In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits The Granary in Fareham, UK.
The Granary is owned by Nigel Nieddu.
He thinks the restaurant should be earning him a fortune.
The restaurant is losing £4000 a week.
Nigel takes Gordon up in his helicopter to explore the area.
Nigel was convinced that the wealthy locals would flock to an exclusive dining club.
He opened as a private restaurant in 2003 and it cost up to £2000 to join.
The first night, Nigel invited celebrities to the launch.
It was incredibly well attended with model Jordan and others in attendance.
The feedback was fantastic as they were all excited.
None of them ever came back to the restaurant.
When Nigel’s project failed, he dropped the joining fee and re-opened as the Granary.
It was too late as the local reputation was poor.
Nigel recruited a local chef Martin White, to create his vision of a modern British menu.
Gordon expects to see some updated British classics using home-grown produce from the head chef.
Martin had served 6 months for drug offences and cooking was his salvation.
He learnt under the chef prison officer who took him under their wing.
It kept him out of trouble through his stay in the prison.
Martin wants to help other teenage tearaways.
He has two on his cooking apprentice scheme.
Pete was convicted of disorderly behavior.
Paul has been arrested for car theft and burglary
. Nigel does not do well with criticism.
He is offended that Gordon doesn’t like anything so far.
He decides to dine with Gordon for lunch to discuss his British menu.
Gordon orders a Moroccan chicken starter and a shark steak as the main course.
Nigel gets defensive when Gordon says the cheesy shark and mozzarella combination is ghastly.
Gordon gives feedback that the decor is flash and pretentious.
The food is far from modern British.
Gordon observes for a dinner service to see how the staff can cope with pressure.
The dishes are fiddly and take a long time to get out of the kitchen.
Food is being sent back for being cold.
The food isn’t getting out to the customers.
Customers keep coming in as the restaurant is busier than it has been.
Martin finds it hard to keep up with the orders.
Nigel can’t afford a manager and runs the restaurant himself.
Martin feels like he has been stitched up and gives up on the cooking.
He claims that he wasn’t interested in the first place.
Nigel blames Gordon for the disastrous service as the restaurant never has that many customers.
The next day. Gordon goes to speak to local people about the restaurant.
They tell him that the service is terrible and the restaurant has a bad reputation.
It is expensive and everyone remembers that it was once a private club.
Gordon decides that the way forward is to use fresh, local produce. He takes the chefs out to a local vegetable farm.
Gordon reveals that he had once been a teenage tearaway and crashed an uninsured car.
Cooking was his salvation so he decided to encourage the teenage chefs to cook.
They cook a menu that evening using the fresh produce from the farm.
They will coook a roast pork joint for each table served with fresh vegetables.
They make £1700 and Nigel admits that Gordon was right all along.
Gordon challenges the team to build a chicken pen.
Nigel shows that he isn’t much of a team player.
Gordon bonds with the young chefs in the kitchen and trusts them with cooking the starters.
For the evening service, Gordon teaches the chefs some new dishes using fresh ingredients.
The restaurant was fully booked with customers including 50 staff from the local airport.
Gordon tells Nigel not to bring all the tickets in at once.
The kitchen send the food out but the waitresses take the food to the wrong tables.
Nigel, who is responsible for the service doesn’t notice.
The customers sent back the starters as some of them didn’t order for them.
It means they have to start from scratch for the correct tables.
While Martin steps up to the challenge, Nigel panics and loses control.
The customers claim the food was great.
This is despite it taking a lot of time and the service was terrible.
After the service, Gordon and Nigel argue about everything.
Nigel arrogantly continues to defend the service.
The next day, they host a food fair day event to help draw in the locals.
Gordon challenges the young chefs to create a salad using root vegetables.
The winning dish will be put on the new menu.
They gave the locals the dish to taste and pick a winning dish.
They chose Peter’s beetroot salad, which makes him happy.
There is local produce for tasting.
Nigel dresses up in a cockerel costume but he makes a child cry.
The last day at the Granary, Gordon reveals the new restaurants signage to Nigel and he loves it.
For the relaunch night, the young chefs are excited.
Gordon gives the team a pep talk.
Nigel manages the customers out front with Laura keeping him on his toes.
The dining room is much more relaxed and the customers loved the starters.
Martin doesn’t manage the kitchen well.
He is too laid back, quiet and not communicating with the young chefs.
One young chef gets cocky with Gordon and Pete tries to calm him down.
Gordon realizes he was right to see great promise in Pete.
Towards the end, a customer sends back her starter dish 3 times and is not impressed.
The kitchen struggles with the orders and the customers send food back.
Gordon tries to rally up Martin but he just complains that there are too many hot starters.
Nigel assures him that they’ll get it right
Gordon feels disappointed as does Martin in the way the service turned out in the end.
What Happened Next at The Granary?
Gordon revisits 6 weeks later.
The restaurant is busy with 45 customers in for lunch.
Nigel reports that business is increasing as are the profits.
Martin is leaving the restaurant.
He is going to start a government funded cookery workshop for teenagers.
The young Chef Chav is working with one of Martin's former colleagues in a hotel.
Gordon sits down for lunch and is impressed with the local lamb on the menu.
He is impressed with the red mullet broth that he tastes.
Nigel admits that he was wrong.
Gordon asks the evening customers to fill out customer feedback forms to be read after service.
The customers love the food and service and all want to return to the restaurant.
Nigel told the local press that he wasn't happy with being nicknamed a fat idiot.
However, he is grateful for Gordon's help in turning the restaurant around.
This was just 2 weeks after the show aired.
The building was seriously damaged in the fire.
The authorities believed it was related to another arson attempt that was made 2 weeks earlier.
The Granary closed immediately following the fire.
The building was put up for sale by auction in October 2008.
He had spent 10 years on the run in Spain.
The Granary aired on December 18 2007, the episode was filmed in September 2007 and is Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares UK season 5 episode 8.
Read About More Kitchen Nightmares
Previous episode - Curry Lounge
Eh, nothing to do with a "ramsay curse"...all these types of shows for the most part produce similar results...the business eventually closing cuz they're so far gone to start with.
ReplyDeleteIt may have just been the arson which caused 800 thousand pounds in damage that the insurance company refused to pay that sunk this one.
DeleteAll of these business were in debt, the food was crap, and were going down in flames. Therefore any restaurant that survived was likely do to Ramsey intervention.
ReplyDeleteThe curry lounge is a good example it's insanely successful now.
What a shame, this is my favourite episode. The chef did an amazing job turning his own life around, then giving those lads the same chance. It did seem as if the chef trained them right! The food did not seem that bad, they all seem talented. I even grew to like Nigel over the episode, especially after he put on the chicken suit. He also made a comment about feeling responsible for the lads in the kitchen and wanting to save the restaurant. I hope they all found proper jobs after.
ReplyDelete