Kitchen Nightmares - March 2008

Like millions of people, I love the new generation of cooking shows. An entertainment form, pioneered by the great Julia Child and furthered by Martha Stewart, has developed into a whole network dedicated to food entertainment: Food Network. BBC America and Fine Living also have their share of celebrity chefs.

One of my favorite cooking shows is called “Kitchen Nightmares.” It’s on BBC America, starring Chef Gordon Ramsay. The premise of the show is that Chef Ramsay takes a failing restaurant, analyzes it, and tries to save it from insolvency. By the time Chef Ramsay arrives with camera crew and some money to spend on rehabilitating the restaurant, the owners are deep in debt and usually about to lose their business and home. In return for money and advice, the struggling restaurateurs must agree that their failures be available for broadcast on national television.

We all know that good television these days is often made up of real lives, drama and devastation. Why is it that we seem to take so much interest, dare I say pleasure, in the pain and failure of others? I think it’s because most of us know that “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” We have all had enough tragedy in or near our own lives to empathize with other desperate people, such as those on reality TV. We want them to receive redemption as an example of hope for us all.

The problem in these restaurants is always the same: bad management. Most often the business is failing because the owner operator is unable to see his or her own faulty management practices. Sometimes it’s irresponsible hired management. One common mistake of bad management is an overly complicated menu that’s expensive and difficult to execute. I was surprised to see how often this is a problem. Chef Ramsay proves that most people want simple food executed extremely well. Haute cuisine should be left to the few Michelinrated restaurants with highly trained chefs on staff.

The next most common problem is customers waiting far too long for their ordered food. This is usually caused by the very complicated nature and wide variety of the items on the menu. Delays cause confusion and upset that, in turn, cause more delays. Customers don’t come back. They don’t buy again. The restaurant closes.

What’s interesting is that the business operators on these shows seem to accept change only when they have a financial gun to their heads. The numbers show that often, even in the face of certain failure, people will not change what they are doing in order to improve and survive. Restaurants as a business have a higher failure rate than most small businesses. New research seems to indicate the three-year failure rate at about 61%. This explains why people frequently have to put up their homes as collateral to get a loan from a bank. When their business fails, they lose their homes to the bank to pay off the bad loan. It is possible to start a restaurant without a huge amount of capital, putting the dream within reach for many people.

I have been most impressed by how intensely hard and long chefs and restaurant operators work. I like to cook as a hobby but can’t imagine trying to prepare and serve more than 100 dinners in a five-hour service. This continuous hard labor clearly wears on the people involved. I can only imagine the psychological pressure the creeping financial ruin brings up for these operators.

I’ve learned a lot of things from Chef Ramsay, many which are applicable to any industry: Work a little harder than you have to. Customers are impatient. Make sure you can produce what you offer. Try to keep products simple enough that you can deliver them consistently. Don’t try to sell customers stuff they don’t want for more than they want to pay. The world does not care if you have personal problems or even tragedy; they just want good stuff. You always have too many competitors. Know what you are good at and not good at. Let people who are better than you at certain things do their jobs without interference from you. All people want to be treated well. Oh yeah, and never own a restaurant.