Kitchen Nightmares (US) - General Discussion

[walnutqueen]

I watched last night's Revisited episode, which aired on Fox.

 

The two sisters from La Galleria are getting mash notes from inmates - one wants to meet for coffee in 26 years.  heh.  They were comedy gold - moonshine & sorbet.

 

The Dad at The Old Hitching Post turned over the place to his daughter.  Naturally, he plans on opening his own restaurant so he can control the kitchen again.

 

Then there was the belly dancer, owner of The Prohibition Grill, who didn't know the meaning of "soup of the day".  Alas, no more belly dancing, but she got a July 31st Appreciation Day from the mayor.

[Surrealist]

I watched last night's Revisited episode, which aired on Fox.

 

The two sisters from La Galleria are getting mash notes from inmates - one wants to meet for coffee in 26 years.  heh.  They were comedy gold - moonshine & sorbet.

 

And Pat's still hanging around.

[cooksdelight]

Michon's restaurant in the Atlanta area just reran on BBCA. I laughed out loud at one of the chefs saying how "flustrated" he was getting. Shades of Kashia in HK.

[Padma]

I watched last night's Revisited episode, which aired on Fox.

 

The two sisters from La Galleria are getting mash notes from inmates - one wants to meet for coffee in 26 years.  heh.  They were comedy gold - moonshine & sorbet.

 

The Dad at The Old Hitching Post turned over the place to his daughter.  Naturally, he plans on opening his own restaurant so he can control the kitchen again.

 

Then there was the belly dancer, owner of The Prohibition Grill, who didn't know the meaning of "soup of the day".  Alas, no more belly dancing, but she got a July 31st Appreciation Day from the mayor.

I enjoyed all of those. There did seem to be genuine warmth between the two crazy sisters and Gordon and, since they had improved, the things about them I couldn't stand before were kind of funny now. The Old Hitching Post was weird in that the man clearly was still a control freak who couldn't leave the kitchen (looking for another) so I don't know how the daughter got him out. I thought Gordon should have picked up on that eye roll from the woman in the kitchen (?) though--I still think that story was not -quite- as it seemed. 

 

I like to see the success stories with such originally annoying and clueless people, but always wonder what the details of the transformations really were. Are the participants paid--beyond "new stuff and decorations and sometimes a chef"?

[backformore]

Just saw a blurb on TMZ that Sammy threatened a customer with a knife. There was video, but I couldn't get it to play.

[cooksdelight]

http://www.tmz.com/2014/09/28/kitchen-nightmares-amys-baking-company-threatens-guy-with-knife/

Nothing with these two has changed. Amy calling the customer who was threatened a coward and a drunk. If he was drunk or out of control and they served him instead of calling police....craziness!!

[Julia]

So I guess Samy's kinda given up on the deportation front, huh.

I think Amy's going to have to rethink the whole bleu cheese bacon burger concept before they relocate to Israel.

[Pixel]

Has this ep rerun recently? It's not turning up on my DVR. The first one did, but not the return.

[Julia]

It's on Hulu for free.

[backformore]

More info on today's incident:

   http://kitchenette.jezebel.com/amys-baking-company-owner-threatens-to-shiv-a-guy-on-vi-1640128748

 

(from Jezebel)

Remember Crazy Amy and Samy Bouzaglo from that one absolutely bonkers episode of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? They're back in the news! This time, there's video of Samy nearly stabbing a customer.

Earlier today, TMZ released a video of Samy storming out of the restaurant possessed of a deranged look in his eye and what appears to be a butter knife (seriously). According to the person who shot the video, there was a drunk patron at the restaurant, for some reason Amy lost her shit and told him to leave, which he then did peaceably...only for Samy to charge out after him looking to cut a guy (or at least lightly smear him with a spreadable Land O'Lakes product).

In the first part of the video, Amy actually holds Samy back, and when she's the least terrifying person in a scenario, you know something has gone horribly wrong. In the second part, she can be seen shouting at someone off-screen to the effect of "motherfucking piece of shit coward," as one does. When contacted by TMZ, Amy and Samy insist he was holding a pen rather than a knife, which is nice, because that allows us to add "video recordings" to the list of technology for which the couple lack the most basic conceptual understanding.

Amy and Samy have been back in the news a lot this year. You may remember that last season, Kitchen Nightmares did "another" episode there (which they tragically and inexplicably failed to title "Amy's Baking Company 2: Electric Bouzaglo"*) which mainly consisted of old unused footage and new interviews with Amy and Samy about the aftermath of one of the strangest pieces of TV any of us have ever witnessed. Around the same time, Amy accused Gordon Ramsey of sexually harassing her.

While we don't know exactly what happened here, it's generally never a good idea to threaten to stab another person, no matter what they've done. No word yet on what Amy's cat children have to say about the whole affair, though no doubt they'll soon be putting out a press release.

 

[cooksdelight]

No word yet on what Amy's cat children have to say about the whole affair, though no doubt they'll soon be putting out a press release.

Meow! Meow! Meow, meow, meow! Meow, Amy's crazy, meow! Meow, Samy too, meow!

[cooksdelight]

I often watch the reruns and wonder what happened to them. Here's a list of all seven seasons and where they are now.

http://www.kitchennightmaresupdates.com/p/all-kitchen-nightmares-updates.html

[cooksdelight]

I'm watching the two-part Mill Street Bistro episodes for the first time. Joe Nagy is the male version of Amy. Sheesh!!

I wondered what happened to them, and found this article. The guy is still as delusional as ever, admitting "catering people" had access to the kitchen when some elk went missing. But blamed Gordon. I doubt Gordon wanted that nasty elk.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/gordon-ramsay-pays-compensation-restaurant-3020261

[Julia]

I very much doubt that any of that settlement was for the elk. I think the production company probably left some damage from the lights, and Joe just couldn't resist plugging his elk.

[turbogirlnyc]

Thanks for the link! Looking forward to perusing this.

[cooksdelight]

You're welcome, I check it every time I happen to catch an episode that I've not seen.....or don't remember. :)

[cooksdelight]

I'm watching Mama Rita's for the first time. OMG. All that frozen food, some of it a year old. And the lady who owns the place wanting to keep her friend as a head chef even though she can't cook. Doomed from the get-go.

Not a surprise that it closed. But, she's still doing her catering and probably still making people sick all across the area.

[cynicat]

I watched the most recent marathon and had a chance to see the Sebastian's episode.  He struck me as a famewhore who was using this to show off some 'acting' skills  vs truly having those emotions.  I could be wrong of course, in which case he's just a total dick.

[Julia]

I'm watching Mama Rita's for the first time. OMG. All that frozen food, some of it a year old. And the lady who owns the place wanting to keep her friend as a head chef even though she can't cook. Doomed from the get-go.

Not a surprise that it closed. But, she's still doing her catering and probably still making people sick all across the area.

 

I didn't think the friend couldn't cook, just that she was a catering cook and not a chef, so she was fine if you need to feed five hundred people tomorrow, but if you need to feed two people today she'll need six hours and there'll be 498 more portions in the freezer afterwards.

 

I will never understand the chefs who appeared on this show because they wanted to go up against Ramsay. Seriously, buddy, drop the ruler and wash your hands before you leave the men's room. If you knew how to run a business, you'd be doing it already.

[leisawoo]

Julia, I love your post.

[cooksdelight]

Prohibition Grille is on this morning. I have no words for this clueless airheaded belly-dancing owner.

"Soup of the day, I thought that meant what we were serving that day. I didn't know it meant a different soup each day. That's really lame."

[Julia]

You have to wonder who that woman has pictures of with a goat for someone to be willing to finance a restaurant for her. It's a little hard to believe she raised the money with the bellydancing skills she demonstrated.

[cooksdelight]

From the amount of diamonds on her left hand, I think her husband may be the money behind the restaurant. She wanted something fun to play with and he bought it for her, maybe? I don't know, but if that's the case, he's been throwing his money into the wind. She's the typical owner who has no restaurant experience, sees people on TV with successful restaurants and thinks "How hard can it be?"

They're still open, and the recap on the list says that 1-star reviews had been filtered out. Sort of how she runs the business.....just ignore or erase reality.

[SFoster21]

I watched the most recent marathon and had a chance to see the Sebastian's episode. He struck me as a famewhore who was using this to show off some 'acting' skills vs truly having those emotions. I could be wrong of course, in which case he's just a total dick.

Thanks to you, I caught this. Just discovered this show. Sebastian was completely wonderful. He actually thought that the "concept" and "menu" would make people buy his actual cooking?

He thought that those phantom customers would constitute a demand so great that he could become McDonald's?

He's in California; don't industry people only eat egg whites and so forth? Who can he sell a deep fried frozen burger to who has the money to go anywhere else? He was seriously stupid.

$300,000 of his wife's money. He thinks he can cook. God, sad.

Edited April 4, 2015 by SFoster21

[cooksdelight]

Welcome to the show!

[Julia]

He thought that those phantom customers were constitute a demand so great that he could become McDonald's?

I get the impression that the restaurant was the price Sebastian made his wife pay for being more successful than he was, but that put pressure on him to prove he was some kind of hot shot entrepreneur. Personally, I think his wife would have saved a lot of money if she'd just bought him a sports car and a box of bonbons and let him spend his afternoons drinking.

[Wings]

Thanks!  I am watching a bunch of them now and have been googling them to see if they made it.  This makes it very easy!  

[Wings]

This is my all time favorite episode for 2 reasons.  It was vastly entertaining.  And it showed me that this series is not staged.  If any episode would be called out for this, Amy's would be it.  

 

My son lives in Phoenix and the next time I visit we will go there.  Nice to know it is on Hulu so he can watch it before we go.  I have only seen this once when it first aired and I want to see it again.  He will not want to go because I will return food to the kitchen if it is bad in anyway.  He hates that and I rarely do it.  I will have to promise that I won't. 

 

I just went to their site and it is now a soup, salad, sandwich place with a huge emphasis on their baked goods.   We will just go for coffee and dessert.  They look fabulous.  I will aim to go when it is busy so they will both be there and hope they get a cranky diner.  

[cooksdelight]

No more pizza?? But that was Amy's specialty. LOL

The desserts she gets from somewhere else. No idea about the soups, so do let us know what you order and what it tastes like.

[Wings]

No more pizza?? But that was Amy's specialty. LOL

The desserts she gets from somewhere else. No idea about the soups, so do let us know what you order and what it tastes like.

 

 

No pizza but they have a flat bread.  Baking company and they buy their desserts?!  Wow.  

 

http://amys-baking-company.myshopify.com/

 

Their flat bread. 

 

[Julia]

The absolute numbers on that list don't tell the whole story. In a number of cases, the business was sold before it closed, which means that after Ramsay it was in good enough shape for the owners to be able to get out of a bad investment. Even if it failed under new owners, I think that's still a win (and if you look at later seasons, seems to be what some of the owners were counting on).

[Julia]

Baking company and they buy their desserts?!  Wow.  

 

Oh, yeah. Amy, who I'm going to guess was born without the gene for irony of any kind, took to facebook after people started posting links to the original sites she stole her product pictures from to admit that she bought all her cakes at a big box store. She also said that she lied to Ramsay about baking her own sweets because as a british person he didn't understand that the glory of american commerce is taking stuff people made somewhere else and taking a rakeoff while passing it along to the consumer. Which is as succinct a description of a certain brand of capitalism as I've heard in a while. 

 

As to how Amy and Samy got on Fox, I've suspected for a while that it had to do with the fact that they were bundlers for the local branch of the Republican party during the McCain campaign, which is also, I suspect, why Amy's prison appeals dragged out so long and why Samy hasn't been deported yet.

[Wings]

That makes sense.  I think many people on decor/real estate shows really are getting their house ready to sell.  This seems very evident on Love it or List it.   

[Wings]

What?  Amy's prison appeals?  Deported?  Fox?  

 

So her baked goods are from big box stores?!  I bet she doesn't make those soups either.  It is so easy to tell if a soup comes from a supermarket hot bar.  So easy.

 

I remember her kitchen was teeny tiny.  

Edited April 30, 2015 by wings707

[Julia]

What?  Amy's prison appeals?  Deported?  Fox?  

 

Amy, as it turns out, committed identity theft to take out a bank loan for $15k, and served a year in prison for it. Samy also has a prison record, and is actually barred from a number of countries in Europe for various crimes having to do with, reportedly, drugs, thuggery and extortion. He apparently failed to disclose that nugget when he entered the country. ICE would like him to leave now.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Julia

[cooksdelight]

Man, I miss the days of Amy posting on Facebook to all of her "haters." LOL

I keep waiting for word that Samy's been deported. If you see him when you're there, wings707, please give him our best regards and wish him bon voyage.

[Wings]

I am just watching a bunch of them now.  Gordon is wrong on something.  All shrimp we get is flash frozen on the boats after they are caught.  We cannot get fresh shrimp, even here in Florida.  If you get them off the boat, immediately thaw and use them, they are of the highest quality you can get and some restaurants do that. They do taste fresh.  But fresh, never frozen, no.  

[Wings]

I want Gordon to do a series, Save Florida Diners!  He called the food here "naff."  I didn't have to look up the definition, I knew it meant bad. I just looked it up now.

 

 

 

naff
British slang, describes something that is stupid, lame or unpalatable.

 

We have one restaurant here on the island that has a small menu (good sign) and serves fresh fish.  That is it.  The other 3 that serve seafood have frozen food.  I live on a fucking Island on the fucking Atlantic ocean and this is what we get?  On the mainland, also on the damn water (inland waterway) has no place that serves fresh food either, of any kind.   You know where I have to go to get fresh food?  Taos NM where my son lives!  They don't specialize in seafood obviously but the smallest restaurant there has fabulous food.  Very hip, progressive community full of artistic very creative people. 

 

I will climb down from my frustration box and quietly tip toe away. 

 

Don't get too excited about that.  I'll be back (Arnold voice). 

 

I would move there but it is in the mountains and has winter.  

[cooksdelight]

The one Florida show I remember was the one that had Greek food also, I think? They all start to blend together after a while.

[Wings]

They blend together for me, too. Light house point is a restaurant that now has good reviews and that is in FL. A Gordon success.  I have not seen the show yet.  It is an affluent area.  Well, I probably have.  I have been watching this show off and on for years.  I am now revisiting it.  I  remember some of the places.  

 

Gordon is stretched tightly and I doubt he will ever revise this show, too many failures.  

 

I never liked the shows he did in England.  The decor and personalities felt archaic.  And that true of England, it is very uptight and old fashioned.  I have a close friend who lives there.  We Skype almost daily.  She felt she was born in the wrong country as strongly as transgenders feel that with the wrong body.  It is hysterical to listen to her talk about the British!  She says the men are all pasty with high foreheads, close set eyes, bad teeth* and boring.  She feels like a citizen of the US and loves American men of Latin descent because their skin has color!!  The universe made a huge mistake placing her in England with stupid, pale parents.  

 

I tread softly when talking about England because I know the deal.  You can talk badly about your mother but god forbid anyone else does.  Not with my friend!  She welcomes any negative thoughts I might have.  It is sooooooo funny. 

 

* poor dental care over there.  Socialized medicine sucks.  I have details that would curl your hair.  So many over here think it is a good thing.  Oh, no. So not. Scary bad. 

[SFoster21]

Part Two is on tonight. Lord, they are as crazy as ever.

[LexiconDevilOne]

I just finished watching both episodes back to back...

 

Oh lord, they are delusional NUT jobs.

 

The food looked good, so I only have Ramsey's word it doesn't taste good. 

What kills me is their idea of customer service. Throwing people out for receiving poorly done food, or asking if they are ever going to receive their meal at all. I'd never  wait an hour and a half for a meal, and I'd walk out (without paying for the drinks, and have...once). But, if you yell at each other, worse your employees, but most especially me...that  is a deal breaker. If I'm giving you my money, I do not want yelling and screaming during my meal.

 

I myself would go online to warn others about you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GreekGeek]

I watched this on BBC America tonight and was disappointed to learn that the restaurant folded right about the time the episode was aired. I wonder if Manny and Christina are still married? The updates don't say.

[cooksdelight]

I'll say one thing for Amy and Samy, they never fail to entertain. Amy's Baking Company is up for sale, as soon as the people get their paperwork in order. And she now plans to sell custom-made desserts from her home. Maybe my memory is failing, but wasn't it revealed that all of the desserts in her store were bought, not homemade?

And she's going to give cooking lessons online! LMAO!!! Meow meow meow!

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/prime_cuts/2015/07/exclusive-amy-s-baking-co-owners-looking-to-sell.html?ana=fbk

[Julia]

Um, yeah. The city inspectors couldn't find the odor problem, and the former property manager refused to cough up money for the odor problem the city inspectors couldn't find which was making Amy (and not the people at the Pita Pocket next door) sick. Also, haxxorz.

That's some aspirational photoshop work on that picture of Amy.

[Happytobehere]

In a move that surprises no one who occupies the land of the sane, Amy's is closing: http://www.eater.com/2015/7/10/8928887/kitchen-nightmares-amys-baking-company-shutter

[cooksdelight]

It's still up for sale, with one article saying the landlord wanted them out because of a really bad smell. Maybe Samy finally made good on his threats and there are bodies in the walk-in.

[GoMocs]

another story on the closing:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/07/13/kitchen-nightmare-comes-to-end-amy-baking-company-to-close/?intcmp=sbox2_food

[Julia]

"Any other person on this planet, I don't know if they would have survived what we went through because it was horrible."

Oh, Amy's going to have lots of fun meeting the neighbors if they do end up having to move to Israel. I have a feeling a few of them would have some thoughts about how worldshattering her trials are, graded on a curve.

[cooksdelight]

Yeah, what happened with Samy's deportation?