Kitchen Nightmares, Season 2, Episode 8: Sabatiello’s

Welcome to the eighth 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 Stamford, Connecticut at Sabatiello’s, an Italian eatery opened three years ago by Sammy, who first made his money owning a successful pizzeria. This restaurant is failing, so I suppose he is not an expert at all Italian foods.

As a montage of daily life at the restaurant plays, we quickly see the problem. It seems that Sammy is a blind egomaniac. Customers complain about the food and he just insults them. Employees comment that the food is poor and he just tells them to shut up. He criticizes the chef for putting too much food on the plates.

Sammy tells us that he is more than a million dollars in debt and doesn’t know where to turn for help.

Well, right on cue here comes our knight in gleaming apron. Yes, it is Chef Gordon Ramsay. As he walks down the street he is reading the local paper’s latest review of the restaurant. It says that the food is mediocre and the owner obnoxious, and that patrons shouldn’t waste their time there. It is two-star food at four-star prices. That sounds pretty bad to me.

As usual, Ramsay pulls up a chair and prepares to taste the food. He asks Sammy what he recommends, and Sammy suggests the lasagna. He privately tells the camera that he expects Ramsay to do cartwheels after he tastes the food. I guess he’s never seen a previous episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

Sammy’s waiter David arrives to take Ramsay’s order. After David writes it down, Sammy arrives on the spot and demands to know why he hasn’t turned the order in yet. David replies that he was answering some of Ramsay’s questions. When Sammy wanders off, Ramsay asks if he interrupts David like that often. David sighs and says that Sammy does that all the time.

The first dish arrives and it is Wedding Soup, which appears to be some kind of meatball soup. Ramsay tastes it and calls it hideous. He says that it is just a bunch of stuff thrown together. He asks Sammy if it is fresh and he admits that it is two days old. Ramsay replies, “It’s not really ‘soup of the day’ then, is it?”

Sammy wonders in confessional who the hell Ramsay thinks he is criticizing his food like that.

The next dish on the menu is the homemade lasagna. Sammy supervises as the cook microwaves up a big frozen slab of the stuff. Ramsay, of course, hates it. It is mushy and has unidentifiable meat in it. It does look disgusting. He says that it tastes like plastic, and that if this is homemade that he will dance naked on the tables tonight.

Unfortunately, I do think it is homemade. The problem is that it was frozen and then nuked, giving it a store-bought feel. By my accounting, Chef Ramsay will have to be dancing in the nude tonight.

He asks David to ask Sammy where he got the recipe if it really was homemade. Back in the kitchen Sammy swears a couple of times when he hears that.

Last up is the steak. It is tough, greasy, and unseasoned. Ramsay declares that at least the food here is consistent. Consistently bad, that is.

Ramsay heads to the kitchen to meet Sammy and the rest of the staff. Ramsay’s big point is that the soup and lasagna are not fresh. The soup cooks for three days at a time, and the lasagna is frozen. This makes the food bad.

Sammy admits that he has dropped the quality of the steaks because business has been down lately. Ramsay says that that is bad too.

Predictably, Sammy takes things rather poorly, and there is a verbal shoving match between Ramsay and Sammy. Ramsay leaves to go clear his head.

Later in the day, Ramsay browses the kitchen and finds the same problems over and over. Much of the food has been pre-cooked and is sitting in trays and warmers waiting to be ordered and served. Even worse, the cooked meat is sitting next to the raw meat.

Sammy and Ramsay go toe-to-toe again, and Sammy shows signs of cracking. He admits that the cooked and raw foods should be stored separately. But he adds that it is his chef Jose’s fault.

Jose tells us that he loves to cook with fresh food, but that Sammy won’t allow it. He says that it is too expensive and time consuming.

Sammy also bristles when Ramsay accuses him of using imitation crab meat. At first Sammy denies it, but Jose confirms it. Sammy says that he needs to cut corners sometimes.

Right on cue, a customer sends a dish back because it is not fresh. Sammy is upset. He tastes it and declares it to be good, and says that the customer doesn’t know what she is talking about. Ramsay tastes it and calls Sammy delusional.

Another customer sends food back as undercooked, and Sammy nukes it and sends it out again. The customer thinks that the food was simply nuked because it came back so fast and it is steaming. She returns it again.

Sammy goes out to confront the customer. He gets into an argument with the customer over whether she is really able to tell the difference between microwaved food and heat-cooked food. He ends up telling the customer to take a hike. People at the nearby tables notice this and express horror that an owner would talk to a customer like that.