Thanks to whatever reader it was who urged me to watchRamsay’s Kitchen Nightmares . I had praised Gordon Ramsey’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” which had probably been pitched as an American Idol for cooks combined with a Marine bootcamp. In “Kitchen Nightmares,” on the other hand, Gordon slaps dysfunctional restaurants into shape.
In a recent episode, the problem was the obnoxious husband in the kitchen and wife who handled the front. They constantly sniped and yelled at each other, and even threw out customers! Gordon had to play marriage counselor, as well as getting rid of the pretension and revamping the menu–getting the owner to cook what he was really good at rather than all of these fancy recipes. Gordon is harsh and brutally honest, but he does have a heart. And there are lots of lessons here, even for non-restauranteurs, about customer service, quality, and VOCATION, VOCATION, VOCATION.
About Gene Veith
