Another side of Ramsey

Yesterday we came across another show staring Chef Ramsey. It is called “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares” and airs on BBC America. In each episode, he goes to a struggling restaurant and aids the owner in making certain changes to improve the restaurant. Although he did curse a lot in the show (I heard the constant beeping coming from the other room where it was on and I thought some piece of electrical equipment was failing), he is definitely a softer, kinder chef. I really liked seeing him in this show and I imagine that it captured his day-to-day personality better than what we see on “Hell’s Kitchen.” He certainly did not take any crap from anyone, and his temper was still there, but it was easier to see a connection between his critiques and fixing the restaurants.

The one episode that I saw in its entirety featured an American woman who had opened up a soul food restaurant in Britain, which was having poor sales. Chef encouraged her to stay out of the kitchen and leave the work to her chef, who she paid more than herself, and rely more on her personality to entice the customers to return. He also taught her about making her menu simpler, tips for getting weekday diners, and how to promote herself. He had her go stand out on the street handing out samples of her ribs. He also told her that she needs to use more discipline on her employees, who were often 30 minutes or more late each day. All of his tips were wildly successful (as I would imagine happens in most of the episodes of this show).

This show certainly makes me see what a talented and gifted chef he really is and how he has tremendous business sense for what it takes to make a restaurant work. It is unfortunate that this type of show is not what makes prime time in America. Perhaps it is because you can actually (gasp!) learn something from it.