Last night, FOX’s “Kitchen Nightmares” returned after a 3-week hiatus, with a bang. For the first time since the show started airing in the States, Gordon Ramsey visited a restaurant outside of New York. This time it was Sebastian’s Pizza in Burbank, California, near the TV studios. Not surprisingly, the staff, including owner Sebastian, are aspiring actors and actresses.

The draw for this restaurant, according to Sebastian, is the unique, gargantuan menu that features not just pizza, but weird flavor and meat combinations for entrees. We also learn early on that Sebastian’s wife, Nicole, has invested $300 K of her own money to help her husband get started, and it’s currently losing money like crazy. Maybe that’s because no one is eating there.

So Ramsey arrives and sits down for lunch. Sebastian boasts that he loves his large menu, complete with photos of the dishes he took himself, and that he also likes to visit with his customers and “drink wine” with them. Ramsey is already turned off. He orders calamari, pizza and New York strip, and asks Sebastian if the calamari is fresh. He says “yes,” and then Ramsey learns from the waitress that they are indeed frozen. In fact, almost everything on the menu is frozen, including the pizza dough.
Ramsey samples the food and is turned off by just about everything, especially the fact that Sebastian lied about the calamari. He tells the waitress he’d like a “sick bag,” which sets off Sebastian’s temper.

At the dinner service that night, Ramsey notices that nothing is fresh, and things take a bad turn when a customer finds a hair in her salad. Sebastian apologizes and comps her meal, along with $300 worth of other meals that night. Ramsey decides this place needs a revamped, fresh menu and sets that up for the following night’s dinner service. The menu is to focus on wood-fired pizza with fresh dough and ingredients. He then has his design team come in and give the interior a makeover, something Sebastian loves. But he doesn’t love the menu change, because he’s still so attached to his 20 flavor combination idea, and the fact that he thinks he’s going to franchise that idea someday. The night of the new menu also coincides with Oscar night in Burbank, so the place is hopping.

But during the dinner service, Sebastian keeps changing orders….having his staff revert back to his old menu. This creates chaos, and infuriates Ramsey. Sebastian’s ego has gotten in the way, and Ramsey tells him that in his 40 years he’s never met anyone he believes in less than Sebastian. Ouch. So you get the feeling Ramsey will leave and never come back, but what happens is that Sebastian takes a walk and comes back saying that Ramsey is right. I don’t know about you, but this theme seems to happen a lot on this show…..the lead “character” is not buying into Ramsey’s changes with five minutes left in the show, then suddenly changes his tune and goes along with them…..and everyone goes home happy.

Still, you know the producers love the conflict and play it up. And you know Ramsey knows what he is doing, and that these big egos need to listen to him in order to save their businesses. Next week Ramsey visits an Irish pub and another hotheaded family. I can’t wait!