Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (2004)

The new series of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares hits the ground running as Gordon comes to the aid of resting actor Allan Love. Despite an aversion to fish Allan opened Ruby Tates, a high end seafood restaurant in Brighton. But it hasn’t been a success. Thanks to a pair of lazy chefs producing badly cooked, poor quality food at premium prices Ruby Tates is losing £1500 a week. And it’s not just the food that’s off-putting. The restaurant’s name is instantly forgettable, even to locals and the décor, featuring a paint splattered pair of knickers, is keeping potential punters far from the door.

This week Gordon takes a sentimental journey back to Paris, the place where he spent his formative years as a chef. But in the city that is a gourmet's dream, he's about to encounter one of his worst ever Kitchen Nightmares. Three years ago, feisty Scot Rachel made the jump from waitress to restaurateur and, together with best friend Stephanie, bought Piccolo Teatro, a bijou vegetarian restaurant in Paris, on a mission to convert the carnivorous French into a nation of vegetarians. But handicapped by her total lack of experience she is struggling to keep the restaurant afloat. She can't motivate her staff, she doesn't bother opening for lunch and the punters are totally turned off by the awful rabbit food she's dishing up. As a result Piccolo Teatro is losing £5,500 a month. Gordon's on hand with a radical plan for an emergency wake-up call. But the combination of Rachel's stubbornness and an eccentric Brazilian chef, incapable of preparing edible food, could prove too much even for the Ramsay remedy. Will Gordon be able to perform an eleventh-hour miracle, or is he about to admit defeat?

When Gordon first arrived at the Fenwick Arms, in 2006, he found the pub run by landlord Brian who, after thirty years in the business and a quadruple heart-bypass, was still determined to run his kitchen his way. But despite Brian and his partner Elaine working 120 hour weeks the pub was sinking fast. Already £250,000 in debt they were losing £1500 a week and bankruptcy was mere months away. Money management was part of Brian's problem. He had spent a fortune on unnecessary kitchen equipment and an extensive collection of novelty plates. In the kitchen, he insisted on cooking his menu of over-ambitious dishes, all coated in ostentatious and cloying sauces, while his head chef was only allowed to garnish the food. Gordon stepped in to remove Brian from the kitchen and turn him into a punter to get back to basics on the appeal of a traditional British pub. Taking to the streets, they launched a Campaign for Real Gravy, and put classic pub fare back on the menu. Finally things were starting to look up for the team at the Fenwick Arms. Now, one year on, Gordon’s back only to find that morale is at an all-time low, and Brian is ready to chuck in the towel. Can Gordon save the Fenwick Arms, again?

Gordon returns to La Parra in Spain, to see how ex-nightclub manager Laurence is getting on. Has he sank or swam since Gordon's last visit? This week, Gordon is back in Spain to see how Laurence is faring at La Parra de Burriana, an ex-pat restaurant in Nerja on the Costa del Sol, one year on. When he first arrived he found 26-year-old ex-nightclub manager Laurence who set himself up in business 18 months earlier with a loan from his dad. Although he wasn't an experienced chef, Laurence manned the kitchen on his own, determined to offer something better than chips to his largely British clientele. Laurence's menu boasted 72 options including his unforgettable signature dish: prawns in garlic with chocolate sauce. Running front-of-house was Laurence's mate Alex, while sous chef Norman was on the barbecue serving up a haphazard combination of kebabs and steaks cooked by torchlight. The Mediterranean menu had a special twist: no-one wanted to eat it. The kebabs were raw, Alex had over-booked the place (and failed to clear up the dog mess that littered the dining room) and the punters that were still turning up faced an interminable wait for their food. Unsurprisingly Laurence lost £22,000 in one year but still resisted Gordon's attempts to introduce a simple menu that will bring customers back. Could Laurence survive the summer and Gordon's efforts to get him to learn bullfighting? Now, one year on, Gordon is back to find that the good news is they've survived the winter, but the bad news is that Laurence still has ideas above his station and is planning to run before he can walk with another, second La Parra. But with cremated desserts and wine gums on the menu, Gordon's about to apply the brakes, Ramsay style.

Gordon's off to The Priory, but not to rub shoulders with wayward actors and musicians. This priory is a vast, 100 seater carvery in Haywards Heath, Sussex. This unusual venue was once a place of meditation and tranquillity as the chapel of a nineteenth-century convent. It's in a beautiful location and has been offering bargain roast dinners to its regulars for twenty years. But under its current management, things are in need of divine intervention. Owner Scott, an ex-IT consultant, bought the place for £300k but with an aging clientele eating for half-price, he’s now losing a massive £5,000 a week. And despite the heavenly setting, the food is straight from hell: recycled meat, soup in a bucket, synthetic sauces and to make matters worse, a lazy head chef content to preside over food-encrusted ovens and a disaffected staff.

Gordon takes on an ex-boxer and his feisty wife whose barroom brawls are scaring away customers Gordon might be famed for his aggression in the kitchen but he meets his match this week as Kitchen Nightmares heads to rural Wales The Fish & Anchor restaurant and bar near Lampeter is run by a couple of bruisers, ex-boxer Mike and his mouthy wife Caron. A self taught cook, Mike is a one-man pressure cooker in the kitchen as he struggles to cope with a menu too vast and wide ranging for his skills. While Mike gets steamed up in the kitchen, Carol's getting hot under the collar in the restaurant. Her unique front-of-house management style includes abusing the customers and her husband in equal measure. Every night they go twelve rounds with the local clientele who are fast deserting them to the tune of a £1,000 per week loss. Enter Gordon, who finds himself cast as marriage counsellor in a culinary battlefield. It’s a last-ditch attempt to reverse the restaurant’s disastrous reputation and put some love back into the kitchen as well as on plates. Will Mike take on board a last-minute reality check in the fight of his life, or stay on the ropes and sink?

The 120-seater Curry Lounge in Nottingham cost its owner, Raz, £500,000. But, six months after opening, it's haemorrhaging £3,000 a week. Maybe customers are put off by the decor, unkindly but accurately described by Gordon Ramsay as looking like the interior of a lap-dancing club. Raz has made a rod for his restaurant's back, thanks to the barmy idea of letting customers choose the make-up of their own curries. Yes, that's right, if you want a chicken and prawn korma, that's what you shall have. But such nonsense is draining and demoralising for the excellent kitchen staff, so Ramsay brings the Curry Lounge back to basics in one of the most satisfying Kitchen Nightmares of recent memory. Everyone is charming, so Ramsay doesn't need to bluster too much: he can get on with bringing his skill and common sense to bear on a restaurant that's about to run out of luck.

Gordon attempts to help Nigel Nieddu turn around his restaurant in Hampshire. He opened it four years ago but despite having the place refurbished it is still running at a loss.