Fleming - Kitchen Nightmares Update - Open or Closed?

In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Fleming in Miami, Florida.

Fleming is owned by Andy Hall and wife Suzanne.

During the 1980's Fleming was the busiest family restaurant in town and it was difficult to get a table.

The restaurant remains stuck in the 80s and the trade has dwindled to nothing except for a few loyal customers.

The owners know nothing of Scandinavian cuisine and hired a classically trained Cuban chef Orlando to cook the Scandinavian food.

They have made no changes to the menu or the decor since they purchased the restaurant.

Orlando is keen to make changes to the menu but Andy is reluctant to alienate the few loyal customers that they have.

The clientele that come to the restaurant are mostly older people.

The servers read obituaries frequently to see if any of the customers are listed on there.

Suzanne says that her husband is afraid to change anything.

She believes that the restaurant shouldn’t worry about what the old customers think.

Suzanne thinks that they should also work to draw in younger and middle-aged people as they’ll be long term customers.

Gordon arrives at the restaurant expecting to meet Danish owners only to discover that the Danish have left and the chef is Cuban.

Gordon sees a queue of deserts arranged on a table which the couple said was what the previous owner of Fleming used.

Gordon is served crudites before his meal and remarks that it is very old fashioned.

His server Julie who has worked there for 15 years tells him that the only thing that has changed in that time is the staff.

Gordon orders a mix of Danish dishes from the menu.

The Cured Salmon Gravlax is hideous and tastes off, with a dead fly served on the plate along with it.

The Frikadelle is hot, bland and mushy and the duck dish looks like it was roasted a couple of days ago and is not even moist.

Gordon notices that a customer has a foil swan tiramisu and he is impressed.

Cindee, one of the servers, teaches Gordon how to make it.

Gordon meets with the chef, Orlando, and the owners to give them a feedback on the dishes he tasted.

Andy states that he hasn’t changed the menu since he bought the restaurant.

Gordon decides to observe the restaurant’s dinner service.

Word of Chef Ramsay’s arrival has filled the restaurant with customers for the first time in five years.

The food makes its way out of the kitchen at a good speed but every dish is sent back to the kitchen for being bland and poorly cooked.

Gordon ventures into the storage unit where he discovers rotting meat and raw, defrosting and cooked duck stored together.

Gordon orders them to remove the duck from the menu and the duck dishes from customers tables.

Andy doesn't seem to think this a problem and believes they can carry on serving food.

Gordon tells him that either he shuts down the kitchen or he is leaving.

Gordon, frustrated by Andy’s laid-back attitude, decides to talk with Suzanne to get some answers.

The next day, Gordon talks to the locals, who all seem to know of the restaurant’s previous fame.

They say no one will go to the restaurant now until it changes as the food is dated and poor.

Gordon’s research clearly points out how damaged the restaurant reputation really is.

Many of the people who work at Fleming realize they are in desperate need of change but Andy does not seem to agree with that.

Gordon meets with the staff them and pleas with them to start by forgetting about Danish food and challenges them to cook some dishes.

The front of house staff tries the food including the fresh seared tuna dish and they love it.

Gordon revamps the restaurant with a modern makeover and the dated pink walls are gone.

At the reveal the staff and owners were so happy that they shed tears at the new restaurant.

Cindee says that the revamp had brought hope and changed the atmosphere from that of despair to happiness, which is what the restaurant needed.

Now that the changes in decor are complete, the next step Chef Ramsay took was organize a swimsuit fashion show to market the restaurant to younger clienteles.

He also gives Andy a makeover which made the restaurant owner look 10 years younger and most importantly to Suzanne he was also happy.

The menu is revamped with new modern dishes and he introduces a dessert trolley.

Relaunch night kicks off with Andy taking charge in the restaurant and they have the Miami Heat basketball players as the special guests.

Customers get a choice of salads with their meals, however the chefs are putting the wrong ingredients in the salads.

The customers are getting impatient as the kitchen is backed up by salads and they are left waiting for food.

The kitchen soon recovers from the salad dilemma.

An hour into service, entrees began making their way into the dining room, bringing the relaunch back on track.

While Gordon was away from the kitchen, the old cooker stops working so they tinker with the equipment to get it to work again.

They end up causing a fire across the whole hob.

Gordon comes in and saves the day, putting out the fire.

The kitchen pulls together and the food makes its way out to the customers.

The customers were extremely responsive to the new menu as they loved the new food.

They were able to socialize and enjoy the new atmosphere at the restaurant.

The dessert trolley was popular and everyone loved the dessert, leaving nothing behind on the plates.

Gordon tells them that the only thing standing in the way of success was their equipment.

Gordon makes an emergency call and gets them a state of the art tailor made oven and hob.

What Happened Next at Fleming?

In the days that followed, they embraced the changes Gordon had made and Andy believes they are on the right track.

However two months after filming, they returned some customer favourites to the menu that were popular with patrons, whilst also keeping Gordon's original menu in place.

They also returned to serving crudites, offering soup of the day and Caesar salad with every meal.

They brought back the dessert bar.

They were inspired to make new changes including introducing theme nights and new early bird special, the Economic Recovery Menu.

Fleming closed in October 2010, 5 months after airing of the episode.

Yelp reviews after the filming are mixed.

Many of the regular customers didn't like Gordon's changes.

There have been some claims that the show is fake after the filming of this episode and Andy claimed he spent very little time with Gordon.

Fleming aired on May 07 2010, the episode was filmed in July 2009 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 3 episode 10.

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This post was last updated in March 2023.