Category: Television

Kitchen Nightmares: Lela’s

Gordon Ramsey
Tonight’s episode took Gordon Ramsey to Lela’s in Pomona, CA. What he found there was a restaurant that billed itself as a “fine dining” establishment, but which didn’t have some of the food the menu listed, frozen food, and a lot of yelling. They couldn’t even serve him a brownie ala mode because the homemade brownies went missing. Not a really good first impression. The owner, Lela, was in big trouble.

Gordon’s entrance into the kitchen didn’t go over well with the executive chef, Ricky. Gordon’s criticism of the lamb, which was served in chocolate mint sauce was that there was hardly any meat on the lamb, was met with “That’s just what we buy here, and that’s what we serve”. The chef doesn’t like what Gordon has to say.

The next day, the inspection of the kitchen doesn’t go well either. The refrigerator has a temperature of 51 degrees, there’s food in there that’s going bad, and even the tomato soup Gordon had at lunch.

While the staff cleaned up the place, Gordon took a walk around the area and found out that most of the people around the area were young people on a budget.

The dinner service that night didn’t go well. One of the customers ordered sea bass, and when it should have been time to get the order, the head waitress, Tabitha, found out they were out of sea bass in the kitchen! Back in the kitchen, Gordon finds potatoes on the stove… made from potato flakes. A sous chef attempts to slice some cake (also brought in) and even that goes wrong. The expiration date has passed. To top it off, the staff starts to take off near the end of service.

Gordon tracked down one of the prep cooks, Buzzard, and confronts him about the “goodies” he’s taken from the restaurant without permission. They go back into the restaurant to tell the owner. After they unpack everything (food and wine) and Buzzard asked how he can take things from a failing restaurant, he walks out.

After service, Gordon told Ricky he wasn’t the “executive chef” he thinks he is.

The next day, Buzzard came back. Gordon told Buzzard that the things in Lela’s belonged to the owner. Lela ended up firing Buzzard.

Then they did a blind-folded taste test, where Lex (the sous chef) and Ricky were blindfolded. Lex identified everything correctly, and Ricky didn’t. Gordon asked them both who was the better chef, and Lex said he was. Ricky disagreed.

On day four, Gordon give Lela a day off to get pampered and a make over. Meanwhile, Gordon takes charge to change the menu from “fine dining” to casual. Gordon tells Lex and Ricky to create their idea of what a “Pomona salad” would be. The wait staff tried it, and they liked it.

Next Gordon came up with a “Lela’s Famous Burger” recipe, and take it to the streets to let people try it. Lela comes back from her makeover. The restaurant gets a makeover too, and to tell you the truth, other than a red couch and some butcher paper on the tables, I didn’t see all that much of a difference. The staff thought it was a lot different though.

To prepare that night, Gordon made Tabitha the manager, and Lex the head chef. Ricky, of course, didn’t think that was fair.

At dinner time, the restaurant was packed; even the mayor arrives (Gordon arranged that). Thirty minutes in, no food has gone out. When it finally does go out, not everyone at the table gets food at the same time. An hour in, the kitchen is still arguing with the front of house. Finally, Lex leaves the kitchen to cool off.

Lela goes to confront Lex and they argue. Lela tells him that they need to serve the food, and Lex tells her that he doesn’t like the way she’s talking to him. Lela lays down the law, and says if Lex doesn’t want to work, he should leave.

Lex leaves.

Gordon chases after him, and tries to talk to him. Lex continues to his car, and Ricky chases after him. It’s no good. Lex jumps in his car and takes off.

Ricky steps up and the orders start to go out of the kitchen. The customers really like the food, in spite of the wait. Lex returns after he cooled off, and stepped back into his role as sous chef.

Gordon was very impressed with Ricky, and Ricky really appreciated it. I thought Ricky did a great job and really turned that kitchen around.

During the rest of Gordon’s stay, things continued to improve: the staff, the service, and the food. Things were looking up.

Five months later, the bills had piled up and Lela’s was forced to close.

Overall, it was interesting to watch, and I’m sorry the place ended up closing. It would have been good to get more than a 10 second “what happened after Gordon left” synopsis. I remember in one of the show in the British version of the program, they tracked down the people that were at the closed restaurant to find out what happened.

I suppose that even finding out that little bit of information is an improvement over what they first did on the show (which was nothing), but I sure hope for the next round of restaurants they spend the last ten minutes of the show going over what happened after Gordon left.

Heroes: Cautionary Tales – Some Questions

heroes.png
Spoilers Ahead

Great episode last night.

I thought that Noah was dead for sure, and was surprised that he came back at the end.

I do have a few questions:

How long is it going to take for Noah to get out of that holding facility?

Did Bob get Claire’s blood because he knew he would need it for Noah later? Is Bob really the bad guy here?

Is the plague that takes everyone down caused by Sylar and Maya? Is Adam really working to stop that coming plague, or is he really just going after “The Company” and the last generation of Heroes?

Any thoughts?

LOST Showrunner Back At Work During Strike

The Wall Street Journal has an article about “showrunners”, writers who are also producers on their shows going back to work, inspite of the writer’s strike. The reason? Well, there are two. First, they’re getting “breach of contract” letters since they haven’t been showing up for work to do their producing work. Second, they want to make sure that the integrity of the show they’re working on remains intact, and doesn’t go off in a direction they don’t want it to go in.

Who’s one of the people returning to work?


One of the most high-profile to return to producing is Carlton Cuse, a member of the WGA’s negotiating committee who is a showrunner and writer for ABC’s “Lost.” He plans to do some postproduction for the eight episodes of “Lost” that have been shot, he says. “We feel we owe that to our fans,” he says. “We would harm our franchise if we didn’t do it ourselves.”

The studios have put these people in a hard position. Get sued if they don’t fulfill their contract obligations, and maybe have a show turned over to people that aren’t going to do the show the way it was intended. For LOST, I think handing it over to others would be a real disaster, and I think Cuse is doing the right thing.

Why We Side With the Writers During the Writer’s Strike

Writer’s Strike
Variety is reporting that a study shows that public is siding with the writers during the writer’s strike.

Part of that is that it’s the beginning of the strike, and nothing except the late night shows (and fake news programs) have been hit by it. Those shows are in reruns, and pretty soon, all those shiny new shows the public has been watching since late August will start drying up. What will the public’s reaction been after a couple of months of “no more new episodes”?

I hope the public sticks with the writers throughout the whole strike. If you look at the small amount of money they’re asking for per DVD (they want 8 cents per DVD, up from their current share which is 4 cents), and they want to be paid for streaming video shown over the Internet. (There are more similar demands, but I won’t get into that here).

Writers got rotten deal back in the days when VHS and cable were new. Hollywood has a bad record of how it treats writers period. Sure, the writer gets paid, but once that script is written, particularly for movies, that’s it. The writer is out of the loop and the bottom of the food chain. Directors and actors come in, change things around, and get all the credit when the movie comes out and it’s a big hit. The writer might get some credit, but usually the original script has very little to do with what ends up getting shot. The writer rarely gets credit for the movie.

Think about that a minute. Think of the last couple of movies you enjoyed. Do you know who wrote them?

In television, I imagine it’s similar, although you can see that some writers (on “LOST” for example) do have a greater influence on what happens on the show. Lost is a special case, since there’s a lot going on that even the actors don’t know about.

Anyway, I’ve never liked the way Hollywood has treated writers. Without the writers, there would be no stories to tell, and it’s time that the studio execs face up to the fact that writers need to be treated a lot better than they are.

Kitchen Nightmares: Finn McCool’s

Gordon Ramsey
This week, Gordon Ramsey travelled to The Hamptons to visit Finn Mc Cool’s, an Irish Pub. It’s run by Buddy and his sons Jason and Brian. Brian is the head chef. Jason is the bartender.

Right from the start, everyone at the restaurant says that Brian is arrogant. Gordon tries “Irish Springrolls”, Salmon, and Shepard’s Pie. None of them go over very well. Buddy even thinks Gordon didn’t even like the water. The Shepard’s Pie ended up sending Gordon running for the bathroom.

I have to stop here and ask: What the heck is in an “Irish Springroll”? Corned beef and cabbage?

Anyway, Gordon goes out to find out from the local fire department why they’re not going to Finn Mc Cool’s. The fireman think there’s a bit too much fried food, but Gordon invites them to dinner.

The next day, he does a kitchen inspection, and it’s pretty filthy. Gordon said it was a “Kitchen Disaster”. The only thing he found that was “clean” was a copy of his own book!

Gordon talks to Buddy, Jason and Brian, and tells them they really need to get that kitchen cleaned up, and they do that. The family is surprised at Gordon’s pronouncement about how dirty the kitchen is, but they all pitch in and clean it up.

That night, the firemen arrive and order. Gordon watches what’s going on in the kitchen. In one of the many one-on-one interviews they put into the show, Buddy explains his nickname for Brian, “Chef Shortcut” because he cuts corners. Brian doesn’t like Gordon watching him and asking questions.

The firemen get their food, but it’s not what they hoped for. Gordon brings out Brian, and the firemen explain what they thought. The corned beef sandwich was dry, the fish was frozen, and the pie wasn’t warm enough. Brian’s reaction? He didn’t think they had the right to critique the food, since they don’t cook for a living.

Back to the kitchen, we witness on camera something (a chicken wing, I think) hit the floor, and the sous chef tosses it right into the fryer. Gordon questions this, and the sous chef says putting it into the fryer will sterilize it. (Yikes!)

On day three, we find out the the place is in big trouble. They’re losing $20,000 a month, and Buddy isn’t paying himself. If the place closes, the whole family will be in big trouble.

Gordon shows Brian how to make a Shepard’s Pie. The whole staff tries it, and loves it. Brian says he thinks he ends up looking bad, and is really mad about it.

That night, Brian and his father have a confrontation. Buddy tells Brian to stay in the kitchen and work instead of running out to be with his friends. Brian agrees, but doesn’t like it when Buddy hangs around to watch him work. Brian finally gets fed up, and leaves the restaurant.

Buddy is now forced to run the kitchen, which doesn’t go very well. He has trouble with orders.

On day four, Brian comes back. Both Buddy and Jason think that Brian has a lot harder job than either of them thought. Now that Gordon witnessed the dinner service without Brian, he realized what Brian was dealing with. Brian himself says he wants step up his game.

The restaurant transformation makes the whole place look better. The whole staff is pretty surprised how much nicer it is, and they even have a nice new sign for the front of the restaurant.

The menu was always overhauled, with 2/3rds of the menu tossed. New menu includes a Guinness pub burger, his family recipe for Shepard’s Pie, and Fireman’s Chicken. He also wants to introduce table-side service, where the chicken will be carved at the table.

That night, after a pep talk, the restaurant is fully booked. Even the firemen are back. Even the local food critic is there, so it’s a big big night. The kitchen is overwhelmed, the people in the dining room is waiting, and the whole staff is really working hard. The local food critic is pretty upset about not getting a table. The fire chief ends up leaving. Gordon finally stepped in, and everything starts flowing.

The food critic is finally seated, and orders. The food is delivered, and they really like the food. They declare “It’s almost worth the wait”.

The night ends successfully, and Gordon congratulates them on a job well done. After he left, Gordon said that a lot of these kitchen revamps are a pain, but this one was a joy.

….And shock of all shocks, they did a follow-up! Two months later, things are going well. Jason and Brian support each other, and Buddy finally cashed his first paycheck.

At the end they displayed the message:

“If you want world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsey to try to turn your KITCHEN NIGHTMARES into the restaurant of your DREAMS…

Go to www.FOX.com/KitchenNightmares or call 1-866-226-2226”

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Now a few thoughts about the show:

I was very happy to see they finally did a follow-up on how things were going with the restaurant. It was good to see that this place got turned around and was doing well. People watching what happens at these restaurants want to know how things turn out, not be left hanging. I hope they continue with the follow-ups.

If a restaurant doesn’t get turned around, we want to see that too.

I still wish they had Gordon narrate the whole show.

One thing they’ve done on the British version of the show which would be interesting would be to see how all the restaurants are doing well after the show ended. Are the chefs still there? Is the restaurant even still in business? Have they returned to their old ways?