“Kitchen Nightmares” returns, sort of
Last night FOX aired a partial episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” that was a rerun (following President Bush’s farewell speech), and then the conclusion of Season 2 with a new episode. This was sort of odd because this show hasn’t aired since before the holidays, so it’s almost like they kept this show in the bank when they didn’t know what else to air. It was also a good way to promote the upcoming new season of Gordon Ramsay’s other show, “Hell’s Kitchen,” which kicks off on January 29.
With that, here is what happened in the new episode last night. The restaurant is Cafe 36 in Lagrange, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Owners Terry and Carol are semi-retired and it was Terry’s dream to open an upscale, French-themed bistro. So this was it. But little did the owners know that their head chef, Pinto, was running their business into the ground by cutting huge corners and serving stale food that was still taking too long to come out of the kitchen.
Gordon Ramsay arrived and couldn’t believe that on some nights this place was turning over something like 6-8 dinners a night. Not tables, DINNERS. Yikes. So Ramsay, as he always does, ordered some food to try–a risotto, a duck salad and some salmon crepes. The risotto was mushy and crepes were frozen and re-cooked, and not only that…this food took about 40 minutes to prepare, at lunch time! Wow. Ramsay went to find that Pinto had been using rice that was over a week old, and that the crepes were not fresh. A stickler for freshness and simplicity, Ramsay knew that this was the reason Cafe 36 was failing.
Before the dinner service that night, Ramsay takes a walk into the freezer and finds out that Pinto has been freezing and thawing and freezing and thawing EVERYTHING. It’s really disgusting. Then during the service, he gets to see first hand just how slow everything moves, accentuated by the fact that Pinto and sous chef Barney do not communicate, and Terry does not run a very tight ship to begin with, allowing his servers to mouth off at everyone else. Customers start leaving and it’s a disaster that night.
The next day, Ramsay gives Pinto and Barney a lesson in how to make a fresh mushroom risotto as well as some other specials including a goat cheese fritter salad prepared tableside. After a re-opening, the problem of no communication and slow service are still prominent. People leave before their food arrives, again.
So Ramsay and his design team transform the restaurant, much to the delight of Carol and Terry, and Terry agrees that he needs to be more assertive with Pinto and everyone else. Ramsay also helps streamline the menu to make things easier. But once the dinner service begins, Pinto is still slow…that is, until Terry takes control and starts directing everyone at the pass. Food starts flying out of the kitchen and the customers love the new menu. I can’t imagine it was that easy, but that’s what happened.
Ramsay leaves Carol and Terry with the advice that they need to do something about Pinto, and Ramsay shows that he genuinely likes this couple and wants them to succeed. We receive word from the announcer man that the following day, Pinto left the restaurant and Barney was promoted to head chef. Was Pinto fired or did he leave on his own? I say the former, because he appeared to be too proud to quit. But either way, Ramsay, as well as all of us watching, knew it was the only way this place was going to live to serve more food. Way to go, Gordon!
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Posted in: Kitchen Nightmares, Reality TV, TV
Tags: Barney, bistro, Cafe 36, Chicago, Fox, French food, Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, LaGrange Illinois, Pinto, Terry and Carol
I THOUGHT THAT THE SOUS CHEF SAVED THE DAY
I wonder where Pinto learned to ruin fresh food as a prep technique
pinto was an embarrassment. i’ve never heard of an italian culinary school that uses fresh frozen techniques…crazy! he needs to find a new line work, but i’m afraid he’s to slow to be successful at doing anything productive.
Pinto seemed clueless. However, anyone who could beat two people out of their life savings knew exactly what he was doing. I have no sympathy for anyone who cheats decent hard working people!
Pinto was ripping the owners off and serving the customers old food. He made snide comments about my wife (she is Korean) He be littled everyone. I would like to straighten out something about the show. The narrator said I had a bad attitude he did’nt say I was the one that pointed out to Terry, Pinto’s unethical culinary techniques for months and I wrote the e mail to Ramsay that started the whole thing rolling. Pinto called me a “diner cook” and made wise cracks about my wife, so of course we did not get along. He didn’t have recipes for anything and costantly changed the instructions on menu items which really caused problems with consistency. On the final night of the show I got all the orders out and was directing the flow of the kitchen I was cooking saut’ee, broiler, and helping Mario with salads appitizers and desserts. I am a team player and not known for a bad attitude.
I was given the Chef job. The new Chef was my Sous Chef. I didn’t like the way things were headed at Café 36 I decided to go back to culinary school and complete my degree. Read a little bio of mine @ Suburban Life La Grange Park Il. web page under Chef Barney a well traveled Chef.
pinto was completely idiotic. It seemed he was trying to use a flash freeze concept. lol. Fresh frozen. lol. but the sous chef was a kissup.. the waiters looked unprofessional and acted as such.. truly dissapointing.
Did the restaurant close down or is it still going now?
Pinto seemed like a guy from India. Being a legal Indian resident here in the US , I am 100% sure he is over here illegally. Also he mentioned that he studied in Italy which also I am sure is 100% BS. Indians have a knack of making fake resumes. A background check on him should reveal everything. Read the book “Inheritance of loss” to get the complete picture of how how Indians, other than engineers and doctors get into the US illegally.
I would like to straighten out something about the show. The narrator said I had a bad attitude he did’nt say I was the one that pointed out to Terry, Pinto’s unethical culinary techniques for months and I wrote the e mail to Ramsay that started the whole thing rolling.
And why Sharmila do we care about Pinto being Indian versus being a bad chef.I think you are a disgrace to your own people and are perhaps seeking friends.go back to your village and stop belittling the thousands of Indians that work diligently without any PR.Stupid bitch.