Moore Place - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Moore Place in Esher, Surrey.

Moore Place is located in an affluent area.

It is surrounded by stockbrokers, ladies who lunch and golfers.

As soon as he arrives, Gordon observes the ghastly exterior of the restaurant.

This is due to the bizarre maroon color that the restaurant was painted.

On entering the restaurant, Gordon notices how empty the place is and that he will be dining alone.

With over 35,000 rounds of golf taking place on the golf course they should be packed with customers.

For a starter, Gordon was served deep fried camembert, which was disgusting.

The wine stinks as it has corked and the Duck a L’Orange that was served was very tough.

The next day, he meets the owners, Richard Hodgson and Nick Whitehouse.

He discovers that neither have any experience in running a restaurant.

The duo have sunk all their money into the restaurant and are now struggling.

The deserted restaurant costs nearly £100 an hour for staff and other overhead costs.

The restaurant used to be a successful Bernie Inn back in the days when steaks were posh.

Hervé Foutrel was the head chef when they took over but no one likes his cooking.

Gordon decides to meet the rest of the team including Mark Robinson, the new executive chef.

Mark has experience in cooking though he left it to chase a business degree.

Mark was employed to sort things out but has only spent a lot on microwaves and fryers.

There are two people in the dining room, so Gordon observes the way the restaurant serves their customers.

Gordon notices that almost everything seems to be deep fried.

The oil smells like it hasn’t been changed for months.

The menu has not been updated despite Mark being brought in to do so.

Gordon feels the restaurant doesn’t care about customers with the poor menu and lazy method of cooking.

He then changes into a chef attire to help them.

On the second day, there are no customers and the executive chef has taken the day off.

It is revealed that Mark had also hired a new Head Chef, Andy Trowell, which makes them a trio.

Gordon and Andy go into the food storage and are shocked to see large amounts of packed and ready made food

The packet sauces and prepared food are more expensive than cooking from fresh.

Gordon speaks with Richard and Nick about the restaurant.

He tells them that the most important focus of the restaurant should be on the food.

They need to focus on what they should be offering the locals.

They should consider how they should be selling the food and bringing in a bit of a bargain.

Gordon takes Richard down the high street to see where his ex customers are now eating.

Most of the public have no idea where the Moore restaurant is located.

Others do not like the color of the restaurant.

Gordon thinks the menu should be American themed as the area is populated by Americans.

Gordon shares an organic burger recipe with them and serves it to the owners.

They think it is a fantastic burger and seem invigorated about the new food they will be offering.

They will be serving burgers, corned beef hash, pecan pie and smoked haddock chowder.

Gordon along with Andy and Kim take some samples of the food out onto the Golf course.

They plan to try and draw up business from the golfers.

On a Friday night, it is Andy’s night off and so Mark is running the kitchen.

Gordon wants the waiters to push the new specials to the customers.

Peter, one of the waiters, struggles with pitching the new menu.

Customers order the camembert, which was semi-cooked and arrives frozen in the middle.

The service was generally a disaster.

Gordon does a training exercise to work on the waiting staff to introduce them to the new menu.

Zack started waiting a week ago and knows absolutely nothing about the job or the menu.

Gordon curls up in a ball on the dining room floor when training him on the new menu.

Gordon decides to use Mother’s day to relaunch the restaurant.

The restaurant has 181 bookings for that day.

He has the idea of serving chicken carved at the table to take pressure off the kitchen.

He gets all the staff to learn how to carve cooked chickens.

They will practice in time for the relaunch.

Gordon notices that Richard and Nick had overbooked the restaurant out of greediness.

He talks to them and the duo admit that they still have a lot to learn.

They move the furniture about to improve the look of the restaurant.

Gordon tests Richard again to see how fast he can carve a chicken.

On relaunch, the chickens are cooking and Andy cooks a ribeye of beef with all the trimmings.

Hervé is taught how to make proper Yorkshire puddings by Gordon.

Gordon changes clothes to assist the waiters as he believes the kitchen is pretty much set.

Zach has been placed on bar duty after he struggled with the new menu.

Kim, Nick, Richard and Peter are working the floor.

Andy is in charge of the kitchen with Hervé as his right-hand man.

The executive chef, Mark, is in charge of crockery.

Peter sells and carves the first chicken.

After other customers see them being carved, more chickens start flying out the kitchen.

The first sitting went well but the second sitting was affected by the over-booking.

All the customers arrive and order at the same time leaving the kitchen to struggle with the orders.

The frustrated customers state that the food was nice but the structure, organization and service were poor.

They had noticed that Nick and Richard left to talk to their friends in the conservatory.

This left the waiting staff shorthanded and Gordon is frustrated.

Gordon hopes that Nick and Richard learnt their lesson.

The service that day was a success as most of the customers left happily.

The chefs have some final banter and praise before Gordon leaves.

What Happened Next at Moore Place?

Gordon revisits a month later and the restaurant is still purple.

Andy is still in the kitchen and tells him the burgers are flying out.

The owners reported that sales were up 20%.

The customers love the American theme of the restaurant.

Mark had left to run his own pub as had most of the kitchen staff except Herve and Andy.

Gordon sends in Food Critic Matthew Ford undercover.

He wants to find out if things have changed and he liked the food.

Gordon sits down in the bar and orders off the bar menu.

It is full of deep fried food so he throws the deep fat fryer into the lake.

After the show, Richard told the press that they were having customers travelling from afar.

They had customers from America and Australia who had seen the show and had no regrets.

Nick told the press that they were so busy that he was in the kitchen helping flip burgers.

It is reported that the restaurant started to go back to it's old ways.

The owners sold Moore Place in 2006 and it became Esteem Bar and Restaurant.

This closed and was bought by Moore Place Holdings.

In 2009, Moore Place was to be knocked down and a new hotel was planned to be built.

In September 2011, permission was granted to demolish the hotel.

There were plans to build a care home in it's place.

The building has since been demolished and a care home has been rebuilt on the site.

Moore Place aired on May 18 2004, the episode was filmed in 2003 and is Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares UK season 1 episode 4.

Read About More Kitchen Nightmares

Previous episode - The Walnut Tree Inn

Next episode - La Lanterna