Is Kitchen Nightmare's recipe to fame based on ruining small businesses?

Source: 7Plus

If you are not familiar with KItchen Nightmares let me give you a little context before we forward to the juicy stuff. Kitchen Nightmares focused on restaurants that were sinking financially and Gordon Ramsay like the knight in shining armor. All the episodes generally followed the same structure. Gordon Ramsay comes and meets the owners and asks them what the problem is. Then before lunch, the celebrity chef asks the owners to rate their restaurant’s food, and surprisingly all the owners give their food a stunning review. 

That is just the beginning of all the drama, after all, you need to spice up the episodes if you want people stuck to their screens. It all starts crashing down for the restaurant owners right from the point when Gordon Ramsay tries their food and gives a very visual explanation of the food. For example: “It looks like someone shat on my plate”, “Why does this look like a diaper”. You got the point right. After harshly criticizing the food he moves on to criticize the staff, the management, and the very existence of the establishment itself. After all that he helps the restaurant with a complete makeover and a new restaurant and voila the restaurant is saved.

The show had an enormous fan following and only seemed like this is a recipe for success. With that in mind network, Seven and 7Plus picked up Kitchen Nightmares Australia which began airing this October. But the show turned out to be just a Nightmare. Sydney Cafe’s owner shares how appearing on Kitchen Nightmares Australia was the worst financial decision she has taken. Sydney cafe’s owner stated that she lost thousands of dollars after Kitchen Nightmares Australia completely rebranded and renovated the cafe space. The show completely changed the identity of the cafe changing the cafe to a Lebanese place and even changing the name of the cafe from Sydney Cafe to Cafe Tabouli.

The worst part about this was Mrs. Tabouli’s community members called the changes stupid and even went further to brand her store as “a joke. Yikes! But sadly this is the whole premise of Kitchen Nightmares Australia, where the Irish-born chef Colin Fassnidge visits restaurants and makes changes that sometimes can be over the top and unnecessary. But I guess no one has told the same to the celebrity chef because he did not take the criticism from the cafe owner well. Colin Fassnidge replied to the allegations by saying, “Well, it’s not like it was good before!”. Yes, he said that. Just imagine ruining a small business and then making a statement blaming the restaurant itself.

I just hope the creators don't think debacles like this will be their road to fame. Chaos and controversy sell, but that doesn’t mean Colin will run around ruining small businesses with his ridiculous ideas just for views. Although controversial, Gordon Ramsay has helped quite a few restaurants with his show Kitchen Nightmares. Some are still open in 2022, if you want to see which restaurants are still open after Kitchen Nightmares click here. But the Australian version is looking dicey to me.

But what do you think is Kitchen Nightmares Australia pulling these stunts just to get more views? Comment down below.