'Kitchen Nightmares' Recap

In last week's episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Ramsay revisited three restaurants that he had helped in the past. Among those restaurants that Chef Ramsay visited included the Brooklyn Cuban restaurant called Mojitos, Flamangos and Bazzini’s.

The show commences with a replay of Chef Ramsay’s visit to Mojitos where he met owners Kata and Marcelo, two hot-headed owners that did not have a problem yelling at each other with customers sitting in their restaurant. In the flashback, we see Chef Ramsay sampling the food from the restaurant before sending it back because of how badly it tasted. We also hear customers complaining about the food and this prompted Chef Ramsay to visit the restaurant’s storage area where he discovered rotten food and vegetables. Chef Ramsay called a meeting to show the staff the rotten food and dried chicken that he had discovered and both owners agree that it was a wake-up call for them to get their act together.

Fast forward a day later and Chef Ramsay has not only renovated the place but has also added a new menu with less portion size. In the flashback we also see the owners leaving the kitchen to Chef Eduardo while they concentrate on their customers. Everything seemed to be going fine until the food starts making it way back to the kitchen. Eduardo gets frustrated and Marcelo is forced to take over the kitchen again and he does a good job at controlling the kitchen. The customers are all noticeably pleased with the food and so too is Chef Ramsay. He commended the couple for working well together.

A year later and Chef Ramsay is back at Mojitos to see if the couple were stilling bickering with each other or had changed the décor etc. Ramsay first meets Kata who is happy to see him and she informs him that she and Marcelo have worked out their anger issues and that business went up by 30 percent. “In six months time we would be debt-free” declared Kata. Chef Ramsay reunited with Marcelo in the kitchen and he is impressed with how happy and motivated the co-owner looks. Marcelo said that Kata was finally treating him like a partner. He told Chef Ramsay that he also had his purchasing under control and even took him to the stock room where everything was neat and organized.

Chef Ramsay chatted a little with the couple over what he called a “delicious lunch”; he even tried to reunite Kata and Marcelo as a love couple again, but they did not go for it. When Chef Ramsay asked about their worst moment from the last show, Marcelo said it was when Chef Ramsay showed him the rotten avocados. For Kata it was when Chef Ramsay told her that the food was too salty. Chef Ramsay is noticeably proud that the couple had turned around their business in the recession.

Chef Ramsay’s next stop was to Whitehouse Station in NJ where he had an encounter of the worst kind with Adele, owner of Flamangos. Adele runs the restaurant with her husband Bill and her daughter Cheryl and on the day that Chef Ramsay first arrived we are given a flashback about how repulsed the Chef is about the so-called tropical decor which is filled with oddities. He is even more unimpressed that the owner’s 40 year old daughter still lives with them. Chef Ramsay told Cheryl that he left his mom when he was 23; she told him that it was lack of a consistent paycheck that brought her home to her parents.

We see Chef Ramsay ordering and then eating the food, dishes of which he described as bland risotto to tough Fillet Mignon and he takes his dissatisfaction to the kitchen to meet with Chef Brian. “Would you eat this food?” Chef Ramsay wanted to know from Chef Brian to which he answered that he wouldn’t eat it. His answer gets Chef Ramsay even more perturbed; he said the food was like dog poop. Chef Ramsay wasn’t impressed with the slow service at the restaurant either nor how Adele treated her staff and customers.

Chef Ramsay called for a snap meeting to identify the faults in the restaurant and to convince Bill to put his meat loaf recipe on the menu; Adele was against it but Bill gave in and we see the customers enjoying their meal.

Next in the flashback we see Chef Ramsay transform the restaurant and but not before starting a bonfire outside to burn all the distasteful decorations much to Adele’s dismay. Transformation of the restaurant came in the form of a name change from Flamangos” to The Junction and a décor filled with lovely and bright blues in open spaces. Adele said she hated the new décor and described it as “ugly”. She also did not approve of Chef Ramsay’s change to the menu either; Chef Ramsay referred to her as “Madam Grumpy” when she exited the restaurant.

The customers on the other hand are pleased with the new décor and the food as well; Adele returns with a smile on her face to greet her customers after a pep talk with husband Bill. Service that night went smoothly; the customers enjoyed the food and Chef Ramsay’s work was completed.

When Chef Ramsay returned to The Junction after a year, the first person he greets is Cheryl who told him that she was still single, unmarried and living with her parents. Chef Ramsay then joins Adele in the kitchen who is surprised to see him and she embraced him with a kiss. Chef Ramsay asked her if she was nicer to her staff and waitress Isabelle revealed that Adele had in fact gotten better. Chef Ramsay also learned that Chef Brian had left the restaurant to take on a job at the nearby bagel shop. Over lunch Chef Ramsay and the owners of The Junction not only discussed their success of the restaurant but Chef Ramsay also had a gift for them which was a stuffed alligator to replace the one he had placed in the bonfire. Chef Ramsay samples Bill’s meatloaf and deems it “really good” before leaving the restaurant.

Chef Ramsay’s last stop was to revisit Bazzini’s in Ridgewood but not before the flashback reintroduced us to Paul Bazzini and his wife Leslie. Paul was noticeably nonchalant about the restaurant industry and it was showing. When Chef Ramsay showed up at the restaurant the first time, he met closed doors which indicated that the restaurant was not opened for lunch. By the time owner Paul arrived at the establishment to let Chef Ramsay inside, Chef noticed a dining room that was falling apart that housed squeaky chairs, served bland food with hard chicken… everything was a mess. The only shining light at the restaurant for Chef Ramsay was the carrot cake dessert which was made by pastry chef Sharyn. After the yummy dessert Chef Ramsay slips into the kitchen to complain about the food. Owner Paul was surprisingly cool, calm and collected; he even laughed when Chef Ramsay told him how disgusting the food tasted.

Chef Ramsay identified Paul as the reason why the restaurant was going “belly up” and addresses the situation to Paul. Paul confessed that there are times when he does not want to get out of bed because he’s miserable about running the restaurant.

Chef Ramsay decided to help him out by turning things around. For starters Paul was advised to open the restaurant during the lunch hour and he also designated Sharyn as the waitress for the service. Sharyn is not doing too well at her new assignment, however, the customers are happy with the lunch menu that Chef Ramsay has recommended.

After a successful lunch opening, Chef Ramsay and his team set out to redecorate the restaurant and turned it into a modern and contemporary place that received the nod of approval from the staff and customers.

Chef Ramsay also cut the menu down from 27 to 15 dishes and he invited his dignitary friends to sample the food and view the décor. A night that was supposed to yield a good dinner service turned into a nightmare when Paul became too overwhelmed with the numerous tickets that came in. He complained about “doing too many things at once” and called for Al the sous chef who it was soon revealed had disappeared. It is Chef Ramsay and Sharyn who later cooked and fed the customers and they declared that the meal was well worth the wait.

On Chef Ramsay’s reunion visit to Bazzini’s, it was all like déjà vu as the door was closed with no one inside. “I told him to stay opened for lunch”, Chef Ramsay said and he immediately called Sharyn. Sharyn directed Chef Ramsay to another location and revealed to him that Bazzini’s had gone out of business. Sharyn, who told Chef Ramsay that she had quit the restaurant job because of indifference with Paul, had moved on the pastry making business.