Pomona, California is an artsy town, and not the kind of place you’d expect to find a fine dining restaurant. Yet that’s exactly what Lela’s was, and it was floundering. Enter Chef Gordon Ramsey and his crew with “Kitchen Nightmares.” Ramsey immediately knew that this place was, well, out of place in Pomona. But the fact that not many people were eating there signified a greater problem. So he got there, and met with owner Lela, chef Ricky, sous chef Lex, and server Tabitha.
As he always does to get things kicked off, Ramsey sits down and orders lunch so he can sample the food. And as always, he’s disappointed at the lack of fresh food on the menu. After pointing out some spelling errors on the menu and finding out that they are out of both shrimp and salmon, Ramsey orders tomato basil soup, chicken nachos and lamb with chocolate mint sauce…..chocolate mint sauce? YUCK. Sorry, that was me speaking, but Ramsey would soon feel the same. First, he realizes the soup is canned; that the nachos were made the day before; and that the lamb has almost no meat on it, and is also frozen and re-heated. To make matters worse, Ricky’s chocolate mint sauce is Hershey’s syrup with mint leaves….again, YUCK. So Ramsey decides to go straight to dessert. He orders the brownie ala mode, but soon finds out they are also out of brownies. Then, after hearing Tabitha and Ricky yell at each other, Ramsey confronts Ricky and calls him lazy. We can see now that Ricky is the antagonist in this episode.
The next day Ramsey inspects the kitchen, and finds not only that nothing is fresh, but that the fridge is not very cold. Hence, meat is going bad. At the dinner service that evening, Ramsey discovers more things he doesn’t like–namely, that Ricky is using instant mashed potatoes, and what’s worse–he doesn’t care! “No one has complained before,” he argues. Then, as the dinner service is at its busiest, one of the kitchen employees, “Buzzard,” helps himself to some wine and some leftover dishes and starts leaving. Ramsey intercepts him and brings him to Lela. Buzzard storms out, and returns the next day only to have Lela fire him.
The next day Ramsey decides to have a blind taste test with Ricky and Lex, just as he does with the contestants on his “Hell’s Kitchen” show. Lex passes with flying colors, and Ricky can’t tell chicken from beef. So Lex proclaims that he is indeed a better chef than Ricky, and Ramsey lets him run the kitchen later that night with Ricky as the sous chef. He also names Tabitha to manage the restaurant. Meanwhile, Ramsey sends Lela off for some pampering while he has his design team re-do the dining room. He also interviews some local folks and finds out that what Pomona really needs is a casual eatery–i.e., salads and burgers, or pub food. So he challenges Ricky and Lex to come up with a “Pomona Salad” and also teaches them how to make a perfect burger. They take their show on the “road,” offering free burgers to people on the street to generate interest in Lela’s new menu.
Later that night at the first dinner service with the new menu and new design, it’s chaotic and Lex proves he isn’t really a leader. In fact, he storms out at one point when Lela starts yelling at him. So while he’s gone, Ricky steps up his game and proves that he can, in fact, hustle when he wants to. He can also cook really well. Orders start flying out of the kitchen, and the customers, including the mayor, are loving the food. Lex returns as sous chef to Ricky, and Ramsey congratulates Ricky on the fact that he stepped up.
After that successful dinner service, Ramsey congratulates everyone and the restaurant is shown to continue that success for a short time. Sadly, though, Lela is forced to shut it down due to overwhelming debt that she’s accumulated, that is just too much to dig out from underneath.
These shows can’t all have happy endings, and this one surely wasn’t. Still, it’s amazing to see what Ramsey can do to transform a restaurant going South in a short amount of time. And it’s even more amazing that he can change the attitudes of some big egos as well.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and see you next week…
