Another one of my favorite shows is currently playing on Fox. The premise of the show is that world famous chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsey spends a week at a failing restaurant and tries to get it back on track. Usually this involves simplifying the menu, focusing on fresh food, raising preparation standards, and lots and lots of cleaning.

Most of you probably know Gordon Ramsey from the American version of Hell’s Kitchen. If you’re a BBC America fan, you also know him from the British series The F Word and the British version of Kitchen Nightmares. I have a lot of admiration for Gordon Ramsey–I have an autographed picture of him in my office. I wish I was as passionate about what I do as he is. For those of you who only know him from Hell’s Kitchen, he has a soft side and genuinely cares about the people he tries to help.

The first episode last week was fantastic. He came to save a failing family restaurant. This big, pampered, beefed up Italian stereotype and his sister were working at cross-purposes. He was a selfish, pampered, metrosexual mama’s boy with a huge ego and sense of entitlement. I didn’t quite buy the massive change in him over the one hour, but it was a good episode. A second hour would have made the transformation seem a little more plausible. You can get the torrent at: http://www.mininova.org/tor/898214 I’m not sure if Fox uses iTunes or some other such service.

This weeks episode finds Gordon trying to rescue a Manhattan restaurant with a schizophrenic identity. It serves Indian, Italian, British, American, and heaven knows what other types of foods. Oh, did I mention that it is bug infested, and decorated with sheets all over the walls (maybe to hide the bugs crawling up the walls behind it). Gordon’s world class restaurant is just two blocks away.

The shows always start with Gordon ordering a variety of dishes off the menu. He gives a heartfelt prayer that he won’t get food poisoned. The vegetarian platter has meat in it, the beef plate is actually lamb, the plate is dirty (and there is no one else in the restaurant), and the tomato on his salad has gone bad. The salmon is burned. When quized, the chef admits he gave him old lamb.

Gordon goes through the kitchen operations. There are three managers, and no customers. When he hits the kitchen, the chef has food pans on the floor and is stirring it there (they must do things different in India–yet another reason to never go there). Rotten salad, rotten chicken, rotten hamburger. Gordon heads down to the basement–rat droppings everwhere–cockroaches. What a surprise the place is losing $20,000.00 a month! The kitchen staff do not speak English, so I have to wonder if this is a cultural issue (i.e. some sick abhorrence to “wasting” rotten food), or just poor standards. I’m also curious where the heck the health department is in all this. I will be very wary of visiting any non-mainstream restaurant in Manhattan, that’s for sure! Gordon dresses up in a bio-hazard suit, and brings in a team of professional cleaners.

Gordon tries to teach the Indians to cook contemporary Indian food, then pays for a makeover of the interior and exterior. I’m a little gobsmacked that he dumps money into these dumps (he does not do that in the British version). I have a feeling they will just run the place into the ground–but at least they will have something to sell at the auction.

Right before service, Gordon peels the skin off of the incompetent manager. Why he was not fired before this point is beyond me. As dinner service starts, the manager shows no leadership skills. The staff are not used to working hard, so the food is cold. It’s not hard to see where this is going. Gordon has a heart-to-heart with the owner, and the manager quits (apparently after seeing the writing on the wall). In the British version, Gordon shows up at random a couple months after to see if his methods stick. Unfortunately they don’t do that here. Good episode.

Wednesdays on Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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