I’m guessing that FOX is doubling up on “Kitchen Nightmares” episodes because the baseball playoffs are coming up. Whatever the reason, we were treated to two separate episodes of Gordon Ramsay fixing restaurants on the verge of going out of business.

The first one was Trobiano’s Italian restaurant in Great Neck, NY, which is owned by Anthony Trobiano and his girlfriend Tiffany and her parents. Anthony is very cocky and won’t admit any fault with his own cooking, and basically that’s the biggest problem. So Ramsay shows up and samples the food–eggplant “tower,” chicken wrapped shrimp, and salmon with spaghetti bolognese. He comes to the conclusion that the food is “crap.”

Then, Ramsay finds out that the kitchen is disgusting, complete with rat droppings. He talks to Anthony and finally humbles the young man into listening. Everyone cleans up, including Tiffany and her parents. In addition, Ramsay teaches them how to milk cows and then make fresh mozzarella cheese and put that on the menu. Also, he has them ditch the early bird special that is attracting an older crowd, and upscaling the menu just a bit, focusing on fresh and vibrant meals.

Still, the biggest problem with Anthony is that he refuses to taste the food. And so customers continue to complain. Ramsay fixes this, as well as the decor, and everything goes over well, including with a table of Bon Appetit Magazine staffers.

Then, a curve ball. At the start of the show, the announcer says the ending of this episode will change the family forever. Mrs. Mike correctly pointed out that Anthony was going to propose to Tiffany! Ramsay instigated that, and also planned for them to get married that night. It was bizarre, but very cool at the same time.

In the second episode, Ramsay visits The Black Pearl restaurant in New York City. This place is a casual seafood restaurant that features “award-winning” Maine lobster rolls. It also has three owners–Greg, David and Brian. The fact that there are three guys running the place without a common voice is a big problem. Add to that the fact that David is a douchebag, and there is a really big problem.

Ramsay tastes the food…first the chowder which is watery. Then Mussels which are too spicy. Finally the lobster rolls which are not seasoned and tasteless….and one of them is like a “wet diaper.” Blech. He calls them out on it, and David says that that’s how they do it in Maine–with no salt and pepper.

Ramsay finds that there is no quality control and also that the lobsters they are serving are Canadian lobsters, which David defends by saying it’s Atlantic waters. Wow, that dude is just delusional. But Ramsay addresses the biggest issue….having the staff vote on who should be the general manager. Greg is appointed, but has trouble running the kitchen, which gets extremely busy. He has the decor and menu updated, and even has a Louis the Lobster character hand out flyers in Times Square. David doesn’t think this will work.

Finally, after Ramsay observes the revamped dinner service and sees that many things need to change, especially David’s attitude, he calls him out on it in front of the other owners. David is clearly a stubborn idiot, saying, “The great Gordon Ramsay is wrong.” Ramsay, fed up, just walks out….the only episode I can remember in which he leaves and says that this restaurant will never succeed. Ouch.

This show has seen some real morons trying to run restaurants, and running them into the ground because they refuse to admit to having problems. But this David guy took the cake on that, and that’s too bad. See you all next week…