Gordo's "Kitchen Nightmares" Gets Off on the Wrong Foot
Friday, June 22, 2007 | posted by Mike
Or maybe not. I guess it all depends on whether you subscribe to the belief that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
It hasn't even premiered yet, but Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is already the subject of a lawsuit, thanks to a general manager who feels that his restaurant is being misrepresented in the show and who was forced, "to quit his job to avoid further abuse." Just wondering...is there really a workplace that doesn't involve some sort of abuse?
The point of the show is that Ramsay drops in, improves a restaurant that isn't doing well and everyone lives happily ever after. Well, Martin Hyde didn't get the fairytale ending.
Hyde's lawsuit said Ramsay falsely claimed meat was spoiled, used a defective chair to imply that Dillons' furniture was shoddy and even hired actors to pose as customers to make the restaurant look busy at the end of the week.
We'll see how this turns out. My guess is that FOX has a couple of pretty good lawyers who know how to write a waiver, so Mr. Hyde shouldn't plan on spending his golden years living off this windfall.
The funny thing about this is that Mrs. TVFF managed to catch the original British version of Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America last night. BBC America resides in the netherworld of the high 200s on my digital cable, so I never manage to see it. (I think Mrs. TVFF was searching around for We: Women's Entertainment.) She said that Ramsay was surprisingly encouraging to the restaurateurs and that he only popped off a couple of times, displaying his trademark temper. Somehow, I doubt we're going to be getting the serene Gordo in the American version.
Labels: Gordon Ramsay, Kitchen Nightmares
