Most Ridiculous Moments On Kitchen Nightmares

When you think of the imposing kitchen force that is Gordon Ramsay, several words come to mind: "strict," "loud," "intense," "rude," and basically every synonym of those four. One word that doesn't bode well with the chef, however, is "ridiculous." For those of us who've seen him in action, if Chef Ramsay gets the slightest inkling you're acting in any sort of ridiculous manner, you will hear from him, and rest assured, you don't want to.

As you can imagine, even though people know Ramsay's fiery temper lurks just beneath the surface, it doesn't stop some of them from showing the chef their true — and many times unconventional — selves, and the results are exactly as you'd expect. 

Kitchen Nightmares is a show full of intense moments, but, peppered in with the intensity is the downright ridiculous. Lucky for you, we've compiled the most ridiculous moments so you don't have to go searching. Bon appetit!

It's never nice when someone infers that your look is "unpolished." Not surprisingly, that's one of Gordon Ramsay's favorite adjectives, and during one episode of Kitchen Nightmares, the chef brought with him an employee from one of his own restaurants in New York City to help polish up a maitre d' who seemed to struggle with the concept of fine dining. 

Jean Baptiste, Ramsay's employee, started with the maitre d's attire, noting he wasn't the most fashion-forward individual. Then, it came time to critique the physical movement around the dining room. Here's where things get ridiculous.

Chef Ramsay chose to step in for this particular critique, and it wasn't pretty. The chef gave his impersonation of the maitre d', which was basically running back and forth with his head held down and his shoulders slouched forward. Then, describing the behavior, Ramsay said, "Every time I see you, you're running around like a baby f***ing rhinoceros trying to have a s***." 

Well, at least he didn't sugarcoat anything.

Communication skills are essential in every aspect of life. But if you don't have them when you work in the non-stop aggressive environment of the restaurant industry, you're doomed. So, when Gordon Ramsay sat down with the Pellegrino family during their episode of Kitchen Nightmares to discuss why they their business was struggling, he assumed there might be a bit of bickering. He quickly realized he was in way over his head, though.

During the family debate, Ramsay reinforced the fact he needed the truth and nothing but the truth about the restaurant's operations, and the quicker he got it, the faster he could find workable solutions. However, within seconds of the Pellegrino family gathering, problems arose. Accusations started flying, people started talking over each other, and verbal bedlam broke out. 

Members started interjecting opinions only to be shut down by the louder screamers, and all Ramsay could do was hang his head in disgust that the family communication he was dealing with had more cracks than a New York City sidewalk. Just watching Ramsay's face as he tries to understand anything they're saying lets you know how ridiculous the situation really is. 

Saying "Gordon Ramsay knows his way around a kitchen" is like saying "Ernest Hemingway knew his way around a typewriter." The guy's spent years working his way up the chain of command and now, well, he's Gordon freakin' Ramsay. When the kitchen game-face comes on, you better withstand the heat, and sometimes that means Ramsay's gotta step into frame and destroy some of your utensils to make his point heard. That's exactly what he did during this episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

A huge problem that plagues many restaurants is the desire to serve dishes in a unique way, when often the strategy comes off as preposterous and unnecessary. Well, in the case of one chef who served his salads stuffed inside plastic funnels, Ramsay let him know how ridiculous a tactic it was by laying on the heat and putting an end to the madness. Taking a creme brulee torch, Ramsay literally set the plastic funnels ablaze and melted them down to a puddle of sad and depleted plastic. Sometimes, you have to burn down what was to make way for what is.

It doesn't matter what situation you're in, you never want to hear the sound of handcuffs clicking into place because someone (hopefully not you) found themselves in a world of legal trouble. But, it happens, and on one episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay actually brought in a police officer to cuff the owner of the restaurant. However, the "crime" the owner committed wasn't fraud or theft; it was something no one could have possibly predicted.

An officer entered the establishment and slapped handcuffs onto the owner's wrists as Ramsay explained the owner's crime: too much picking up after everyone and allowing his staff to slack off without consequences. Ramsay explained of the cuffs, "You're not touching anything tonight. You're going to tell them exactly what you want them to do. Run your business vocally." Naturally, the owner was relieved when he realized the cuffs were all an act to teach him an important lesson about leadership, and hopefully, he took the lesson to heart. Still, you have to admit the whole display was a bit ridiculous.

Every chef wants to believe the food they're serving customers night after night is worthy of bragging rights that gets people talking and spreading the word. This was why the blind taste test Gordon Ramsay had two chefs engage in was so fascinating — and hilarious — to watch. If a chef was to honestly critique the food they serve without knowing it's actually their own dish, what would they say?

Well, Ramsay figured out what at least two chefs would say in one Kitchen Nightmares episode. He took the ingredients from several of their ridiculous dishes and blended them up to make a thick double-shot of each option. Sounds kinda gnarly, right? Well, as it turned out, the chefs weren't too enthusiastic about their own flavors.

First up was the chocolate-and-prawn smoothie based on the restaurant's signature dish. One blindfolded chef didn't even want to give it a second taste. "The thing's f***ing horrible," he said. The second blended concoction contained chicken and banana based off another menu item. Again, the reaction was disgust. After that, the blindfolds came off and extreme embarrassment ensued.

The wonderful world of adjectives allows us to describe nouns in the most meaningful and accurate ways possible. But, that wholesome world of descriptive words can take a turn for the worse when someone wants to insult something. And, you better believe Gordon Ramsay flexes all the descriptive words in his toolbox when he comes across something completely revolting.

Ramsay had plenty to say about one restaurant's duck dish during a brutally honest Kitchen Nightmares episode. For those who enjoy duck, when it's cooked to prefection, there isn't really a meat that compares. However, when you dress the entree up with a sauce that tastes like it was scooped up from the bottom of a sump pump, problems arise. 

Ramsay, trying to figure out what exactly was in one owner's duck accompaniment, exclaimed, "What the f*** did you put in that sauce? It's like some f***ing sci-fi sperm!" Yea, you read that correctly.

"The truth will set you free." It's a quote that rings true for just about everything, but unfortunately, it isn't practiced by everyone. When it comes to a professional workplace environment, you need to trust people have your back and that they are giving you the correct information, or else you suddenly find uncloggable holes in your ship and the only option is to sink. And, in an unrelenting environment like a restaurant, Gordon Ramsay expects — and respects — honesty all the time. But, it's not always given.

On one episode of Kitchen Nightmares, just as Ramsay sat down to enjoy a meal, an employee walked up to him to have a chat and talk about their roles on the floor. Introducing himself as the general manager, Ramsay begins to question the employee about their managing style. Then, everything begins to break apart. 

It turned out the man speaking to Ramsay "assumed the role" of GM all on his own, and was actually nothing more than a busboy who was previously fired for mouthing off, according to the owner of the restaurant.

In the world of Gordon Ramsay, know your role.

You can sense someone has a passion for something when you see the work they put into the final outcome. When a chef steps foot inside a kitchen and wants every customer who walks through the front doors of their restaurant to leave with a smile and satisfied appetite, you can sense it immediately by how hard they're slaving away over the grill. Passion equals success, but as Chef Gordon Ramsay found out, not every person running a restaurant has passion in droves.

Ramey took a trip to a seafood restaurant in Brighton, England, for an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, and when he sat down with the owner to discuss issues, some alarming things came to light almost immediately. Firstly, the 60-year-old man running the seafood restaurant has "an aversion to fish" based on an experience he had when he was 5 years old. Apparently, a fish bone lodged itself in his throat, and he never forgave it. 

How can an owner have an opinion about his food if he doesn't even eat it?

Job interviews are never anyone's idea of a good time. Staring across the table at a potential employer who's trying to figure you out while at the same time you're trying to manage their expectations is stressful. So, you can imagine what it's like when Gordon Ramsay is the employer and you have to prove your worth in one elevator pitch, or it's back to a life of line cookery. If you imagined it as really freakin' stressful, you're on the right track.

During one episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay ran into an old restaurant manager he knew from an earlier episode, and the two men had a one-on-one discussion on the sidewalk right outside the East India Grill in California. Ramsay turned the attention to one important question: "Is there anything you wanted to say to me now that you didn't get a chance to say last year?"

There was something. The ex-manager swallowed his pride and straight-up asked Chef Ramsay for a job. What was the response? "Do something about your sweating first, and I may think about it. It's like Niagara Falls on your armpits." Classic Ramsay.

Violence in the workplace never flies, but a guy like Gordon Ramsay with many years of intense line cooking experience under his belt has seen some things. And sometimes these things involve people ready to rumble WWE style. One restaurant on Kitchen Nightmares became a no-holds-barred fighting ring shortly after a debt collector arrived unannounced, and Gordon was caught in the middle of a violent anger eruption.

As Gordon briefs the staff of a restaurant called Peter's before dinner service begins, an unexpected debt collector walks in, disrupting the meeting. Words are exchanged between Gordon and the collector, but when the stranger points at the restaurant owner's son, Peter, and starts giving him attitude, the gloves come off and Peter harnesses the fury of Mike Tyson in a split second. Lucky for the collector, the staff and Gordon manage to hold Peter back from delivering the butt-whooping of the century, and eventually, he takes off in his car.

It's fine to have a variety of sandwiches on the menu, as long as one of them isn't a "knuckle sandwich."

If there's one thing you expect when Gordon Ramsay marches into a kitchen is a level of respect and cooperation from the staff. His experience in the highest caliber kitchens around the world means he knows more than they do, so when he talks, they listen. But, some people think it works the opposite way, and when Ramsay gives Kitchen Nightmares advice they don't agree with, rebellion ensues. One guy even threw the Michelin-winning chef off his kitchen line in a fit of frustration. Big mistake.

It all starts with the kitchen microwave. Ramsay is appalled to discover nearly every dish the kitchen cooks is reheated in one single microwave. He literally finds a line of food waiting their turns for the little box to blast them warm again. The owner — who's also the head chef — starts to feel the heat of Ramsay's irate mood, and he can't keep it in any longer. "You f*** off. Get out of my line," he aggressively demands of Ramsay. Whoa.

Gordon eventually does just that, but not before giving the owner an intimidating profanity-laced spiel while the man's mother (also a restaurant employee) shamefully holds her head in her hands while eavesdropping from another room.

Listen, if you're a chef watching in horror as Gordon Ramsay storms into the kitchen, careens past the salamander, and stomps through the dish pit on his way to eat your food, kick those nerves out the door quick. Get your head in the game and put your best foot forward. And bloody hell, make sure the food you're eagerly trying to impress him with hasn't spoiled. Unfortunately, not every place on Kitchen Nightmares received that memo.

A place called Bonapartes in Silsden, England, was in need of a major overhaul, and Ramsay showed up ready to get the staff working their butts off to turn things around. When it came time to try Bonaparts' signature dish — scallops with black pudding sauce — the failure was of epic proportions. The scallops had spoiled, and Ramsay ran out the back door ready to vomit while the kitchen workers stared in horror. Utterly disappointed by the whole operation, Ramsay left the head chefs with a grave warning that rancid seafood kills customers. No one wants death on their hands.

Where there is food, there will be hungry specimens trying to eat that food — restaurant dining rooms attract hungry humans, after all. But, on a smaller scale, kitchen pantries have food, and they attract their own demographic of hungry customers: bugs and rodents. 

When Gordon Ramsay visits a struggling Indian restaurant called Dillon's in one stomach-churning episode of Kitchen Nightmares, he finds a kitchen so nasty it sends shivers down the chef's spine.

Almost immediately upon entering the hallways of the kitchen, Ramsay spots the first (of very, very many) cockroaches scampering across the floor. Pretty soon, boxes are moved, refrigerators are shifted, and products are inspected. Hordes of roaches come pouring out of the crevices of boxes as Ramsay tears into them, and rat droppings are scattered in piles all over the ground. And don't even get the chef started on the crates of browning soggy lettuce and fuzzy pockmarked meat. This is the kind of stuff culinary night terrors are made of.

Gordon Ramsay's goal on Kitchen Nightmares is to build a restaurant up and help it thrive. Substantially increase the customer base and shoot profits through the roof. But, sometimes a place is so revolting the only solution is to shut the doors, eat the monetary loss, and teach the staff a few dozen things about properly running a business. Ramsay demanded no food be served on the night he visited The Grasshopper in New Jersey, for fear that a new strain of listeria would develop in the kitchen.

The first thing Ramsay yanks out of a fridge is a big sack of raw chicken tenders. He cuts it open and shakes his head in disgust while he sifts through the slimy film covering them all. Then, he dangles a piece of raggedly cut meat in front of the embarrassed staff. Raw meat was stored with cooked meat, and the overall level of cross-contamination throughout the whole kitchen was enough to potentially send guests to the hospital with a serious foodborne illness. And that's the kind of publicity even someone like Gordon Ramsay can't erase.