If you were to ask most foodies what their all-time favorite Gordon Ramsay series is, odds are you will get one of three answers. While both Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef have legions of fans, Kitchen Nightmares, which aired on FOX until 2014, has some of the most devoted and vocal.
Kitchen Nightmares ran for six seasons in England and then enjoyed seven more successful years here in the United States. It saw Ramsay go into a failing restaurant, rip it apart from top to bottom and then attempt to remake it so the owners had a fighting chance to turn things around.
While watching Ramsay work is always fun, it was usually the drama of seeing him deal with owners who were clueless about what state their business was really in that made the series work. Nine times out of ten tears were shed, someone got yelled at and/or fired and then they would wake up, realize Ramsay was right and finally start to listen.
And Gordon Ramsay would pull no punches when he was critiquing a restaurant. If you thought he reserved all that venom for the chefs on Hell’s Kitchen you would be sorely mistaken. The man could be incredibly harsh with cooks and owners, being brutally honest in order to show them that change had to happen.
Why Gordon Ramsay ended Kitchen Nightmares and now regrets it.
In fact, it was that honest criticism that eventually led to Ramsay ending the series, which was still a huge hit when it went off the air. It turned out that Ramsay would hear a lot of flack for how he treated the eateries featured on Kitchen Nightmares. Combine that with the fact many of the restaurants were in trouble again once the cameras and Ramsay left and he finally just got fed up and pulled the plug.
According to Mashed, after a few years and a bit of reflection, Ramsay realized the reason he ended Kitchen Nightmares was a mistake. It turns out he made the decision to end the show in a moment of anger and nothing more. And he now knows that wasn’t the right reason to bring the series to an end.
As for the criticism about the restaurants featured on the show failing, he says that is because they would invariably fall back into bad habits and ignore his advice. Ramsay is confident that if they had listened to him and continued to follow the plan he had put forth, they would still be successful.
So will we ever see a Kitchen Nightmares revival? It seems doubtful. Ramsay has tons of other projects and sounds like he has made his peace with the series and the reason it ended. But as they always say, never say never.
What do you think Guilty Eats Nation? Do you think Gordon Ramsay should bring back Kitchen Nightmares? Or have you already moved on? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter page.