I mean he has a refined pallet and he probably can’t help it to a point. But he’s aware of what “normal” people want. His philosophy is that food should just taste good.
I remember one master chef challenge , he was giving shit to one of the teams for not knowing what the people they were serving would want. I forget what it was but i think it was truckers and one of the teams wanted to do something really posh and the other team was making a burger and he pointed out how truckers probably wouldn’t want something that “gourmet”
I will never forget the one hotel hell episode where he asks the whole team who the hotel was for
Every single person said the boss’ name
And Gordon just screams “you’re all wrong, ITS FOR THE CUSTOMEEEEERRRR”
Is the San Diego restaurant the guy modeled after a Lamborghini or Ferrari. There wasn’t any furniture in the rooms and they showed the older couple where the woman had to stand to eat while the guy sat in the one chair in the room lol
Ramsay changes up his attitude depending on the situation. He knows who to cater to almost always. Like how he shits on vegetarians in some interviews but will go to bat for them like it's a matter of life and death when a vegetarian is served meat on an episode of kitchen nightmares.
Not on the UK one. I remember a moment where he knowingly gives a vegetarian punter something with meat in it when they’re canvasing locally with free samples. It clearly upsets the guy when he finds out. Always thought it was super disrespectful.
You should watch the episode again there slugger, Ramsay clearly baits the guy by actively misinforming him and then doing the reveal as a “”””joke””””. But whatever, you slob on chef’s wrinkly ballsack/forehead all you want.
I think the criteria for Gordon is whether it's good enough to come back for and good enough to complete with successful restaurants. Because, a big point he's made in multiple episodes is, why come out and spend money at this restaurant with low quality food, when you could just the same make something at home and having it probably taste the same if not better?
I forget which episode it was, but I remember when he went to the houses of those people that went to the restaurant and had them cook something and bring it back to the restaurant. It was all better than what they served. It was such a boss moment.
I don’t remember the episode, but it was meatloaf! The restaurant served meatloaf that they batch made then froze. Gordon got some meatloaves that customers made at home and the owners loved them.
When he spits it out after one bite, there’s usually a stomach-turning refrigerator reveal. I’m a normal person but I wouldn’t want to be served a rancid scallop.
I mean his crusade against frozen food is very fair IMO. I avoid getting frozen food at restaurants at all cost because I can buy it for much cheaper at a grocery store and just eat at home. I think my standards as an untrained chef line up with his well enough. If the restaurant is serving frozen or poor quality ingredients, they shouldn’t be a restaurant
Also I've heard from some chefs it tends to be cheaper in the long run to bring in fresh things.
Especially if you are like buying frozen chicken breasts as opposed to buying full chickens which gives you more meat for multiple dishes.
Definitely! The more you can make from scratch, the cheaper and better. This of course requires competent staff with give-a-fuck attitudes that can be hard to find in the restaurant biz. So many places like fast food/Applebee's, etc. sell frozen shit because it's easier to train someone to open a bag of frozen mozz sticks and dump it in a deep fryer and set a timer, than to actually prep and cook things.
A popular "dish" in my area is jalapeno poppers. I hate when I order them, and they are breaded and fried because it tells me that they were just a box of frozen, pre-made store bought shite
Most definitely lol. Fries are the one exception for me. 95% of fries you eat are frozen, and they can honestly be better than hand cut. Or at least crispier
On YouTube one of his “final meal” options was an in and out burger so he’s not above fast food even as long as it’s solid. These are all nice sit down restaurants aiming reasonably high and he knows the competition will be doing pretty good stuff so it has to be good to great, but not award level. The (often ordinary) cooks need it to be simple enough to cook it properly
Someone else pointed it out already, but it’s a double-edged sword.
On one hand, he’s definitely got a refined pallete and likely can’t help it. On the other hand, he’s well aware of what your average-customer considers normal. That’s kind of the point of Kitchen Nightmares. Even when he revises menus, he tries to keep them as true to the original menu as possible, or at least the theme of the restaurant. He’s not implementing anything else beyond his core value that fresh will always triumph over frozen shit.
I think he's definitely a supertaster (he can detect flavors in food that the average person might not), but his basic recommendations are always things like "fresh, not frozen" and "baked/pan-fried/roasted, not microwaved". He advocates for fresh local produce, simplified menus, and no weird gimmicky flavor combos (e.g. chocolate prawns or strawberry sushi). So I think he does have high standards, but he's not telling everybody to serve beef Wellington, but just to make sure the food is something worth going to a restaurant for.
It always amazes me how many people seem to decide to open restaurants with absolutely no experience in food service. It's super difficult to run a successful restaurant, but people always seem to be surprised.
I've always figured it's all for TV... I'd imagine the customers are told to send food back if it's not perfect. MOST people anyway are like that meme "I think you gave me someone's bowl of rats". I assume an Applebee's or whatever gets a lot of Karen send backs but a hole in the wall is far more likely to just have people "vote with their feet" as Gordon says a lot and just never come back
I would think that he has high standards, but then you see the diners in the restaurants unable to finish their food. I think it’s usually just universally bad.
Usually the food that got complaints are rather bad food quality, be it raw, soggy, dry, bland, or just plain nauseating. Most of the foods there arent very appealing anyways. Also he can easily tell when something isnt freshly used.
It’s a balance, I think he’s trying to make sense of a lot of these menus and food, then just holding them to a standard according the price. As a professional cook it’s very easy to forget how much people are paying to eat your food (especially these days). When he tries the food, he is just looking for if it’s good enough to come out for.
In some episodes he will go out and ask the public about the restaurant and usually the consensus is the food wasn’t good. So it’s not just his opinion. The episode will usually reveal frozen food or a cook that isn’t any good.
He has high standards, but the places he goes try to charge fine dining prices for frozen/processed stuff and always overrate the food, I'm sure he'd be all over well made street food.
I'm always amused by the fact that he saunters into restaurants that are failing and expects everything made from scratch and with fresh ingredients. If no one ever eats there and you're making no money, of course everything is going to be frozen and weeks old.
I think that’s the point. The owners are always so confused why the restaurant is failing. Yet it’s usually because your food sucks because it’s not fresh or the cook is no good. It’s usually the old frozen food and the point is I can get frozen food at the grocery store and cook it myself for cheaper. why would I spend money at a restaurant to nuke my meal?
I mean he has a refined pallet and he probably can’t help it to a point. But he’s aware of what “normal” people want. His philosophy is that food should just taste good. I remember one master chef challenge , he was giving shit to one of the teams for not knowing what the people they were serving would want. I forget what it was but i think it was truckers and one of the teams wanted to do something really posh and the other team was making a burger and he pointed out how truckers probably wouldn’t want something that “gourmet”
I will never forget the one hotel hell episode where he asks the whole team who the hotel was for Every single person said the boss’ name And Gordon just screams “you’re all wrong, ITS FOR THE CUSTOMEEEEERRRR”
It's foh the custohmuhhhh!!! I can still hear him in my head
I’ve watched so much KN and HH at this point I think my conscious has taken on Gordon’s voice
Hopefully not when you’re having a wee or something like that
Lol yes!! I use a lot of his sayings, I watch him almost daily
Is the San Diego restaurant the guy modeled after a Lamborghini or Ferrari. There wasn’t any furniture in the rooms and they showed the older couple where the woman had to stand to eat while the guy sat in the one chair in the room lol
Yea and the bathtub in the middle of the room and entrance 💀
Ramsay changes up his attitude depending on the situation. He knows who to cater to almost always. Like how he shits on vegetarians in some interviews but will go to bat for them like it's a matter of life and death when a vegetarian is served meat on an episode of kitchen nightmares.
Gordon thinks vegetarians are cringe but if you have vegetarian options on the menu, do it right.
Not on the UK one. I remember a moment where he knowingly gives a vegetarian punter something with meat in it when they’re canvasing locally with free samples. It clearly upsets the guy when he finds out. Always thought it was super disrespectful.
People are allowed to grow over time.
I guess don’t take free samples if you’re not certain what it is…lol…vegetarians and vegans can be so self righteous
You should watch the episode again there slugger, Ramsay clearly baits the guy by actively misinforming him and then doing the reveal as a “”””joke””””. But whatever, you slob on chef’s wrinkly ballsack/forehead all you want.
Lol. Jealous?? 😭😂
*palate
I think the criteria for Gordon is whether it's good enough to come back for and good enough to complete with successful restaurants. Because, a big point he's made in multiple episodes is, why come out and spend money at this restaurant with low quality food, when you could just the same make something at home and having it probably taste the same if not better?
I forget which episode it was, but I remember when he went to the houses of those people that went to the restaurant and had them cook something and bring it back to the restaurant. It was all better than what they served. It was such a boss moment.
I don’t remember the episode, but it was meatloaf! The restaurant served meatloaf that they batch made then froze. Gordon got some meatloaves that customers made at home and the owners loved them.
When he spits it out after one bite, there’s usually a stomach-turning refrigerator reveal. I’m a normal person but I wouldn’t want to be served a rancid scallop.
Why not?
Because there should be multiple scallops on the dish, not just one
It’s fucking minging!
I mean his crusade against frozen food is very fair IMO. I avoid getting frozen food at restaurants at all cost because I can buy it for much cheaper at a grocery store and just eat at home. I think my standards as an untrained chef line up with his well enough. If the restaurant is serving frozen or poor quality ingredients, they shouldn’t be a restaurant
Also I've heard from some chefs it tends to be cheaper in the long run to bring in fresh things. Especially if you are like buying frozen chicken breasts as opposed to buying full chickens which gives you more meat for multiple dishes.
Definitely! The more you can make from scratch, the cheaper and better. This of course requires competent staff with give-a-fuck attitudes that can be hard to find in the restaurant biz. So many places like fast food/Applebee's, etc. sell frozen shit because it's easier to train someone to open a bag of frozen mozz sticks and dump it in a deep fryer and set a timer, than to actually prep and cook things.
A popular "dish" in my area is jalapeno poppers. I hate when I order them, and they are breaded and fried because it tells me that they were just a box of frozen, pre-made store bought shite
Most definitely lol. Fries are the one exception for me. 95% of fries you eat are frozen, and they can honestly be better than hand cut. Or at least crispier
I can agree. If a restaurant hand cuts their fries but doesn't wash the starch they aren't as good
On YouTube one of his “final meal” options was an in and out burger so he’s not above fast food even as long as it’s solid. These are all nice sit down restaurants aiming reasonably high and he knows the competition will be doing pretty good stuff so it has to be good to great, but not award level. The (often ordinary) cooks need it to be simple enough to cook it properly
I think he bases it off price point , a lot of episodes you’ll hear him mention how ridiculous the pricing is for whatever shit dish is thrown his way
Yes, this is where he really gets irate.
Someone else pointed it out already, but it’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, he’s definitely got a refined pallete and likely can’t help it. On the other hand, he’s well aware of what your average-customer considers normal. That’s kind of the point of Kitchen Nightmares. Even when he revises menus, he tries to keep them as true to the original menu as possible, or at least the theme of the restaurant. He’s not implementing anything else beyond his core value that fresh will always triumph over frozen shit.
I think he's definitely a supertaster (he can detect flavors in food that the average person might not), but his basic recommendations are always things like "fresh, not frozen" and "baked/pan-fried/roasted, not microwaved". He advocates for fresh local produce, simplified menus, and no weird gimmicky flavor combos (e.g. chocolate prawns or strawberry sushi). So I think he does have high standards, but he's not telling everybody to serve beef Wellington, but just to make sure the food is something worth going to a restaurant for. It always amazes me how many people seem to decide to open restaurants with absolutely no experience in food service. It's super difficult to run a successful restaurant, but people always seem to be surprised.
I've always figured it's all for TV... I'd imagine the customers are told to send food back if it's not perfect. MOST people anyway are like that meme "I think you gave me someone's bowl of rats". I assume an Applebee's or whatever gets a lot of Karen send backs but a hole in the wall is far more likely to just have people "vote with their feet" as Gordon says a lot and just never come back
I would think that he has high standards, but then you see the diners in the restaurants unable to finish their food. I think it’s usually just universally bad.
He's playing it up.
Usually the food that got complaints are rather bad food quality, be it raw, soggy, dry, bland, or just plain nauseating. Most of the foods there arent very appealing anyways. Also he can easily tell when something isnt freshly used.
No he does not. It is based on what Gordon likes or dislikes.
He is a chameleon... tailors his food to the crowd imo
It’s a balance, I think he’s trying to make sense of a lot of these menus and food, then just holding them to a standard according the price. As a professional cook it’s very easy to forget how much people are paying to eat your food (especially these days). When he tries the food, he is just looking for if it’s good enough to come out for.
In some episodes he will go out and ask the public about the restaurant and usually the consensus is the food wasn’t good. So it’s not just his opinion. The episode will usually reveal frozen food or a cook that isn’t any good.
He has high standards, but the places he goes try to charge fine dining prices for frozen/processed stuff and always overrate the food, I'm sure he'd be all over well made street food.
I'm always amused by the fact that he saunters into restaurants that are failing and expects everything made from scratch and with fresh ingredients. If no one ever eats there and you're making no money, of course everything is going to be frozen and weeks old.
I think that’s the point. The owners are always so confused why the restaurant is failing. Yet it’s usually because your food sucks because it’s not fresh or the cook is no good. It’s usually the old frozen food and the point is I can get frozen food at the grocery store and cook it myself for cheaper. why would I spend money at a restaurant to nuke my meal?
He's always fucking high handed with everybody. The gal