The Worst Thing Gordon Ramsay Saw On Kitchen Nightmares

If you've ever watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares," you know that he has witnessed some horrifyingly "nightmarish" things. He's come face-to-face with moldy croutons, slime-covered poultry, drowned mice in cleaning supplies, and dirty shoes and rodent droppings beneath his banquette seating (per YouTube). At one restaurant, he encountered a dessert tray filled with decaying food and an ill customer that had just ingested rotten lobster.  

Yes, Gordon Ramsay regularly visited eateries that appeared to thumb their noses at health regulations and proper food handling procedures. He dined where a stomach with lesser courage might not tread. And, he spent a great deal of time making retching noises and searching for a bucket. Ramsay has eaten some seriously daunting meals and lived to complain about it. But after visiting vendors across America and the United Kingdom, one moment of grossness actually stood out as the worst of all. 

When Sean Evans, the host of "Hot Ones" asked Gordon Ramsay to share the most disturbing thing he'd encountered at a restaurant on "Kitchen Nightmares," one can only imagine the number of things that sprang to his mind. The first terror that he mentioned was a tartar sauce that was over three years expired and so rancid that it was "festering, bubbling like something out of Harry f***ing Potter'" (via YouTube). In the video, he also mentioned rats the size of cats and a plate of nachos covered in plastic cheese smothered in mold. Ack.  

Clearly, if something at a restaurant stands out in Ramsay's memory as one of the most disgusting things he's ever witnessed, it's a spectacularly bad look. But for the show's devotees, it probably did make for great TV viewing. After all, who doesn't love the thought of following Ramsay as he peered into the nooks and crannies of what were supposedly the greasiest greasy spoons?