Things to consider for whether or not Kitchen Nightmares helps or hurts restaurants. 1. Most restaurants were far too indebted to succeed or continue 2. Many restaurants revert to old habits 3. His success rate is near 20% or so, which is on par with most restaurants. 4. When Kitchen nightmares started and during most seasons, the US were going through/recovering from the 2008 economic collapse 5. It's rumoured some restaurant owners just wanted new equipment and a make over to increase sell on value
6. Even the resturants that stayed open years after their Kitchen Nightmare appearance eventually shut down because of either Covid-19 or the owners deciding to retire.
@@Aspi3Gam3r Which, admittedly, can't be blamed on KN but is still worth noting. Basically none of the restaurants that appeared on the show are still open for one reason or another, and tbh it's impressive that 20% managed to stay open at all considering the issues they had going in.
Seriously, so many of these ingrates mismanage their business into ruin and then plead for Ramsey to come and save them, only to then blame him when he can't magically solve their own personal failings.
There's a saying, "if you wouldn't do it in your own home, don't do it elsewhere" but this show made me rephrase that to "just because you would do it in your own home, doesn't mean you should do it elsewhere"
Yeah ive always had a problem when people in the trades say "do it like its your own house" Like bro, idc what it looks like, thats a horrible thing to say
Well, the question (as usual) is: If his restaurant was doing so great, served so man tables each night, had so many regulars whom all loved his food - then why was he on the show in the first place?
You see they were all just waiting for them to change the menu and decor and then come back to complain about the menu and decor that’s where they went duh
Oh boy, I've been looking forward to you covering this one! I used to work for this lunatic, though quite some time before the show taping. Got fired and screamed at for trying to clean when I had no other job to do. Never got paid for the month I worked there, either. The day I walked past the former location and saw it was bulldozed I was pretty happy to see the place gone lol.
@@thesandman2435 The one time I ate at it, it was just okay, not enough spice. I never had staff lunch there. There's always been better Cajun/Creole options in Nashville or nearby cities.
@@rocketbilly Yea that was what I expected, to be honest. I was sincerely doubting Chappy when he said Nashville doesn't know good cajun food like yea right, get real dude. Not enough spice is a pretty dire statement for cajun food.
I’m glad you managed to see the place bulldozed after having such a shit experience working for Chappy. It doesn’t surprise me, though. I know that KN is scripted at certain parts but he did legit seem like a complete clown.
i think that kitchen nightmare doesn't help restaurants but not because of gordon, i think its because try as he must, at the end of the day its up to the owners to keep the restaurant going, gordon is just there to give them a ted talk so they can get their **** together. if the owners refuse to adapt that's on them.
That and restaurants are a notoriously hard industry. The majority fail as it is. And Gordon was always going to actively failing restaurants that are deep in debt. The fact that any turned around is impressive
The reasons you and others have said, but ALSO the series aired 2007-2014, right in the big financial crisis. Add in all the other factors (cocky or incompetent owners, restaurants already too far gone, the innate volatility of the restaurant biz to begin with) and then put the 2008 crash on top of it, and it's a wonder any of the restaurants featured on the show survived at all.
You are way underselling the benefits Gordons expertise provides to these owners. They overhaul the kitchen and they bring in a ton of customers for the show and after duo to word soreading about the revamp. The insight Gordon gives is worth thousands on the market for business education, but this owner in particular didn't care about any of it, so he failed after the show, just as he was about to before it.
I grew up in Nashville. I remember seeing commercials for Chappy’s as a kid (like 6-7) and wanting to eat there. When I got a bit older we went near the restaurant and I remember being shocked it was closed. But I guess we dodged a bullet!
I love that the contradiction of "the clients love it" and "The clients leave upon seeing it" really shows how the "the customers liked our old menu better" is a lie that they tell themselves
The owners don't want to go through with it so they ask the few regulars they have to vocally ask for the old menu back and "well hot damn, customers aren't happy with the new menu"
its honestly wild to me how many of these "chefs" cook meat and fish in the same pan, the same spot on the grill, etc, bc you just cant do that. like if the health inspector came in and saw that, they'd be shut down. fish is near the top of the list for allergens. im working in a restaurant for the first time ever now and i know that, a bunch of "chefs" not knowing any of that is so crazy lmaooo
@@FionavanDahl oh absolutely that too. my mom is also allergic to red meat so if she ate that fish that was in the pan with steak, she'd get extremely sick. but i was saying that in just the way like servsafe would look at it and fish is one of the top allergens on their list lol
@@FionavanDahl I'm certain you know this, but just getting some awareness out. A red meat allergy (Alpha Gal Syndrome) can really only be caused by tick bites. Alpha Gal being a sugar molecule found in the tissue of nearly every mammal except Primates. So when a tick bites a deer and has retained a high enough concentration of the molecule, it can then introduce it to human hosts.The T-Cells responsible for memorizing pathogens incidentally log Alpha Gal as such, which then causes an antibody immune response to any future detection of the molecule. You have to metabolize some of it first, so it takes 3-6 hours or so after eating for symptoms to hit. If something like fish meat is contaminated in a kitchen pan, a sufferer wouldn't know right away. Which risks them consuming more of the A-G and having a much more severe immune reaction. People often view a red meat allergy under the same lens as someone claiming to be gluten sensitive (*not glutin allergic*) because sometimes they get a tummy ache. Many are unaware of the disease entirely and I've seen them view it as a generational fad. But it can be really serious when the swelling response is severe enough to close airways or obscure vision. Or if the nausea and diarrhea make you dehydrated, along with the unpleasant full body hives and rash. Not fun. Good news is while although it is heavily underreported with only 111k diagnosed out of a probable 430k cases (2011-2022), and yes over 30% of US physicians report uncertainty if they could recognize or confidentially diagnose it... Awareness is on the rise in the medical scene! Those numbers are far better than the decades previously when it was practically unknown. And yes, while numbers show the rate of the disease appears to be on the rise (in the US), this can primarily be attributed to said awarness. It just looks like it's happening more frequently but now there's more trained medical professionals to actually realize it exists and can identify it in patients. Noted in that the increased reports are also in states with the highest tick populations where tick bites were already common. So hopefully better treatments will be available soon! It's not a typical allergy since it has an established development. Because if I remember correctly people are still uncertain to the development of other allergies typically in youth. Environmental influence, overexposure to an allergin or maybe even underexposure to one etc... So, for now all we've got is desensitization therapy that's very hit or miss. Maybe in 10 years we'll have something that targets those pesky T-Cells. Or something that can target the IgE cells which generates the antibodies. Heck recently, in 2019, researchers discovered two unique mechanism within A-G antibody producing IgE's that are related to the anaphylaxis response! They were distinct from other allergy induced anaphylaxis, meaning down the line they could have a treatment to inhibit that specific symptom. Just speculating but one day you could eat red meat without fear of death while your peanut butter allergy buddy is still SOL! This became way longer than I intended! I am not a doctor nor do I have any allergies!
Local pasta place does the lunch/dinner price increase, but the difference in cost is like 3-5 dollars and they give you like an entire loaf of french bread if you order during dinner (as opposed to like 2 slices). I prefer ordering during lunch but their bread is pretty good so I don't mind ordering dinner. Also I'm a pescatarian and yeah that's probably staged, but I would be pissed if steak grease got all over my fish too
@@nyalan8385 was honestly the first time I'd ever seen it. But i won't complain, the portion of pasta is the same. They just change the amount of bread you get.
Speaking of pasta, in the country where pasta comes from (Italy) almost all restaurants if they have a fixed menu of sorts increase their price for dinner. Or even holiday/weekend prices. Some places actually add bonuses (bigger portions for example) but I've personally been to places like All You Can Eat sushi restaurants... Literally sell the same menu. No difference between lunch and dinner. Needless to say I don't go to those places for dinner anymore.
If I remember correctly the pescaterian thing did actually happen, but it was cut to look more dramatic. What really happened is that Gordon found out about her being a pescaterian first, and after that he went to kitchen to check her food just to see it being cooked on same pan as meat. Basically in editing they cut it to look like things happened in different order.
@@amarabertelson9106thats just how they do it in the American version of this show. It's style is designed entirely in the editing room for better or worse. Mostly worse IMO because you're right, a lot of people just assume the shows are scripted because of how it's edited despite the fact it's not.
I mean, they didn't show anything that didn't happen. The fact that it didn't happen in that order doesn't materially change anything other than to make it look like an amazing coincidence.
I think the fact that he's had so many restaurants over the years that are either closed or under new owners says a lot about his skills at running the places. Particularly since he has employees he never paid and had one of said businesses shut down due to not paying taxes, but he continues to open new businesses after that. It sounds to me like he's hopping from location to location and getting out as things fail while keeping what money he can to open up his next business. The ones that are still open but under new management are probably from the new owners buying it out from him and managing to revitalize it before it was too far gone.
'People in Nashville don't understand New Orleans food.' and 'People hated the new menu, so I'm bringing back the original one.' don't mesh, if people don't like the new menu why return to a different failing one? Just admit that you prefer your menu, even if it makes your business harder.
If his business wasn't struggling, then he wouldn't need to reach out to Gordon Ramsay. He's full of it. Man's really delusional. No wonder he's dodging paying off his ex employees.
@@guilhermehank4938These people don’t have the time or money to take him to court. It would probably cost more to sue him than what they would get as a settlement.
what’s wild to me about the majority of these episodes is that the kitchens are that nasty. i work during the fall in a snack bar at a pumpkin patch (mind you EVERYONE working in there is around 16-22 or so) and our kitchen is way cleaner than most of these. the fact that even teenagers have higher standards than a lot of adults in the food industry is terrifying.
I worked at Mcdonalds, ok fancy/fine dining no, but you still serve food and need to maintain a clean store and so on. I am in New Zealand so heath inspector wise its a bit different to the us/uk etc, but the inspectors came to the store unannounced once or twice a year ish, they checked the cleaning side of things, cross contamination, food been store and cooked properly, all relevant checks done correctly and so on. Its a points based system mainly, if you score over a set amount your all good till the next visit unless something happens before then, some things may need to be fixed so you get so many days to do so then they come back and check. Any thing under a set score or anything really bad (idk what exactly) they have the power to close you down either temp or permanently
I remember not knowing what "pescitarian" meant before watching Kitchen Nightmares, but the difference between me and Chappy is that I don't own a restaurant or sell food to people. I've been to the Pier House a couple of times, and I liked it a lot.
@@WASDLeftClick I would imagine most people don't bother to learn all about diets that they don't adhere to because it's not relevant to them in their day to day lives, or in their own kitchen.
@@thatvalensteingirl Tbf, I can understand if someone doesn't know what a pescatarian is, or the differences between vegan and vegetarian, but you really don't need to not all about a lot diet, but some are kinda just basic knowledge. Like just because fish is in the water doesn't mean it's not meat, cheese/milk has lactose (milk is in butter), soda/sweet tea/ etc has water in it. That part is more shocking that you have to tell grown adults a lot of those facts.
@@thatvalensteingirl I'm probably biased because cooking is a passion for me and a career, so I have to know a lot about different dietary restrictions and allergies as part of my job and just because I find it interesting. But still, it's not exactly complicated. Vegetarians: Will not eat meat or fish, or generally consume anything that requires the death of an animal to make. As such, dairy products and eggs are okay. Vegans: Not willing to consume anything made from any animal products at all. Just plants and fungi, no milk or eggs. Pescatarian: The same as a vegetarian except they are willing to consume fish and shellfish.
I also have been to Pier House several times but I had no idea there was a kitchen nightmares episode about his old restaurant before I watched this video. I have spoken to Chappy a couple times while at Pier house and he seemed like a really good guy to me food was great but a little expensive, I go there every couple months.
There are always people with bad taste. IMHO every restaurant in my home town is shit enough to be on kitchen nightmares, but people give them 5 stars online out of some duty of "local pride".
It's hard to convince Gordon that ppl in Tennessee or anywhere else in the US "just don't appreciate authentic new Orleans cuisine" when a fuckin *soul food* restaurant has some kickass food n became successful in *Britain*
Brit here! in general, especially in large cities with a sizeable immigrant population, us brits are pretty big fans of soul food, and food of African and Caribbean origins. There is nothing like getting a big plate of food knowing that it was made with love and care, at least that’s what I feel when I make or order food like this.
@@paintscroll yeah there’s this idea that all British people eat jellied eels and idk like spotted dick on the daily on Continental Europe and beyond but our food now is actually pretty good! A lot of our cuisine has been influenced by immigration, and we’re all the better for it! Our national dish is actually Chicken Tikka Masala, which is a curry (and a pretty great one at that).
Just look at when Gordon went to Momma Cheri's in England! He loved the food and the locals eventually did too! EDIT: ahhhhhhh I misread your comment, sorry
Even if the customer wasn't a pescetarian, fish is like RIGHT AT THE TOP of the most common allergy list! There is a really good chance that your customer could be allergic to the fish you just cooked their steak next to!! The fact he doesn't even care that he could possibly kill someone and get arrested baffles me! My family owned a restaurant and my grandfather was the chef (an actual, professionally trained REAL chef, not just a job title like it is in America), and he was meticulous with his cleanliness and avoiding cross-contamination.
Gordon is a chef. He can fix a restaurant, but he can't fix a person. I think Chappy just went for the "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" until he got Pier House. I mean, congrats to him, but I really do hope he took at least a few notes from KN and doesn't leave his kitchens unsanitary.
The thing that's so great about Kitchen Nightmares and horrible about actually working in restaurants is that these guys really will get reasonable advice that's easier and more profitable from a trusted source and STILL refuse to change anything. There's ego in every profession and idiots all over the place, but I think people underestimate just how prevalent it is in the restaurant industry. I manage a kitchen at a senior living community, REALLY simple stuff, but it's an exclusive club in a wealthy area so we pay our cooks crazy good. My boss sent some older guys down the pipeline with executive chef and chef/owner on their resume from like 2004-2010, and they come in to do a "cooking demo", basically just a piece of filet mignon, salmon, some baby carrots, and some fingerling potatoes just to prove they know how to cook. This guy in his late 40s/early 50s who claims to have been an executive chef at a huge hotel and later on owned his own place literally served me simultaneously raw and burnt steak, torn up raw fish, hard potatoes, and hard carrots. I didn't even know what to say so I just told him it was a little undercooked but overall good (just get this guy out of here), and he got so defensive at that little bit of criticism that I had to basically retract my comment. He then went on to make inappropriate comments about girls he used to work with. This man was expecting to get paid $30/hour! :)
Yeah the Ego in the industry is absolutely insane. (Also Chef here). One of my previous Chefs (I think he's retired now) was one of those individuals. He tried to be "a friend" with you but he's also that guy that comes over to the place to "check if everything allright". And if you are doing Polenta and add some leftover Mascarpone that you don't wanna throw away, then he climbed the wall up for no particular reason but to powerplay his Ego. "He then went on to make inappropriate comments about girls he used to work with." WTF?
Really important to note that the article that was confirming Chappy's views and attacking Ramsay is from the National Enquirer, a garbage-tier tabloid that has a LONG history of not caring about fact in the slightest and placing sensationalism above all else.
i do have to say seeing the new menu i immediately went "that doesnt seem like New Orleans style food" ramsay has a big flaw in that a lot of his menu changes end up being... basically the same thing for every place.
Something important to remember about yelp reviews is that they're (in general) better than what the actual experience is. People who leave reviews are much more likely to do so if the experience was kinda good than kinda bad. If the experience is truly a 3 or 4 out of 10, people are much more likely to simply just not come back. If a negative review is left, it's normally because of something truly terrible or uniquely bad. That's why if you look, almost every restaurant will have more 1 star reviews than 2 no matter how good the overall average review is.
I love reading bad reviews on Google for fun. But when scoping a place out I Usually look to see if they all have similar mentions of problems, but it can be seen quickly if the person is clearly being complicated or when a whole party has a bad experience and then they all do a bad review saying the same thing X12.
I love your videos, man. I don't know if you do requests, but could you do the infamous grilled lettuce episode? Would love to hear your thoughts and see if there are any updates
Here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with grilled lettuce. In fact, Gordon himself has a RECIPE on ROASTING lettuce! Look it up. It's absurd. There were many egregious things in that episode, but grilled lettuce is not one of them.
@@nobleactual7693 lolll I think he was playing up the grilled lettuce thing just because some people didn't know it was a thing, I think the egregious part was that the lettuce itself wasn't clean and it didn't taste right
@@michanforever Having the butt of the lettuce still there, which indicates it isn't properly cleaned, is one thing, and it is a valid criticism. Lampooning them for GRILLING the lettuce, when Ramsay does the same thing, is another thing entirely.
So the one thing I can accept is having a slight price increase of the fish if it is freshly caught. However to me it makes more sense to do it in reverse: have it cost more in Lunch because the fish is more fresh and then sell it off in Dinner.
Some restaurants will make lunch prices cheaper than dinner one to encourage a portion of the customers to come earlier at times they wouldn’t otherwise have much business
I go to restraints that have small price increases for dinner specifically, for instance during dinner they add on the menu a bacon burger for an extra £2 but it'll be basically £1 for a piece of bacon, not worth it tho the food tastes amazing, but thats still 100x more acceptable then chappys stuff
I mean, it does kinda seem like Gordon didn't even try to address the actual problems here (chappy's sloppiness and attitude) and instead just stripped the restaurant of it's character (as tacky as it was) and left it a bland burger joint, so it definitely doesn't seem like he did anything to help 🤷
Honestly, out of all the KN owners, Chappy is the one that really pissed me off the most: Ontop of being so full of himself, the man proceeded to blame everything on Gordon despite a huge factor in his businesses failing was because of _his own ego._ And while yes Gordon isn''t perfect and such and his show doesn't always help the businesses, the owner's attitude and how they run their restaurant also plays a factor in it. And the fact that bearded jerk ran off without paying anybody really makes it clear his restuaraunt failed not because of GR, but because he refused to change.
i question the success of chappy's 1st restaurant just some of the things he was doing in the 2nd one that gordan visited makes me think that either he was lying about the success or the people he served had zero standards lol
If he was in a busy part of New Orleans I suspect a lot of those customers were tourists and not repeat customers. If there's like 100 of the same restaurant I'd just go wherever and figure it's all pretty much the same. And I'd be wrong as I'm sure many of his diners were lol
I will say that Gordon did kill the identity of the place, it’s a Cajun restaurant, and he took the Cajun food and decor out, even if you don’t like the menu at least get other Cajun stuff
I agree. Tacky old Mardi Gras memorabilia is very common in the French Quarter, and the wait staff white shirt and black bow tie would fit in Acme Oyster House.
One thing I'm not too crazy about with the Kitchen Nightmare routine is the redecorating. If the kitchen is really dirty and stuff seems broken then yeah. But not every restaurant needs to be turned into a plain one. I'm also 50/50 on the menu revamps.
@@Rebelrose I think sometimes it depends how deep in debt they are, they’re trying to sell stuff off and then make the menu high margin stuff, the places way deeper in debt need to sell the decor more desperately and sell the highest margin food with the smallest menu
@@monferno1 It's really circumstantial. I think the one time I really liked the decor changing was for one of the pizza places. I feel bad for forgetting the name but it went from a plane restaurant to a nice Italian looking one
I believe Chappy is full of crappy. The fact that he owes his ex employees money just shows what kind of heinous person he is and I believe he is lying about Kitchen Nightmares ruining his business. They called Kitchen Nightmares for help, so obviously they had very few customers coming in. In addition, the tax office do not seize businesses as soon as you miss a payment, it takes a long time before they do that.
I imagine he used a pescatarian as an example knowing there was one in the restaurant - otherwise why wouldn't he use seafood allergies as the example?
I'm so glad you did this because all of my life chappys had been closed. I am today years old finding out about this! I used to always walk down church heading to the bars and would always wonder about chappys! They've since torn it down and it's a vacant lot now
charging less for the same dishes during lunch is a really common tactic to influence customer patterns, encouraging people to come earlier in the day when the restaurant would otherwise have less business
@@WASDLeftClick I hardly ever see that, and honestly it doesn't actually make as much sense as you might think from the perspective of the business. Logistically it's easier and simpler to just make the same meal instead of having it differently, and the cost of ingredients is generally not a tremendous portion of the cost of the dish. If you're making fried rice or something, it doesn't cook any quicker or easier if you make less rice, if anything it might come out differently. Plus, there's the entire point behind this that if you're charging less money for a smaller portion, you're not really encouraging people to come earlier, you're just... offering a smaller portion but only at a certain time.
@@Fenrakk101 Idk. I'm actually pretty experienced working back of house at a restaurant. In fact I'm the kitchen manager at my current place of employment. However, my experience somewhat lacks places that would charge reduced prices at lunch, since most of my experience has to do with restaurants that are open for breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner with no price change. Generally speaking though I expect people to want a small lunch without different courses like they would with dinner, since lunch is typically a light meal you have quickly before getting back to whatever it was you were doing.
It’s amazing how many peoples egos kill their own success. Definitely seems to be the case with chappy. Good-he deserves it. I can’t stand people who can’t take any accountability, lie, and place blame on anyone but themselves.
You can have the best mechanic in the world work on a completely rusted-out car, and have it run and drive. But if the owner of the car doesn't work on the body of the car, it's gonna snap in two.
poor gordon, this is like trying to help a homeless person get back on their feet in life, but for some reason they wont stop punching you the whole time
90% of Kitchen Nightmares is usually just Gordon telling them to use Fresh Ingredients, not Frozen and even after that stunning revelation 80% of them go under because what they really needed was a team of Expert Accountants, not a Michelin Star Chef.
This was definitely an episode I was looking forward to you covering. I will say- regardless of the truth of this episode, Chappy seems to be doing good for himself now, so if he is doing great - props to him. As for the rest- I always say that people saying Kitchen Nightmares didn’t have a high success rate often don’t think about additional factors. Most of these places were super in debt and likely never had a chance, and of course when he started in the early seasons, the US had gone into a bad financial crisis. I will say I don’t think Gordon ever meant harm though. He always went in intending to help I believe. Perhaps sometimes he was wrong about his changes but, it’s water under the bridge now. It’s been 10-15 years since most of these episodes occurred, and everyone involved has moved on. As for the new Kitchen Nightmares, that’s a different topic.
Sooo wait he 1. Immediately went back to his old ways which were already proving to not work and 2. Didnt pays his TAXES and that's somehow Gordons fault? Thats a level of delulu i almost aspire to acheive
Yeah, that pescatarian segment was most definitely staged cuz reality TV, but I could imagine how even if you weren't, you'd hate to have everything taste like fish.
Considering that after the show he undid everything that was done, not a surprise he closed. He snuck out of town in the dark of night owing a hell of a lot of money.
This happened to me once, worked at a newly opening restaurant for 4 days. It was such a sh*t show I should have left the first day. I requested pay for the 4 days by call text text email and was ignored. After about 2 weeks of being ignored I posted a review on yelp and gungle straight up saying that they were withholding workers pay checks. Guess who texted me within 10 minutes?? Haha! He made me delete the review in front of him before handing me the check. Some people are just garbage lol
In all honesty, KN or not, I hope that Chappy is showing his wife the love he knows she deserves. It’s obvious she was the driving force in the place going on KN, and the way he turned to her when things went downhill shows that she’s the driving force in his life too. He married a wonderful woman, he knows it - I just hope he’s living up to what he knows she deserves of him.
@@Themfeels101 I disagree. The very brief moments we’ve seen where he drops the character of “Chappy” and is just John the man tell me that he is a good man. I don’t want them to be anything up dedicated and in love.
I like how in all these articles the owners are like “all the changes were terrible all of the regulars hated it and no one liked it at all” yet in the show they gave it like 1 day with the new changes and then immediately went back to their old crappy food. It goes to show the ego these people have they ignore all the scrutiny around them and focus in on small things that in their mind justify their actions. It’s especially apparent because once “customers started coming back in” after he changed the restaurant back all of sudden he gets arrested for tax evasion, I guess that’s Gordon’s fault too lol.
I don't know how so many restaurant owners in Kitchen Nightmares seems to view Gordon Ramsay as an amateur chef or something like.. this is far from the first time we hear the owner/chef say "Gordon Ramsay doesn't know shit" kinda thing like.. bro, Gordon's a Michelin Star Chef with decades of experience of cooking literally everything, if there's anyone who knows nothing about food, it's you. lol
I'm always excited seeing uploads from you, your videos are always perfectly done and well narrated! You should definitely look into the restaurant/bakery, "Amy's baking Company" as it's one of the best known episodes from Kitchen Nightmares. I'd love to just know what you think about them.
People are missing the point it’s a TV show; but Gordon can’t force people to do anything because it’s their business and no one wants to see people fail. So the show try’s hard to make it work. Behind the scenes the decor is talked about, the new menu, everything so Chappy new what he was getting in to. I don’t blame Gordon at all. What’s funny is he shortened the menu ( so what) doesn’t mean you can’t have a lunch and dinner special for gods sake he had 15 specials before Gordon came.
Me: *wakes up* looks at my RUclips notifications *mermaidgrove uploads a new video* Also me: WOOOO YA BABY THATS WHAT IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
I've often wondered if Kitchen Nightmares did help. They use to give restaurants whole new looks and remoldes galore. But they scaled that back and it just became an hour rip on an owner fest. Hire new staff that a restaurant on that show can't afford I'm guessing. I do think the publicity helped a failing restaurant for a time. But once that wore off not much changed and back to square one. And most closed after the show anyways
In my opinion, you don’t go on a show about revamping dying restaurants unless you want or need to revamp your restaurant. The restaurants on the show are either going to fail soon on their own or are just scraping by. Gordon doesn’t guarantee success, but he gives them a second chance. That chance only counts however, when you actually try to revamp your restaurant.
The uptick in reviews is because of Smartphones. It wouldn't be till 2007-2008 that the modern concept of a smartphone was born. But by the next decade, Chappy was already done. And given how easy it was to do so, People crushed Chappy and he gave them some use for that new gadget everyone was getting.
Tbh kitchen nightmares could help restaurant's, the restaurants in question are just in high debt, run by people with the personality and behavior of children, and tank their own reputations due to the owner and staff behavior.
My understanding is that KN gives restaurants a reset. It takes failing businesses with a 98% chance of closing. And turns it to an 80% that all restaurant have when they first start out.
How can a man who owes employees thousands of dollars, be allowed to keep opening restaurants and not face any legal issues? Im so confused.
Rules don't apply to people with money.
Welcome to the US
@emptyglass7867I mean…that’s not really something the police would be involved in unless the department investigating them requested it.
They need to sue him.
So many people blaming US law without knowing how it works 😂
Things to consider for whether or not Kitchen Nightmares helps or hurts restaurants.
1. Most restaurants were far too indebted to succeed or continue
2. Many restaurants revert to old habits
3. His success rate is near 20% or so, which is on par with most restaurants.
4. When Kitchen nightmares started and during most seasons, the US were going through/recovering from the 2008 economic collapse
5. It's rumoured some restaurant owners just wanted new equipment and a make over to increase sell on value
This.
Not to mention that, these restaurants were gonna fail without intervention so that 20% chance to succeed is better than the zero
6. Even the resturants that stayed open years after their Kitchen Nightmare appearance eventually shut down because of either Covid-19 or the owners deciding to retire.
@@Aspi3Gam3r Which, admittedly, can't be blamed on KN but is still worth noting. Basically none of the restaurants that appeared on the show are still open for one reason or another, and tbh it's impressive that 20% managed to stay open at all considering the issues they had going in.
Seriously, so many of these ingrates mismanage their business into ruin and then plead for Ramsey to come and save them, only to then blame him when he can't magically solve their own personal failings.
There's a saying, "if you wouldn't do it in your own home, don't do it elsewhere" but this show made me rephrase that to "just because you would do it in your own home, doesn't mean you should do it elsewhere"
"just because you would do it in your own home, doesn't mean you should do it elsewhere" is something to live by
Why wasn't that already a thing? There are SO MANY things that are totally okay to do in your own home, but not in public.
Yeah ive always had a problem when people in the trades say "do it like its your own house"
Like bro, idc what it looks like, thats a horrible thing to say
🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏
I can't believe how vague the comments are and how they made me think of things other than food
"Looks like Chappy took a crappy on my plate" I still remember that GR quote from that one episode😂
That was a Gordon classic. I still think of that line at odd times.
That’s a hell of a Iine, yeah
Though he Kicked someone out of Hells Kitchen for saying "Zachy Whacky" 😅
That quote lives rent free in my head 😂
It's gumbo instead of plate
Well, the question (as usual) is: If his restaurant was doing so great, served so man tables each night, had so many regulars whom all loved his food - then why was he on the show in the first place?
And all those regulars-- none of them could be convinced to show some support for him on camera?
You see they were all just waiting for them to change the menu and decor and then come back to complain about the menu and decor that’s where they went duh
“Chappy throws a bunch of ice in the water and then checks the temperature” I’m flabbergasted rn
Oh boy, I've been looking forward to you covering this one! I used to work for this lunatic, though quite some time before the show taping. Got fired and screamed at for trying to clean when I had no other job to do. Never got paid for the month I worked there, either. The day I walked past the former location and saw it was bulldozed I was pretty happy to see the place gone lol.
How was the food tho
@@thesandman2435 The one time I ate at it, it was just okay, not enough spice. I never had staff lunch there. There's always been better Cajun/Creole options in Nashville or nearby cities.
@@rocketbillyso Chappy’s complaint that Nashville residents don’t get Cajun/Creole food was complete bullshit? Why am I not surprised
@@rocketbilly Yea that was what I expected, to be honest. I was sincerely doubting Chappy when he said Nashville doesn't know good cajun food like yea right, get real dude. Not enough spice is a pretty dire statement for cajun food.
I’m glad you managed to see the place bulldozed after having such a shit experience working for Chappy. It doesn’t surprise me, though. I know that KN is scripted at certain parts but he did legit seem like a complete clown.
i think that kitchen nightmare doesn't help restaurants but not because of gordon, i think its because try as he must, at the end of the day its up to the owners to keep the restaurant going, gordon is just there to give them a ted talk so they can get their **** together. if the owners refuse to adapt that's on them.
THAT and some of these restaurants are too far gone by the time Gordon shows up.Some places are closed by the time their episode airs.
That and restaurants are a notoriously hard industry. The majority fail as it is. And Gordon was always going to actively failing restaurants that are deep in debt. The fact that any turned around is impressive
The reasons you and others have said, but ALSO the series aired 2007-2014, right in the big financial crisis. Add in all the other factors (cocky or incompetent owners, restaurants already too far gone, the innate volatility of the restaurant biz to begin with) and then put the 2008 crash on top of it, and it's a wonder any of the restaurants featured on the show survived at all.
@@zephronias Damn. You’re right.
You are way underselling the benefits Gordons expertise provides to these owners. They overhaul the kitchen and they bring in a ton of customers for the show and after duo to word soreading about the revamp. The insight Gordon gives is worth thousands on the market for business education, but this owner in particular didn't care about any of it, so he failed after the show, just as he was about to before it.
I grew up in Nashville. I remember seeing commercials for Chappy’s as a kid (like 6-7) and wanting to eat there. When I got a bit older we went near the restaurant and I remember being shocked it was closed. But I guess we dodged a bullet!
I love that the contradiction of "the clients love it" and "The clients leave upon seeing it" really shows how the "the customers liked our old menu better" is a lie that they tell themselves
i’ve heard so many of these owners say that and go after gordon. they’re deluding themselves. if they LOVED their old menus they wouldn’t be in debt
The owners don't want to go through with it so they ask the few regulars they have to vocally ask for the old menu back and "well hot damn, customers aren't happy with the new menu"
its honestly wild to me how many of these "chefs" cook meat and fish in the same pan, the same spot on the grill, etc, bc you just cant do that. like if the health inspector came in and saw that, they'd be shut down. fish is near the top of the list for allergens. im working in a restaurant for the first time ever now and i know that, a bunch of "chefs" not knowing any of that is so crazy lmaooo
that’s why i always cook fish in a pan. Then the pan goes straight to the dish room.
@@FionavanDahl oh absolutely that too. my mom is also allergic to red meat so if she ate that fish that was in the pan with steak, she'd get extremely sick. but i was saying that in just the way like servsafe would look at it and fish is one of the top allergens on their list lol
@@Lunchladydoyle absolutely how it should be done
As a chef of over 6years lemme tell ya, the health inspectors dont give a shit either if it isnt a Michelin star place
@@FionavanDahl I'm certain you know this, but just getting some awareness out. A red meat allergy (Alpha Gal Syndrome) can really only be caused by tick bites. Alpha Gal being a sugar molecule found in the tissue of nearly every mammal except Primates.
So when a tick bites a deer and has retained a high enough concentration of the molecule, it can then introduce it to human hosts.The T-Cells responsible for memorizing pathogens incidentally log Alpha Gal as such, which then causes an antibody immune response to any future detection of the molecule.
You have to metabolize some of it first, so it takes 3-6 hours or so after eating for symptoms to hit. If something like fish meat is contaminated in a kitchen pan, a sufferer wouldn't know right away. Which risks them consuming more of the A-G and having a much more severe immune reaction.
People often view a red meat allergy under the same lens as someone claiming to be gluten sensitive (*not glutin allergic*) because sometimes they get a tummy ache. Many are unaware of the disease entirely and I've seen them view it as a generational fad. But it can be really serious when the swelling response is severe enough to close airways or obscure vision. Or if the nausea and diarrhea make you dehydrated, along with the unpleasant full body hives and rash. Not fun.
Good news is while although it is heavily underreported with only 111k diagnosed out of a probable 430k cases (2011-2022), and yes over 30% of US physicians report uncertainty if they could recognize or confidentially diagnose it... Awareness is on the rise in the medical scene! Those numbers are far better than the decades previously when it was practically unknown.
And yes, while numbers show the rate of the disease appears to be on the rise (in the US), this can primarily be attributed to said awarness. It just looks like it's happening more frequently but now there's more trained medical professionals to actually realize it exists and can identify it in patients. Noted in that the increased reports are also in states with the highest tick populations where tick bites were already common.
So hopefully better treatments will be available soon! It's not a typical allergy since it has an established development. Because if I remember correctly people are still uncertain to the development of other allergies typically in youth. Environmental influence, overexposure to an allergin or maybe even underexposure to one etc...
So, for now all we've got is desensitization therapy that's very hit or miss. Maybe in 10 years we'll have something that targets those pesky T-Cells. Or something that can target the IgE cells which generates the antibodies. Heck recently, in 2019, researchers discovered two unique mechanism within A-G antibody producing IgE's that are related to the anaphylaxis response! They were distinct from other allergy induced anaphylaxis, meaning down the line they could have a treatment to inhibit that specific symptom. Just speculating but one day you could eat red meat without fear of death while your peanut butter allergy buddy is still SOL!
This became way longer than I intended! I am not a doctor nor do I have any allergies!
Local pasta place does the lunch/dinner price increase, but the difference in cost is like 3-5 dollars and they give you like an entire loaf of french bread if you order during dinner (as opposed to like 2 slices). I prefer ordering during lunch but their bread is pretty good so I don't mind ordering dinner.
Also I'm a pescatarian and yeah that's probably staged, but I would be pissed if steak grease got all over my fish too
im not allergic to fish or meat but like, i dont want my burgers tasting fishy it just seems like common sense to not put them in the same thing
A lot of places have a price difference, but usually the lunch portion is smaller
@@nyalan8385 was honestly the first time I'd ever seen it. But i won't complain, the portion of pasta is the same. They just change the amount of bread you get.
Chappy didn't even know what a pescaterian was.
Speaking of pasta, in the country where pasta comes from (Italy) almost all restaurants if they have a fixed menu of sorts increase their price for dinner. Or even holiday/weekend prices.
Some places actually add bonuses (bigger portions for example) but I've personally been to places like All You Can Eat sushi restaurants... Literally sell the same menu. No difference between lunch and dinner. Needless to say I don't go to those places for dinner anymore.
I guess from his face you can say "Chappy not happy"... I'll see myself out
If I remember correctly the pescaterian thing did actually happen, but it was cut to look more dramatic. What really happened is that Gordon found out about her being a pescaterian first, and after that he went to kitchen to check her food just to see it being cooked on same pan as meat. Basically in editing they cut it to look like things happened in different order.
They shouldn’t have edited it that way, because it looked super fake. Like the producers set it up or something.
@@amarabertelson9106thats just how they do it in the American version of this show. It's style is designed entirely in the editing room for better or worse. Mostly worse IMO because you're right, a lot of people just assume the shows are scripted because of how it's edited despite the fact it's not.
@@DeaconPain100% like tone, the editing style between the original uk version and the American one is astronomical!
I mean, they didn't show anything that didn't happen. The fact that it didn't happen in that order doesn't materially change anything other than to make it look like an amazing coincidence.
This stuff is obvious
"It was all Gordon's fault" says the man who wouldn't pay his employees or his taxes and dipped at the first chance
That’s why it closed because he owed taxes
I think the fact that he's had so many restaurants over the years that are either closed or under new owners says a lot about his skills at running the places. Particularly since he has employees he never paid and had one of said businesses shut down due to not paying taxes, but he continues to open new businesses after that.
It sounds to me like he's hopping from location to location and getting out as things fail while keeping what money he can to open up his next business. The ones that are still open but under new management are probably from the new owners buying it out from him and managing to revitalize it before it was too far gone.
This has to be illegal in some way.
@@dylanmalone14 Nope.
'People in Nashville don't understand New Orleans food.' and 'People hated the new menu, so I'm bringing back the original one.' don't mesh, if people don't like the new menu why return to a different failing one?
Just admit that you prefer your menu, even if it makes your business harder.
If his business wasn't struggling, then he wouldn't need to reach out to Gordon Ramsay.
He's full of it. Man's really delusional. No wonder he's dodging paying off his ex employees.
Here's a crazy idea: if you want to run a successful restaurant, make what your customers want, not what you want.
“How is he able to afford to keep opening all these restaurants?”
By not paying his workers or his taxes.
How is he not arrested then ?
@@guilhermehank4938These people don’t have the time or money to take him to court. It would probably cost more to sue him than what they would get as a settlement.
legit the best way to start off the new year, i love this.
True.
what’s wild to me about the majority of these episodes is that the kitchens are that nasty. i work during the fall in a snack bar at a pumpkin patch (mind you EVERYONE working in there is around 16-22 or so) and our kitchen is way cleaner than most of these. the fact that even teenagers have higher standards than a lot of adults in the food industry is terrifying.
I worked at Mcdonalds, ok fancy/fine dining no, but you still serve food and need to maintain a clean store and so on.
I am in New Zealand so heath inspector wise its a bit different to the us/uk etc, but the inspectors came to the store unannounced once or twice a year ish, they checked the cleaning side of things, cross contamination, food been store and cooked properly, all relevant checks done correctly and so on.
Its a points based system mainly, if you score over a set amount your all good till the next visit unless something happens before then, some things may need to be fixed so you get so many days to do so then they come back and check. Any thing under a set score or anything really bad (idk what exactly) they have the power to close you down either temp or permanently
I remember not knowing what "pescitarian" meant before watching Kitchen Nightmares, but the difference between me and Chappy is that I don't own a restaurant or sell food to people.
I've been to the Pier House a couple of times, and I liked it a lot.
Absolutely shocking to me how many people don’t know the difference between a vegetarian, vegan, and pescatarian. It’s surface-level Real Life lore.
@@WASDLeftClick I would imagine most people don't bother to learn all about diets that they don't adhere to because it's not relevant to them in their day to day lives, or in their own kitchen.
@@thatvalensteingirl Tbf, I can understand if someone doesn't know what a pescatarian is, or the differences between vegan and vegetarian, but you really don't need to not all about a lot diet, but some are kinda just basic knowledge. Like just because fish is in the water doesn't mean it's not meat, cheese/milk has lactose (milk is in butter), soda/sweet tea/ etc has water in it. That part is more shocking that you have to tell grown adults a lot of those facts.
@@thatvalensteingirl I'm probably biased because cooking is a passion for me and a career, so I have to know a lot about different dietary restrictions and allergies as part of my job and just because I find it interesting. But still, it's not exactly complicated.
Vegetarians: Will not eat meat or fish, or generally consume anything that requires the death of an animal to make. As such, dairy products and eggs are okay.
Vegans: Not willing to consume anything made from any animal products at all. Just plants and fungi, no milk or eggs.
Pescatarian: The same as a vegetarian except they are willing to consume fish and shellfish.
I also have been to Pier House several times but I had no idea there was a kitchen nightmares episode about his old restaurant before I watched this video. I have spoken to Chappy a couple times while at Pier house and he seemed like a really good guy to me food was great but a little expensive, I go there every couple months.
The crazy part is this Chappy wacko is still running restaurants. And there are good reviews but I suspect he paid for them. Lol.
There are always people with bad taste. IMHO every restaurant in my home town is shit enough to be on kitchen nightmares, but people give them 5 stars online out of some duty of "local pride".
yeah there always could be biased/bot accounts sometimes
I was going to say "What a way to start off the year" but a few beat me to it.
Thanks for the new content
Chappy 100% made Gordon wait as a show of dominance
It's hard to convince Gordon that ppl in Tennessee or anywhere else in the US "just don't appreciate authentic new Orleans cuisine" when a fuckin *soul food* restaurant has some kickass food n became successful in *Britain*
Brit here! in general, especially in large cities with a sizeable immigrant population, us brits are pretty big fans of soul food, and food of African and Caribbean origins.
There is nothing like getting a big plate of food knowing that it was made with love and care, at least that’s what I feel when I make or order food like this.
@@melodiclogic9904 woah, I had no idea it was that prevalent. Thank you for the insight. Food made with love is the best spice
@@paintscroll yeah there’s this idea that all British people eat jellied eels and idk like spotted dick on the daily on Continental Europe and beyond but our food now is actually pretty good! A lot of our cuisine has been influenced by immigration, and we’re all the better for it! Our national dish is actually Chicken Tikka Masala, which is a curry (and a pretty great one at that).
Just look at when Gordon went to Momma Cheri's in England! He loved the food and the locals eventually did too!
EDIT: ahhhhhhh I misread your comment, sorry
@delusion5867 You just reminded me Mamma Cheri has/had a RUclips channel. I wonder if she’s still active?
If he was doing 200 tables a night, he'd never have called KN in the first place....
Even if the customer wasn't a pescetarian, fish is like RIGHT AT THE TOP of the most common allergy list! There is a really good chance that your customer could be allergic to the fish you just cooked their steak next to!! The fact he doesn't even care that he could possibly kill someone and get arrested baffles me! My family owned a restaurant and my grandfather was the chef (an actual, professionally trained REAL chef, not just a job title like it is in America), and he was meticulous with his cleanliness and avoiding cross-contamination.
i remember this episode. i always thought that his wife is so out of his league. she is so elegant ❤
That coupled with the number of restaurants he's been able to open, and with him being such a scumbag, one can only assume Chappy is loaded.
Gordon is a chef. He can fix a restaurant, but he can't fix a person. I think Chappy just went for the "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" until he got Pier House. I mean, congrats to him, but I really do hope he took at least a few notes from KN and doesn't leave his kitchens unsanitary.
The two things I remembered from the Chappy episode was the decor and "It looks like Chappy took a crappy on my plate."
I remember seeing clips from kitchen nightmares of chappy's restaurant that food looked gross including the fridge was disgusting
The thing that's so great about Kitchen Nightmares and horrible about actually working in restaurants is that these guys really will get reasonable advice that's easier and more profitable from a trusted source and STILL refuse to change anything. There's ego in every profession and idiots all over the place, but I think people underestimate just how prevalent it is in the restaurant industry.
I manage a kitchen at a senior living community, REALLY simple stuff, but it's an exclusive club in a wealthy area so we pay our cooks crazy good. My boss sent some older guys down the pipeline with executive chef and chef/owner on their resume from like 2004-2010, and they come in to do a "cooking demo", basically just a piece of filet mignon, salmon, some baby carrots, and some fingerling potatoes just to prove they know how to cook. This guy in his late 40s/early 50s who claims to have been an executive chef at a huge hotel and later on owned his own place literally served me simultaneously raw and burnt steak, torn up raw fish, hard potatoes, and hard carrots. I didn't even know what to say so I just told him it was a little undercooked but overall good (just get this guy out of here), and he got so defensive at that little bit of criticism that I had to basically retract my comment. He then went on to make inappropriate comments about girls he used to work with.
This man was expecting to get paid $30/hour! :)
Yeah the Ego in the industry is absolutely insane. (Also Chef here). One of my previous Chefs (I think he's retired now) was one of those individuals. He tried to be "a friend" with you but he's also that guy that comes over to the place to "check if everything allright". And if you are doing Polenta and add some leftover Mascarpone that you don't wanna throw away, then he climbed the wall up for no particular reason but to powerplay his Ego.
"He then went on to make inappropriate comments about girls he used to work with." WTF?
I really hope you told him to get the heck out. I would have. I hate people like that.
Really important to note that the article that was confirming Chappy's views and attacking Ramsay is from the National Enquirer, a garbage-tier tabloid that has a LONG history of not caring about fact in the slightest and placing sensationalism above all else.
i do have to say seeing the new menu i immediately went "that doesnt seem like New Orleans style food"
ramsay has a big flaw in that a lot of his menu changes end up being... basically the same thing for every place.
Something important to remember about yelp reviews is that they're (in general) better than what the actual experience is.
People who leave reviews are much more likely to do so if the experience was kinda good than kinda bad. If the experience is truly a 3 or 4 out of 10, people are much more likely to simply just not come back. If a negative review is left, it's normally because of something truly terrible or uniquely bad. That's why if you look, almost every restaurant will have more 1 star reviews than 2 no matter how good the overall average review is.
Tbh this is a good thing to remember about any kind of review system
I love reading bad reviews on Google for fun. But when scoping a place out I Usually look to see if they all have similar mentions of problems, but it can be seen quickly if the person is clearly being complicated or when a whole party has a bad experience and then they all do a bad review saying the same thing X12.
Very true. Customers would rather leave a review with their absence than leave an actual review
My friend was actually in this episode! She had a small complaint but the crew needed her to make a more exaggerated face.
I love your videos, man. I don't know if you do requests, but could you do the infamous grilled lettuce episode? Would love to hear your thoughts and see if there are any updates
That episode taught what “pillock” meant.
Here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with grilled lettuce. In fact, Gordon himself has a RECIPE on ROASTING lettuce! Look it up.
It's absurd.
There were many egregious things in that episode, but grilled lettuce is not one of them.
@@nobleactual7693 lolll I think he was playing up the grilled lettuce thing just because some people didn't know it was a thing, I think the egregious part was that the lettuce itself wasn't clean and it didn't taste right
@@michanforever Having the butt of the lettuce still there, which indicates it isn't properly cleaned, is one thing, and it is a valid criticism.
Lampooning them for GRILLING the lettuce, when Ramsay does the same thing, is another thing entirely.
@@nobleactual7693Agreed. I love Ramsay but he can be a tad bit of a hypocrite with some of his comments occasionally.
So the one thing I can accept is having a slight price increase of the fish if it is freshly caught.
However to me it makes more sense to do it in reverse: have it cost more in Lunch because the fish is more fresh and then sell it off in Dinner.
Some restaurants will make lunch prices cheaper than dinner one to encourage a portion of the customers to come earlier at times they wouldn’t otherwise have much business
I go to restraints that have small price increases for dinner specifically, for instance during dinner they add on the menu a bacon burger for an extra £2 but it'll be basically £1 for a piece of bacon, not worth it tho the food tastes amazing, but thats still 100x more acceptable then chappys stuff
what a way to start the year
?
@@thevexoffender8197 somebody doesn't get it eh?
I mean, it does kinda seem like Gordon didn't even try to address the actual problems here (chappy's sloppiness and attitude) and instead just stripped the restaurant of it's character (as tacky as it was) and left it a bland burger joint, so it definitely doesn't seem like he did anything to help 🤷
Honestly, out of all the KN owners, Chappy is the one that really pissed me off the most: Ontop of being so full of himself, the man proceeded to blame everything on Gordon despite a huge factor in his businesses failing was because of _his own ego._ And while yes Gordon isn''t perfect and such and his show doesn't always help the businesses, the owner's attitude and how they run their restaurant also plays a factor in it. And the fact that bearded jerk ran off without paying anybody really makes it clear his restuaraunt failed not because of GR, but because he refused to change.
i question the success of chappy's 1st restaurant just some of the things he was doing in the 2nd one that gordan visited makes me think that either he was lying about the success or the people he served had zero standards lol
If he was in a busy part of New Orleans I suspect a lot of those customers were tourists and not repeat customers. If there's like 100 of the same restaurant I'd just go wherever and figure it's all pretty much the same. And I'd be wrong as I'm sure many of his diners were lol
El Chappy
If it was old people with no taste buds then it's possible
I will say that Gordon did kill the identity of the place, it’s a Cajun restaurant, and he took the Cajun food and decor out, even if you don’t like the menu at least get other Cajun stuff
I agree. Tacky old Mardi Gras memorabilia is very common in the French Quarter, and the wait staff white shirt and black bow tie would fit in Acme Oyster House.
One thing I'm not too crazy about with the Kitchen Nightmare routine is the redecorating. If the kitchen is really dirty and stuff seems broken then yeah. But not every restaurant needs to be turned into a plain one.
I'm also 50/50 on the menu revamps.
@@Rebelrose I think sometimes it depends how deep in debt they are, they’re trying to sell stuff off and then make the menu high margin stuff, the places way deeper in debt need to sell the decor more desperately and sell the highest margin food with the smallest menu
@@monferno1 It's really circumstantial. I think the one time I really liked the decor changing was for one of the pizza places. I feel bad for forgetting the name but it went from a plane restaurant to a nice Italian looking one
@@Rebelrose for sure, super dependent on the behind the scenes stuff
"It was truly a kitchen nightmare for me" is the hardest line ever written
I got my Chappy's episode and I wasn't disappointed, the lord has blessed me
"how the hell is he able to afford to keep opening all these restaraunts?"
By not paying Taxex.
I believe Chappy is full of crappy. The fact that he owes his ex employees money just shows what kind of heinous person he is and I believe he is lying about Kitchen Nightmares ruining his business. They called Kitchen Nightmares for help, so obviously they had very few customers coming in. In addition, the tax office do not seize businesses as soon as you miss a payment, it takes a long time before they do that.
That is strange that he found that one person 😂
We all know some of the show is scripted.
@@endymallorn oh yes of course no secret there
I imagine he used a pescatarian as an example knowing there was one in the restaurant - otherwise why wouldn't he use seafood allergies as the example?
I'm so glad you did this because all of my life chappys had been closed. I am today years old finding out about this! I used to always walk down church heading to the bars and would always wonder about chappys! They've since torn it down and it's a vacant lot now
I don’t real,y understand why If he wanted to stay in New Orleans, why not find another place there to open? Was he worried about another hurricane ?
Chappy is used to drunk tourists eating his food. Single use customers in New Orleans. That isnt the case in Nashville.
charging less for the same dishes during lunch is a really common tactic to influence customer patterns, encouraging people to come earlier in the day when the restaurant would otherwise have less business
Of course, but over tripling the cost without a portion change is a bit wild.
@@sestomolesto oh I'm not defending that in the slightest, I think the most I've seen elsewhere is a 50% increase
Usually I would think you would offer smaller portions and some different lighter dishes for lunch.
@@WASDLeftClick I hardly ever see that, and honestly it doesn't actually make as much sense as you might think from the perspective of the business. Logistically it's easier and simpler to just make the same meal instead of having it differently, and the cost of ingredients is generally not a tremendous portion of the cost of the dish. If you're making fried rice or something, it doesn't cook any quicker or easier if you make less rice, if anything it might come out differently.
Plus, there's the entire point behind this that if you're charging less money for a smaller portion, you're not really encouraging people to come earlier, you're just... offering a smaller portion but only at a certain time.
@@Fenrakk101 Idk. I'm actually pretty experienced working back of house at a restaurant. In fact I'm the kitchen manager at my current place of employment. However, my experience somewhat lacks places that would charge reduced prices at lunch, since most of my experience has to do with restaurants that are open for breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner with no price change.
Generally speaking though I expect people to want a small lunch without different courses like they would with dinner, since lunch is typically a light meal you have quickly before getting back to whatever it was you were doing.
20:00 That is definitely chappy's alt account. You cannot convince me that that's not chappy
It’s amazing how many peoples egos kill their own success. Definitely seems to be the case with chappy. Good-he deserves it. I can’t stand people who can’t take any accountability, lie, and place blame on anyone but themselves.
I don't think I'll ever not be interested in Kitchen Nightmares content lmao
You can have the best mechanic in the world work on a completely rusted-out car, and have it run and drive. But if the owner of the car doesn't work on the body of the car, it's gonna snap in two.
poor gordon, this is like trying to help a homeless person get back on their feet in life, but for some reason they wont stop punching you the whole time
Or doin drugs
90% of Kitchen Nightmares is usually just Gordon telling them to use Fresh Ingredients, not Frozen and even after that stunning revelation 80% of them go under because what they really needed was a team of Expert Accountants, not a Michelin Star Chef.
The most memorable thing for me from this episode is the facelifts on the wife haha.
This was definitely an episode I was looking forward to you covering. I will say- regardless of the truth of this episode, Chappy seems to be doing good for himself now, so if he is doing great - props to him.
As for the rest- I always say that people saying Kitchen Nightmares didn’t have a high success rate often don’t think about additional factors. Most of these places were super in debt and likely never had a chance, and of course when he started in the early seasons, the US had gone into a bad financial crisis.
I will say I don’t think Gordon ever meant harm though. He always went in intending to help I believe. Perhaps sometimes he was wrong about his changes but, it’s water under the bridge now. It’s been 10-15 years since most of these episodes occurred, and everyone involved has moved on. As for the new Kitchen Nightmares, that’s a different topic.
With that cliché chef getup. I can't unsee Chef Antoine from Dead Rising 2
Best way to start off the new year! I love your videos. Keep up the great work!
Sooo wait he 1. Immediately went back to his old ways which were already proving to not work and 2. Didnt pays his TAXES and that's somehow Gordons fault? Thats a level of delulu i almost aspire to acheive
Yeah, that pescatarian segment was most definitely staged cuz reality TV, but I could imagine how even if you weren't, you'd hate to have everything taste like fish.
I live near nashville
Chappy is an ignorant dick and don't doubt he'd do something like that at all.
Considering that after the show he undid everything that was done, not a surprise he closed. He snuck out of town in the dark of night owing a hell of a lot of money.
PLEASE do La Galleria!!! those two sisters were hilarious
I'm pretty sure cooking fries once then freezing them and cooking them again is how you get the best fries. Cooking them from frozen
Idk about freezing em, but letting em just cool before frying again definitely makes the best fries ever.
How has he not been charged/arrested/put in jail for failure to pay his employees?
Why would anyone eat there once they see film of how he keeps his kitchen and fridge. That level of negligence doesn't just change
I wanna see proof that his first restaurant was doing so great. Have a feeling that it wasn't really the hurricane that shut him down.
When people don't get paid after 2 weeks, I'd be gone. I can't work for free waiting for someone to pay me.
This happened to me once, worked at a newly opening restaurant for 4 days. It was such a sh*t show I should have left the first day. I requested pay for the 4 days by call text text email and was ignored. After about 2 weeks of being ignored I posted a review on yelp and gungle straight up saying that they were withholding workers pay checks. Guess who texted me within 10 minutes?? Haha! He made me delete the review in front of him before handing me the check. Some people are just garbage lol
Please do Amy's Baking Company bro, we NEED that episode covered
In all honesty, KN or not, I hope that Chappy is showing his wife the love he knows she deserves. It’s obvious she was the driving force in the place going on KN, and the way he turned to her when things went downhill shows that she’s the driving force in his life too. He married a wonderful woman, he knows it - I just hope he’s living up to what he knows she deserves of him.
I hope she left him. She deserved better.
@@Themfeels101 I disagree. The very brief moments we’ve seen where he drops the character of “Chappy” and is just John the man tell me that he is a good man. I don’t want them to be anything up dedicated and in love.
@endymallorn she 100% left that ol' geezer
I hope Chappys not clapping those cheeks any longer.
This is a great video! I've never seen one that covered the "is it still open" world, with this much research and detail.
I like how in all these articles the owners are like “all the changes were terrible all of the regulars hated it and no one liked it at all” yet in the show they gave it like 1 day with the new changes and then immediately went back to their old crappy food. It goes to show the ego these people have they ignore all the scrutiny around them and focus in on small things that in their mind justify their actions. It’s especially apparent because once “customers started coming back in” after he changed the restaurant back all of sudden he gets arrested for tax evasion, I guess that’s Gordon’s fault too lol.
almost 100k! No shot, when i see you post i get myself all nice and settled with dinner before popping on the video. always a treat
I don't know how so many restaurant owners in Kitchen Nightmares seems to view Gordon Ramsay as an amateur chef or something like.. this is far from the first time we hear the owner/chef say "Gordon Ramsay doesn't know shit" kinda thing like.. bro, Gordon's a Michelin Star Chef with decades of experience of cooking literally everything, if there's anyone who knows nothing about food, it's you. lol
I'm always excited seeing uploads from you, your videos are always perfectly done and well narrated! You should definitely look into the restaurant/bakery, "Amy's baking Company" as it's one of the best known episodes from Kitchen Nightmares. I'd love to just know what you think about them.
People are missing the point it’s a TV show; but Gordon can’t force people to do anything because it’s their business and no one wants to see people fail. So the show try’s hard to make it work. Behind the scenes the decor is talked about, the new menu, everything so Chappy new what he was getting in to. I don’t blame Gordon at all. What’s funny is he shortened the menu ( so what) doesn’t mean you can’t have a lunch and dinner special for gods sake he had 15 specials before Gordon came.
Me: *wakes up* looks at my RUclips notifications *mermaidgrove uploads a new video*
Also me: WOOOO YA BABY THATS WHAT IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
I've often wondered if Kitchen Nightmares did help. They use to give restaurants whole new looks and remoldes galore. But they scaled that back and it just became an hour rip on an owner fest. Hire new staff that a restaurant on that show can't afford I'm guessing. I do think the publicity helped a failing restaurant for a time. But once that wore off not much changed and back to square one. And most closed after the show anyways
I remember living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Chappy' in was the place to in Gulfport. It was the fancy place to go!
In my opinion, you don’t go on a show about revamping dying restaurants unless you want or need to revamp your restaurant. The restaurants on the show are either going to fail soon on their own or are just scraping by. Gordon doesn’t guarantee success, but he gives them a second chance. That chance only counts however, when you actually try to revamp your restaurant.
It's like I'm listening to Norm Macdonald review Kitchen Nightmares episodes and it's hilarious af
I really like how in-depth this video went
Ok...but what was wrong with the pepper pants. I have tobasco chef pants and cooked at some decent places. Nobody once told me I couldn't wear them.
Chappy’s ability to manage a bunch of businesses after kitchen nightmares has to be studied.
manage?
If he managed them, they wouldnt be so quick to fail
The uptick in reviews is because of Smartphones. It wouldn't be till 2007-2008 that the modern concept of a smartphone was born. But by the next decade, Chappy was already done. And given how easy it was to do so, People crushed Chappy and he gave them some use for that new gadget everyone was getting.
Yes! I was waiting for an explanation on what happened to this restaurant!
Gordon was so savage in this episode he literally killed the cooking career for chappy after all the insult Gordon made to him 😂😂😂
Tbh kitchen nightmares could help restaurant's, the restaurants in question are just in high debt, run by people with the personality and behavior of children, and tank their own reputations due to the owner and staff behavior.
This year is blessed
I really can't imagine the bit with the Pescatarian lady NOT being scripted, sorry. It really seems too obvious
Waiting for Mermaid Grove to do an episode on Amy’s Baking Company, is like waiting for Infinity war or Endgame.
Chappy definitely looks like that psychopath chef from death rising 2 videogame 😂
A new MermaidGrove video to start off 2024? I'm honoured.
thank you mermaidgrove!! I love these uploads!! excited for what you bring in 2024 :3
Happy New Year! Thanks for the video. 😁
Wow, haha, what’re the odds that you post a video on the one year anniversary of me watching your channel xD thank you for your content
My understanding is that KN gives restaurants a reset. It takes failing businesses with a 98% chance of closing. And turns it to an 80% that all restaurant have when they first start out.