By Jennifer Larson

Chef Ramsey heads back to New York, in tonight’s installment of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES and it isn’t pretty. After last week’s offering, I’m getting a little tired of watching arrogant chefs tell Gordon where he can stick it, but it appears I’m in for it again, because tonight’s restaurant is run by a family that is having problems with one of their members. It appears that he thinks he’s running the show all by himself. Thank GOD Gordon is around to slap the piss out of his attitude. Now, if I could only get Chef Ramsey to come to my place of employment and have a little chat with my boss.

Finn McCool’s is an old-fashioned Irish pub with an all too common problem. Buddy, the patriarch of the family, is stuck in the middle of his two sons and their clashing personalities. Brian is the cocky, slip-shod head chef, and Jason is the under-achieving bar manager who doesn’t feel his job entails anything more than serving drinks. Meanwhile, the whole family is about to lose their life-savings and livelihood unless they listen to every word Gordon Ramsey says and puts every piece of his advice into practice. Given the track record of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES thus far, I don’t see that happening, at least not without a fight. It’s funny how fast their tune changes, after Chef Ramsey gets into town. The opening always shows a group of people who are desperate for Gordon’s professional help, but within minutes egos inflate and angers flare, and tonight was no exception.

Right off the bat, Gordon got an earful where Brian was concerned. It was the consensus of the entire staff that Brian has a bit of an attitude problem, but before Gordon could do anything else he had to taste the food. This is usually the most telling part of the show, because bad food makes for a grumpy Chef Ramsey. While that makes things more difficult for the local chef, it makes it oh so entertaining for us. To be honest, I didn’t even need to hear Ramsey’s review of the food, because the visual was nasty enough. And after the Sheppard’s pie caused Gordon to race to the bathroom and vomit, I really didn’t need to see anymore, unfortunately I did.


Gordon’s next step was to pole the surrounding neighborhood, to get a feel for what the restaurant’s reputation in town is, and not surprisingly, it isn’t good. He convinced the local firehouse to come dine for free, but it’s a good thing they didn’t see what was going on in the kitchen. Rubbery, frozen chicken, vats of dirty, old, stinky oil and layers of stuck on grease made me almost as sick as hearing Ramsey blow chunks. But a deep cleaning is really the easiest thing to fix; Brian’s attitude, well that’s a different story. Apparently Brian didn’t appreciate having Chef Ramsey stand over his shoulder while he cooked. I ask this every week but it bears repeating; have these people never seen Gordon Ramsey in action? What do they think he’s going to do when he gets there? Still, you would think his presence would cause the cooks to be extra careful, not at Finn McCool’s. When Gordon witnesses one of the cooks pick a chicken wing up off the floor and put it into the fryer, he not only learns how filthy this restaurant really is, he discovers the old geezer is seriously hearing impaired.

Meanwhile, the firemen who were induced to come in by the offer of free food were finding that everything comes with a price tag. They took forever to get served, didn’t enjoy the food and weren’t impressed with the overall atmosphere of the place. I smell a major overhaul coming for this family business, and it couldn’t come too soon for Buddy. Not only has he not given himself a paycheck since he opened, his health is beginning to suffer under the stress of the whole thing. But, while Buddy may appreciate Chef Ramsey’s help, Brian does not. Suffering the humiliation of having his disgusting Sheppard’s pie compared to Ramsey’s professional one was more than Brian could endure, and he walked out in a fit of rage.


However, that may have been the best thing for him because with Brian gone, the rest of the family, and Chef Ramsey, had a new-found respect for everything a head chef at Finn McCool’s goes through. With Brian back onboard and a renovated dining room, the entire staff was rejuvenated and ready to complete the challenge head on. The new menu heralded the dawning of a new day, which was one that would no longer include deep-fried, fatty foods and instead would spotlight hearty, homemade, Irish stand-bys. The re-launch got off to a rocky start, but in the end they pulled it together and Finn McCool’s lived to see another day. And two months later, the outlook was rosy. So, chalk another one up for the amazing Chef Ramsey.