Kitchen Nightmares, Season 2, Episode 2: Giuseppe’s

Welcome to the second episode in the second season of Kitchen Nightmares. This is the show where professional chef and entertainer, Gordon Ramsay, drops in on various failing restaurants across the United States and shows them how to shape up and fix all of their problems. He leaves them with a high class menu, better cooks, and hopefully a legacy of success.

Tonight we find ourselves in the township of Macomb, 30 miles north of Detroit, Michigan. The restaurant tonight is Giuseppe’s, a family-owned Italian place on the verge of collapse. The owners, Joe and his wife Kathy, have owned several successful restaurants in the span of twenty years, but for some reason this one isn’t doing well. This is the first restaurant that they have owned since retiring, and they were hoping to leave it to their son Sam, who also happens to be a chef in the kitchen.

Sam appears to be the problem, as he doesn’t seem particularly eager to put in all the hard work that is needed to run a restaurant. Brian, the sous chef, agrees. He notes that Joe is getting to the point where maybe he can’t run a restaurant, and Sam is not stepping up to the plate. If they don’t have someone swoop in and help them soon, all will be lost.

Luckily, this is the cue for Gordon Ramsay to swoop in and save the day. He helpfully points out what we already know, namely that the father and son need to iron out their differences.

Kathy picks up Ramsay at the airport or bus station or whatever, and drives him to the restaurant. She explains the problems and says that if her son and husband cannot get along, the family might break up. Her house is in foreclosure, and she owes over $150,000. She starts to cry. Kathy then tells the cameras that to fix this restaurant won’t be as simple as a menu change or firing somebody.

She’s probably right, but that probably won’t stop Gordon Ramsay from doing those things anyway, since that is an element of every episode of the show. If he simply provided family counseling, the episode would be over in five minutes. More drama is needed.

As always, Ramsay sits down and orders up some food. Back in the kitchen, we see Joe and Sam arguing about how Sam ruined the sauce by putting in too much wine. So, I guess we know what sauce that Chef Ramsay will be ordering. Drama.

Dawn, the server, recommends the eggplant rollatini. Ramsay orders it as well as ordering potato skins and octopus salad. When Dawn leaves, Ramsay comments that the décor looks like something from the ‘70s.

The salad arrives, and Ramsay says that the octopus tastes like rubber and he spits it out. He makes Dawn try a bite, and she agrees that it is probably too tough. She then leaves him his potato skins.

Ramsay tastes the potato skins and says that the cheese is disgusting. The eggplant arrives next, and he says that it is too hot, almost like it was nuked in a microwave before being served. We do see a clip of the dish being microwaved. Ramsay is psychic or something.

Back in the kitchen, Joe and Sam are not taking the criticism well and are blaming each other for the problems.

Ramsay calls everyone together to tell them the bad news. He tells them that the menu is definitely not classic Italian. For example, the potato skins are not very Italian. Joe says that that item is on the menu for children who might not want to eat eggplant or octopus. Ramsay notes that children in Italy eat authentic Italian food all the time.

As always, Ramsay then visits the restaurant during a typical dinner service. His first objection is that most hot food gets nuked either as the whole cooking process or to warm it up before serving. This actually leads to the problem of food being served too fast. The main course is often served only a minute or two after the salad. This also leads to sloppy food, and we see twelve dishes returned to the kitchen because they are cold, or too tough, or for a variety of other problems.

Ramsay tells the cameras that what basically goes on in the kitchen is that Brian and Sam push out orders way too fast for their own good. Then, every once in a while, Joe storms into the kitchen and everyone stands at attention. He barks out a few unclear orders and then disappears for a half hour. This makes everyone unhappy.

After the dinner service finishes, Ramsay sits everyone down for their debriefing. First up is their reliance on the microwave oven. That is just unacceptable. Ramsay goads Sam into complaining to Joe about serving frozen food all the time. He says that he wants to cook fresh food. Joe looks pained and doesn’t know what to say.

Ramsay asks Joe if Sam is actually a good cook. After a long pause, Joe mumbles that Sam certainly likes to cook. That’s not a very ringing endorsement. Kathy then adds a comment that she doesn’t want to hear her children criticized about anything, even if it is true.

And this might be a good time to mention my disdain for the modern style of parenting, where children are brought up in a sheltered environment where the parents do nothing but compliment them for everything they do. Kids like that get trophies for participation, and play in sports leagues where no one keeps score, and everyone is declared to be a winner at the end. Kids brought up like that come to expect that the world will provide them anything they want, and that everyone will praise them all the time. When the sad reality of college or the work force hit them in the face, and they don’t get exactly what they want when they want it, they can’t handle it and don’t know who to cry to to make it all better. Most of these kids crash and burn and end up moving back into mom and dad’s house for fifteen years while they work at the local fast-food joint.

Offhand, this seems to be what happened to Sam. He is 28-years old and works as a chef at his parents’ restaurant. His father mentions that Sam normally only works 25 hours a week and then disappears. Things are not working out the way he had hoped, and he runs away from the problems. His parents don’t make Sam work hard and he doesn’t.

In fact, that is the discussion that Joe and Sam are having right now. Joe complains that Sam doesn’t work harder, and Sam replies that Joe doesn’t love him as much as he should. Sam says that he scrubs floors and works his ass off and never gets compliments for it. Maybe he wants a trophy.