Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

2004

Seasons & Episodes

  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0

EP4 La Parra de Burriana (Revisited) Nov 20, 2007

Gordon returns to La Parra in Spain, to see how ex-nightclub manager Laurence is getting on. Has he sank or swam since Gordon's last visit? This week, Gordon is back in Spain to see how Laurence is faring at La Parra de Burriana, an ex-pat restaurant in Nerja on the Costa del Sol, one year on. When he first arrived he found 26-year-old ex-nightclub manager Laurence who set himself up in business 18 months earlier with a loan from his dad. Although he wasn't an experienced chef, Laurence manned the kitchen on his own, determined to offer something better than chips to his largely British clientele. Laurence's menu boasted 72 options including his unforgettable signature dish: prawns in garlic with chocolate sauce. Running front-of-house was Laurence's mate Alex, while sous chef Norman was on the barbecue serving up a haphazard combination of kebabs and steaks cooked by torchlight. The Mediterranean menu had a special twist: no-one wanted to eat it. The kebabs were raw, Alex had over-booked the place (and failed to clear up the dog mess that littered the dining room) and the punters that were still turning up faced an interminable wait for their food. Unsurprisingly Laurence lost £22,000 in one year but still resisted Gordon's attempts to introduce a simple menu that will bring customers back. Could Laurence survive the summer and Gordon's efforts to get him to learn bullfighting? Now, one year on, Gordon is back to find that the good news is they've survived the winter, but the bad news is that Laurence still has ideas above his station and is planning to run before he can walk with another, second La Parra. But with cremated desserts and wine gums on the menu, Gordon's about to apply the brakes, Ramsay style.
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7.6| 0h30m| TV-14| en| More Info
Released: 27 April 2004 Ended
Producted By: Optomen Television
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/ramsays-kitchen-nightmares
Synopsis

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is a television programme featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning programme debuted on Channel 4 in 2004. In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just one week. Ramsay revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence. Episodes from series one and two have been re-edited with additional new material as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited; they featured Ramsay checking up on restaurants a year or more after he attended to them. In October 2009 Ramsay announced that after his four-year contract expired in 2011 he would not continue with Kitchen Nightmares and would instead work on his other shows.

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Reviews

WakenPayne Usually I'm unbiased to as many genres of media as possible however reality TV Shows are probably the only ones that to me just say "Oh god no! Why watch this when there's so much better things on television", "it's obviously scripted" and other such things. Usually I can't stand shows like My Kitchen Rules, Masterchef, Come Dine With Me and... point is while I don't regularly watch them I can keep going with listing bad reality shows for really long... This on the other hand is probably the one I'd recommend.The set-up has had inferior copies but I'll say it anyway. Gordon Ramsey looks around for restaurants that are failing and spends about a single week with them to turn their business around and correcting poor presentation, passion-less cooks, dirty storage, rude restaurant owners, bizarre design choices for the restaurant among many other things.Okay, while I will say it's staged, sometimes very much so I'll say this is the first time I steered away from the thought of it being scripted the entire time and I'll say a large part of that is that it honestly DOESN'T feel scripted most of the time. I also think a large part of what makes this entertaining is Ramsay himself but here it serves him to be more entertaining than in Hell's Kitchen or something because here he's an adviser and it's actually pretty funny when a failing restaurant owner doesn't take advice and outright argues with Ramsay and understandable when he rants. I'd also say in Hell's Kitchen it's more of a boss acting terribly to his staff. I'm also going to say out of all the hosts for a reality show Ramsay is probably m,y favourite (I like him, so he wins by default).I don't really know on what other merits to judge it. The lead is likable, the situations are entertaining even when it does feel scripted or planned and it is fun to watch. I wouldn't say this is for everyone but of all the cooking based reality shows, this and it's other counterpart also starring Ramsey are my favourites.
nelly3 Just as Ramsay gives restaurateurs a makeover, so too someone needs to give this series a makeover. Don't get me wrong. It is engaging and entertaining, but often in the typical reality show/disaster beside the road kind of way. Every episode I've ever seen unfolds in precisely the same way: Ramsay arrives and everything is a disaster; he screams and yells at the unbelievably inept owners who reluctantly give in to Ramsay's suggestions (usually, someone storms off - more reason for the f-word); their first attempt is always a disaster; Ramsay redoes the menu and refurbishes the decor and pushes the idea of fresh, local produce and a simpler menu; the grand reopening is a resplendent success. I could look at the clock during the show and tell when the next "act" was going to occur. And there's the issue. The show is too predictable. In reality, every restaurant won't be a success (actually, about half of those places Ramsay visited are closed) and every owner can't possibly be as mind-numbingly imbecilic as they initially appear here. I also find it bizarre that Ramsay remakes the decor of every restaurant he visits: how much does that cost? One other typical Ramsay-esque touch is his pervasive use of profanity (he even has a series called "The F-Word"). At some point, that really seems juvenile and unprofessional. I know it is done for ratings. A grizzled Brit barking obscenities at clueless morons! What a concept for a reality show! But, again, it's endless and becomes monotonous. As said at the outset, the show does manage to engage one a little, but the hook isn't in very deep. I have no doubt that Ramsay is an accomplished chief, and his suggestions (nay, ultimatums) are sound.* But it get's hard to believe that the same magical Ramsay touch would always work so predictably and so perfectly in every restaurant.*Ramsay's insistence on fresh, local produce was cited by some of the closed restaurants as one of the reasons for their demise. Fresh and local tends to cost more and spoil quicker. Most of the restaurants visited were already at the limits of their finances and this change put them further in the red.
Jackson Booth-Millard I might have seen an episode or two when it first started, then a couple more the second series, and now I can't miss it, it is just as good as, in fact better, than The F Word. National Television Award nominated Gordon Ramsay every week basically visits a restaurant, pub or café business that is failing with customers, food quality and ideas, takings, attitude, financial difficulties (e.g. debts) and the business itself, and it is Ramsay's job to help as much as he can to make it a more profitable and improved business for the workers and customers together. As with his other shows, Ramsay's use of swearing, particularly "the f word" is key to some of the great laughs, and also how stupid or ridiculous some of the business bosses, employees or main staff members behave in the work environment that is meant to be cooperating. It is very good to see just how bad these eating places are working, but it is also nice in the end to see most of the businesses saved. It has been nominated the BAFTA for Best Features twice, it won the International Emmy for Non-Scripted Entertainment, and it was nominated the National Television Award for Most Popular Factual Programme. Gordon Ramsay was number 84 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and he was number 82 on The 100 Worst Britons (for his arrogance I guess), and the programme was number 35 on The 100 Greatest TV Treats 2004. Very good!
sardid007 Ramsay's kitchen nightmares is a British reality TV show that features chef Gordon Ramsay that attempts to save restaurants from going out of business because of poor teamwork, poor food quality, poor hygiene or Bad customer service. His rude personality is a laugh as he attempts to save the battling restaurants from closure. The show appears to be aimed at reality TV fans that may have an interest in food and beverage and the Hospitality Industry.I think the show provides an interesting insight into what happens behind the scenes at restaurants including the stress on the staff and the common mistakes made by the kitchen staff particularly. I feel that the show expanded my knowledge by highlighting the importance of teamwork in a restaurant and what can happen if this is not done. Since a lot of the show is filmed during busy hours of the restaurant the viewer gets to see how the kitchen operates and how fast passed everything is.We Lent about the importance of communication within the workplace in class and Ramsay's kitchen nightmares provided an educational link by showing students how any restaurant could be a disaster with out efficient communication. My conclusions of the show are very good. It's great to see a new type of TV chef that doesn't just stand in front of the camera cooking meals all the time. Gordon Ramsay has a very rude personality that is stereotypical or the "grumpy chef", but it makes for a very entertaining show.