Tue, Jun 7, 2005
The venue for tonight's third programme is Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack, an intimate forty-seater a stone's throw from Brighton's sea front. Big soul momma, owner CHARITA JONES, produces a menu of irresistibly unique classics from the Deep South. The food's hard to fault but the punters are nowhere to be seen, Head Chef Brian and a rag-tag collection of part-timers are taking the mickey - and despite working a seven-day week Charita's got an empty restaurant and a £65,000 debt. If ever there was a case of too many cooks, this is it. Charita's a natural, but she's never made a profit on the restaurant and is now facing financial disaster. Can Gordon successfully shut her out of the kitchen, get the chef back on the boil and put the soul back into the business, or will the shack shut up shop for good?
Wed, Dec 2, 2009
The venue is The Runaway Girl, a tapas bar-cum-nightclub in Sheffield city centre on the brink of collapse. The restaurant is losing money by the bucket-load and the two best friends who run it are at war with each other. The owner Justin Rowntree won't listen to reason, and his head chef and best friend Ritchie has had enough. To make matters worse the credit crunch has hit and there is fierce competition from corporate chains.
Tue, Dec 4, 2007
Gordon visits is The Fish and Anchor, pub restaurant near Lampeter in rural West Wales, owned and run by ex-boxer Mike and his wife Caron. Mike, a self-taught cook, is a one-man pressure cooker in the kitchen as he struggles to accommodate a vast menu, while Caron's unique style of front-of-house management includes abusing the customers, and her husband, in equal measure. Every night they go twelve rounds with the local clientele who are fast deserting them to the tune of a £1,000 per week loss.
Tue, Nov 21, 2006
In tonight's second programme Gordon tackles a pub for the first time, getting to grips with The Fenwick Arms in rural Lancashire. The pub is run by landlord BRIAN who, after thirty years in the business and a quadruple heart-bypass, still puts in 120 hours a week and insists on laying down the law in the kitchen. Despite their best endeavours Brian and his partner ELAINE are £250k in debt, losing £1500 a week and facing bankruptcy within three months unless there's a drastic reversal in their fortunes.
Tue, Apr 27, 2004
Tim Gray is 21. He's the Head Chef at Bonapartes in Silsden, Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire and he specialises in 'fine dining'. He has ambitions to be a TV chef and one day hopes to open restaurants in London, Paris and New York. Unfortunately, as Gordon Ramsay discovers, Tim can't even cook an omelette and when he attempts to make dinner for his parents at home he manages to set the cooker alight. A true kitchen nightmare if ever you saw one.
Tue, May 24, 2005
The venue for tonight's first programme is La Lanterna in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Twenty-eight-year-old owner and head chef Alex offers modern Italian cuisine, a taste of Little Italy in England's first garden city, and the restaurant is run by his best mate maitre d' Gavin, helped by his ex-air hostess girlfriend Emily. But Alex has no customers, cookers that don't work and an expensive menu that's about as authentically Italian as a spag bol. He re-mortgaged his house to buy the business, it's losing £1,000 a week, he hasn't slept for months but still runs round town in a flash car (number plate: A1CHEF) that's worth more than the restaurant. Running out of money, inspiration and energy, Alex is on the verge of losing everything. Gordon rolls up his sleeves and sets to work on the encrusted kitchen cookers and hapless front-of-house staff. Can a strict diet of brutal honesty, radical food surgery and undiluted energy turn things round, or is it only a matter of time before the lights go out at La Lanterna for good?
Tue, Jun 14, 2005
The venue for tonight's fourth programme is La Riviera, a fine dining restaurant in Inverness. Owned by multi-millionaire BARRY LARSON and costing £8000 a week to run, the place boasts top French chef LOIC LEFEBVRE and an impeccably-trained kitchen staff with Michelin star-studded backgrounds. Loic is on a mission, to bring sophisticated French cooking to the home of haggis, tatties and deep-fried Mars bars. But though he's hungry for success he's French, he's arrogant and the food's pretentious. The locals aren't biting and the restaurant's empty most nights. There's a sharp smell of déjà vu in the air for Gordon whose own venture in Scotland - Amaryllis - had to close. This week it's personal as Ramsay tries to save La Riviera from the same fate. Can Gordon tone down their act, demystify the menu and, most importantly, get the punters in?
Tue, Feb 21, 2006
Tonight's program sees Gordon Ramsay in Oscars in Nantwich. On the surface this place seems idyllic, an Irish family run restaurant in the heart of beautiful countryside. Owner MAURA runs the front of house and her son LENIN is the Head chef, but it's not 'happy families'. With her life savings on the line Maura is in big trouble. She constantly bickers with her son whilst the customers are forced to wait hours for their fluorescent crab stick paellas, and stodgy carbonaras from Oscars 'bit of everything' menu. The place is losing £2000 per week, but that isn't the worst of their problems, Lenin has got a serious drink problem and during service collapses and has to be rushed off to hospital. It's Gordon's toughest challenge yet; can he bring the Irish heart back to Oscars, stop mother and son fighting, and get the Lenin to face up to his problems?