Ramsay tells the entire team that he’s in “shock” by the supremacy of Chef Mike, while Jake continues to push back that he’s simply reheating food that’s already been cooked. Jake then turns on his own mother, telling her to “get out of my restaurant.”
“It’s not your restaurant!” she quickly snaps back.
Jake then goes back into how he’s sick of “nag nag nag every goddamned day.” This is easily the fourth or fifth time we’ve heard him complain about this up until this point.
The next morning plays out like an episode of The Sopranos, where son AJ promises Carmela that he’s going to wake up early the next day to look for work, only for him to find him snoozing away in the early afternoon. Here, after Jake promises his mom that he’ll be in “by ten” to help prep – keeping in mind that Athina arrives at 6 a.m. daily! – he’s a no show the next morning.
Those first-person shooters ain’t gonna shoot themselves, I guess.
When he finally does show up, it’s yelling and excuses and nag nag nag. And trust me that this goes on for a while.
Finally, Ramsay gets the two – along with Athina’s sister – to wipe the slate clean and “start over” as though it were their first day at work. Everyone gets teary eyed now as Ramsay advises, “It’s not going to get better unless you change,” meaning all of them.
But honestly, this is a case where it seems like most of the fault lies with the gamer addict head chef.
This all leads to a gimmick: Ramsay “sacrifices” Chef Mic, literally tossing off the ledge of a three-story building as the staff applauds.
“Chef Mic has left the building,” Ramsay declares.
The overnight renovation is then unveiled, and the “soulless” interior is transformed into a cheerful homage to Greece that really does look airy and inviting for a casual eatery. More importantly, the new menu items – lambchop., roasted chicken, octopus, and eggplant and beef moussaka – look great.
Jake starts out with a new sense of enthusiasm in the kitchen during relaunch night, though Ramsay has to encourage him to communicate and delegate to his line chefs. This causes a stall out of entrees being sent out of the kitchen, with Jake taking everything on his own shoulders. Soon, Jake starts cursing at people, which seems to be more or less his default mode.
After Ramsay gives Jake another stern talking to, he cools out and starts to lean on his team more, which culminates in a successful night overall.
Ramsay credits the team that night for a “major transformation,” and then leads the staff in a ritualistic smashing of plates to represent the kickoff of a new era for El Greco.
As Ramsay says goodbye, Athina tells Ramsay that she’s now proud of her son.
🍽 Want more? Check out Pop Thruster’s Kitchen Nightmares episode reviews (there’s a lot).
Kitchen Nightmares, “El Greco”: is it still open?
This is the rare Kitchen Nightmares episode where we learn the ultimate fate of the restaurant within the episode. An epilogue segment explains that El Greco’s debts were so great that the restaurant was forced to close.
In fact, El Greco closed in 2011 even before this Kitchen Nightmares episode aired for the first time.
Some stats and info about Kitchen Nightmares, “El Greco”
TV SHOW – Kitchen Nightmares
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Reality TV, Docuseries, Food Shows
CAST – Gordon Ramsay