Kitchen Nightmares advice that are wrong

[K4BOSH]

UK version is much better: less formulaic, much substantial advice, more likeable owners.

That Mama Cherri episode is the best one of both UK/US versions. Such a feel good episode with great music, even the revisit episode was pretty good.

 

[jimbob27]

It's managing your stock. You have enough to provide and maintain a menu without having things like seafood which will spoil hanging around for one little grandma who wants her artichoke and crab dip.
You can't keep everyone happy while trying to make a decent profit.

I understand the principle, but I think he applies it for the sake of fashion rather than practical reasons a lot of the time. Some of the restaurants he visits are obviously trying to do way too much, but he often applies to places specialising in cuisines such as Italian, where you can make a huge variety of dishes with the same core ingredients.

 

[ICHEERTHEBULL]

Ramsey was exposed a few years back for using frozen pre prepared meals in his restaurants.

 

[William Huggins]

Don't a lot of the restaurants close anyway in the US versions?

Yeah the beef always breakers out and attacks people, it's all them steroids they put in them......

 

[fingercuffs]

I understand the principle, but I think he applies it for the sake of fashion rather than practical reasons a lot of the time. Some of the restaurants he visits are obviously trying to do way too much, but he often applies to places specialising in cuisines such as Italian, where you can make a huge variety of dishes with the same core ingredients.

I understand your last point. But it is a flippin nightmare trying to manage food costs, cleaning, I could do chef, marketing, dish washing, it just goes on and on.

 

[genecop]

I disagree with both things in the OP.

Things like frozen broccoli, asparagus, onions, cauliflower, spinach, etc etc, are not as good as when they’re fresh. Frozen spinach is disgusting.

Frozen vegetables in general don’t taste as good as fresh ones. At least IMO



and pictures should Almost never be inside menus. That is as tacky and as cheap as it gets.



Also the UK Version of the show is 100x better than the American version.

we don’t all have mom cooking fresh vegetables for us..

 

[Stump]

It's managing your stock. You have enough to provide and maintain a menu without having things like seafood which will spoil hanging around for one little grandma who wants her artichoke and crab dip.
You can't keep everyone happy while trying to make a decent profit.

Its also a tangible element of the diners experience.

"I dont know what I want to eat" is a very real thing, not just in the domain of domestic dining disputes.

Having too few items risks not having something an individual person might want to eat, but it's also true that having too many items can be bewildering and make it very difficult to choose.

Putting on my amateur psychologist hat, here, I think there's probably a dynamic at play wherein a customer's satisfaction is closely tied to their sense of agency in choosing, or the anxiety that having so many options to choose from might create.

Put another way, provided we don't have a really tiny menu, it's probably better to eat an item chosen from within a moderate sized list and be sure that you chose the best thing on offer, than it is to be comparing the thing you're eating with the 3 or 4 other items you potentially could have ordered and wondering if you'd have enjoyed them more.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Frozen meat is ok imo, but frozen veggies? I’ll eat them a lot but they’re absolutely nowhere near as good as fresh.

 

[Sycho Sid]

Cheesecake Factory must be Gordon's ultimate nightmare.

 

[Derousey]

Frozen vs flash frozen.

Frozen fish is gross but flash frozen works. Most veg aren't suitable for ff.

 

[Derousey]

Cheesecake Factory must be Gordon's ultimate nightmare.

That fucking place is my worst nightmare but they prob turn a profit sooo....

 

[zgames]

I used to work in Chelsea Ivy garden and Gordon used to come there, most of the food was frozen but I never saw him complaining to the staff, hover the only time I saw the head chef preparing food was for Gordon. There were 2 head chefs that worked for him and the executive chef was his right hand in the late '90s when he got his first 3 Michelin star

 

[HereticBD]

I have been watching reruns lately, and quite entertaining to see Gordon Ramsay kick arrogant owners' arses. But I find some of his advice a bit wanting. Reading culinary textbooks and working in a restaurant help a lot to clear up some misconceptions in the show.

1. Frozen = Bad.

Frozen vegetables are just as good as the day they are harvested. Shrimp freezes well. Sashimi is also frozen to kill of microbes before selling.

While red meat is better off fresh, freezing it is a practical choice if you have a huge surplus of meat and cannot sell them all in a week.

There is a smart way of freezing produce.

2. No pictures in the menu.

This is seen in season 1 at the pizzeria place Sebastian's. I agree with Gordon that you are not to use pictures if your establishment is fine dining. But if you run a family restaurant, or specializes an ethnic cuisine that is unfamiliar to many people, you need to show that your food is palatable, especially with kids.

###

Ok, what do you guys think?

I think his general advice is right, in terms of his standards and how he treats all the restaurants he goes to like fine dining establishments, where absolutely no corners are supposed to be cut. Freezing produce might not be the biggest deal in the world, but people with his pallet can tell the difference. Same with microwaving some dishes, to get a bit extra heat on something in a short amount of time. He's gonna be able to tell the difference, but most folks won't be able to.

He might be wrong in treating all the establishments like fine dining, but hey, it's a TV show for shits and giggles, where the hook is watching an elite chef and business owner degrade and yell at people for not being as good as he is.

 

[icemanliddell]

About 1), I meant canned vegetables, not frozen. Sorry about that. Watch out for the sodium though.

 

[KaNesDeath]

Ok, what do you guys think?

As someone who works in the service industry from basic backyard barbecues to fine dining engagements, youre wrong on both points.

 

[Fraz]

He goes ballistic when the restaurants don't use chicken from a can.

 

[Da Speeit]

I haven't gone through this thread but I already know it's stupid as hell

 

[Da Speeit]

I Have serious reservations about someone who doesn't think there a difference between fresh and frozen vegetables.

You must hate/never eat veggies, man.

Frozen peas>>>Fresh peas

 

[Renard]

Cheesecake Factory must be Gordon's ultimate nightmare.

I still don't understand how they're cramming 2000+ calories into simple dishes. 'Murica is a magical place.

 

[elwani]

I still don't understand how they're cramming 2000+ calories into simple dishes. 'Murica is a magical place.

It takes a lot of calories to be a rockstar