Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares
Format	Reality television
Starring	Gordon Ramsay
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	32 (24 original and 8 revisits)
Production
Running time	44 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Picture format	576i (SDTV) (Season 1 & 2) 1080i (HDTV) (Season 3 – Season 5)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original run	27 April 2004 (2004-04-27) – 30 January 2009 (2009-01-30)
Chronology
Related shows	Kitchen Nightmares
External links
Website

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is a television programme featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning programme debuted on Channel 4 in 2004.

In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just one week. Ramsay revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence. Episodes from series one and two have been re-edited with additional new material as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited; they featured Ramsay checking up on restaurants a year or more after he attended to them. In October 2009 Ramsay announced that after his four-year contract expired in 2011 he would not continue with Kitchen Nightmares and would instead work on his other shows.^[1]

A one-off special entitled Ramsay's Great British Nightmare aired on Channel 4 on 30 January 2009 as part of 'The Great British Food Fight', a two week series of food-related programming. In the program, Ramsay campaigned for viewers to start supporting local restaurants, especially in a bad economy.

An American adaptation of this show, titled Kitchen Nightmares, debuted 19 September 2007, on Fox. It is broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA.

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1: 2004

Series 2: 2005

Series 3: 2006

Series 4: 2006

Series 5: 2007

Great British Nightmare

Libel

In June 2006, Ramsay won a High Court case against the Evening Standard, which had alleged that scenes and the general condition of the restaurant had been faked for the first episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. These allegations followed reports from previous owner of Bonapartes, Sue Ray. Ramsay was awarded £75,000 plus costs.^[2] Ramsay said at the time: "I won't let people write anything they want to about me. We have never done anything in a cynical, fake way."

Reception

The programme received favourable reviews for its in-depth look into the restaurant industry. Jane Redfem of Off the Telly commented that the show "could have been cynically designed to exploit Ramsay's foul-mouthed reputation... But watch, listen and think about what he is saying, and his genuine commitment to his profession in general, and the task at hand become abundantly evident."^[3] Lorna Martin of The Observer said "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is compulsive viewing – packed with excitement, emotion and entertainment."^[4] Slate's Sara Dickerman was impressed by the show's "economic realism" in the tired food television genre. She wrote, "There is something refreshing about a show that doesn't promise a ticket to ride (a surgical makeover, a million dollars, Richard Branson's job) but instead offers restaurant owners the hope—if they seriously reform their establishments—that they might, just might, break even for the next few months."^[5]

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was named Best Feature at the 2005^[6] and 2008 BAFTA awards.^[7] It also earned the 2006 International Emmy for best non-scripted entertainment.^[6]

DVD releases

United States

On 3 March 2009, Acorn Media released season 1 of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on DVD in the US. Season 2 was released on 1 September 2009.

Canada

For the Canadian market, Visual Entertainment has released the first three seasons of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on DVD in two volume sets.

International versions

Country	Title	Broadcaster	Chef	Original run	Source(s)
Brazil	Kitchen Nightmares	Band	Alex Atala	2012	[10]
Croatia	Jezikova juha	RTL	Stephan Macchi	15 May 2009 – 23 June 2011	[11]
Czech Republic	Ano, šéfe! (Yes, Chef!)	Prima	Zdeněk Pohlreich	2009–12	[12]
Denmark	Med kniven for struben (With the knife for throat)	TV3	Bo Bech	6 March 2007 – 2012	[13]
Finland	Kuppilat kuntoon, Jyrki Sukula! (Jyrki Sukula charm right!)	Nelonen	Jyrki Sukula	2012 – present	[14]
Estonia	Köögikubjas (Kitchen Hood)	Kanal2	Juha Matti Rantanen	2011–12	[15]
France	Cauchemar en cuisine (Nightmare in the kitchen)	M6	Philippe Etchebest	2011 – present	[16]
Germany	Rach, der Restauranttester (Rach, the Restaurant Tester)	RTL	Christian Rach	11 September 2005 – present	[17]
Italy	Cucine da incubo (Nightmare kitchen)	Fox Life	Antonino Cannavacciuolo	15 May 2013 – present	[18]
Poland	Kuchenne rewolucje (Kitchen revolutions)	TVN	Magda Gessler	6 March 2010 – present	[19]
Spain	Pesadilla en la cocina (Nightmare in the kitchen)	laSexta	Alberto Chicote	2012 – present	[20]
Sweden	Kniven mot strupen (The knife against the throat)	TV3	Alexander Nilsson	19 November 2009 – 2012	[21]
Switzerland	Bumann, der Restauranttester (Bumann, the Restaurant Tester)	3+	Daniel Bumann	15 October 2009 – present	[22]
Ukraine	На ножах (On Knives) Na nozhakh	1+1	Aram Mnatsakanov	2012 – present	[23]
United States	Kitchen Nightmares	Fox	Gordon Ramsay	19 September 2007 – present	N/A

References

External links

• Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares at Channel4.com
• Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares at IMDb
• Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares at BBC America
• Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares at Food Network Canada

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