The Glass House - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits The Glass House in Ambleside, Cumbria.

The Glass House is owned by Neil Farrell, who had always dreamed of owning a restaurant.

In the three years since owning the Glasshouse, he has got into debt.

Neil has had to turn off his mobile phone to avoid debt collectors.

The restaurant’s Head Chef Richard Collins trained at Claridges and is paid £25,000 a year.

Gordon meets with him and asks his opinion on what the problem is.

Richard says it has gotten to a stage where he feels nothing is working.

Gordon doesn’t order from the menu.

He tells Richard to cook his best dishes, duck cake and chili jam and a lamb shank.

The duck cake looks like a scotch egg and has a bone in it that Gordon finds mid bite.

The lamb shank with parsnip crisps is fatty and the crisps were covered in smelly oil.

Gordon meets the staff, Iain is a waiter who decided he wanted to cook.

Claire is a part time chef who is Iain’s girlfriend who also owns a bookshop.

Randal is the Scottish kitchen porter.

Craig is the trainee chef who is in his second year in culinary college.

Gordon comes to observe a dinner service and the kitchen’s ability to cope with the pressure of a busy night.

The kitchen collapses into chaos with no communication and the meals that are served are poor.

The steak is returned.

There are orders being sent for non-existent tables and people are left waiting for food.

The next day, Gordon reveals undercover footage of the kitchen.

It shows food safety issues that happened over previous services.

The footage shows meat being tenderized with a frying pan and pesto being mixed on the floor.

Gordon buys cleaning products.

He orders the staff to do a thorough cleaning of the kitchen equipment, walls and floors.

Gordon realizes that the restaurant books more customers than they can cope with on a Saturday night.

The restaurant is deserted for the rest of the week.

Gordon thinks part of the problem is that the restaurant is hard to find as it is in a discreet location.

He takes Neil out and advises him on how and where he can put signs that would direct people towards the restaurant.

Gordon revamps the menu and suggests a £10 two course lunch that features an open mackerel sandwich.

Gordon takes the staff outside to discuss what they struggle with.

They open up and tell him that the lack of communication affects their morale in the kitchen.

At the next dinner service, everyone in the kitchen was responding but Richard was not working with them.

Gordon tells Neil that he needs to focus on his job.

He should be keeping customers happy and making sure they spend their money.

Gordon needs Neil to get his customers to buy pass the cheap early supper menu.

They need to eat a la carte as that’ll pay off his debt and rebuild his reputation.

A table turns up early to their reservation.

Gordon tells him to pitch the a la carte menu but Neil gives them the cheaper menu.

Gordon encourages Neil to focus on selling wine but he worries about the kitchen.

To prove he has nothing to worry about he gives Neil and Richard the night off.

They will be coming to dinner that night without the kitchen staff knowing they are there.

They love the food and Neil sees that the kitchen can cope without Richard in the kitchen.

Richard states he was impressed with the meal he was served but bizarrely tells the staff “You’re all mine”.

The next day, Gordon tells Neil that he thinks he should get rid of Richard but he leaves the decision to Neil.

Gordon talks to Richard to keep the morale high and communicate better with the team.

For the relaunch, Gordon offers a 3 course dinner to 70 locals.

He cuts the menu of over 100 items down to less than 20.

He teaches the chefs the new dishes and observes how well they worked together, which impressed him.

The new specials are a Caesar salad, an upgrade of the lamb dish and a bread and butter pudding.

During the service there are hiccups with dressing not being served with the salad.

Once again, the kitchen falls apart as Richard keeps giving orders without properly leading the team.

Orders begin to pile up again in the kitchen and Neil becomes frustrated with the whole ordeal.

He moans about the salad instead of the sacking his incompetent head chef, saying that it is too big.

They barely survive the night and on the last day, Gordon praises the young chefs in the kitchen.

Claire decides she is going to sell her bookshop and focus on being a chef.

Richard tells Gordon that Neil gave him three options when they discussed the way forward.

The options are to leave, be demoted or to work hard and go along with the way Gordon had introduced.

He chose the third option and Neil is giving him a month to prove him wrong.

Before leaving, Gordon gifts the chefs a new clock to replace the dingy, yellow one they had in the kitchen.

What Happened Next at The Glass House?

Gordon revisits three months later, there are big signs near to the restaurant and the prices are low.

Richard is still the head chef and has expanded the menu to include a pomegranate risotto.

Claire had sold her bookshop.

Randall and Craig had moved on and Iain had been given more responsibility in the kitchen.

There is better communication and the food and service are better.

The customers love the food, they have 30% more customers and the takings are up 20%.

Trip Advisor reviews for the restaurant were very positive after filming.

Ramsay also offered kitchen positions in his restaurant to the staff.

Both Claire and Iain left after just a few weeks.

The Glass House closed in March 2014 .

The restaurant became The Fulling Mill and Trip Advisor reviews were very good.

The restaurant was sold to new owners in 2020.

It was renamed to The Flying Fleece and is now a pub.

The Glass House aired on May 04 2004, the episode was filmed in 2003 and is Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares UK season 1 episode 2.

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