Fall TV: Kitchen Nightmare Premiere Sept. 19

Kitchen Nightmare premiered last night (Sept.19), I liked the part in the opening where the knifes are flying at Chef Ramsay, and he catches the one coming for his head. He may have to be able to catch flying knifes the way he yells at people. The restaurant in this episode was in Babylon, NY. It is a family owned and run Italian restaurant that is not making any money and cannot pay its bills. The sister, Tina, actually owns 'Peter's Restaurant' and her brother Peter in the host. Right from the beginning, it is obvious that Peter is the problem.

To start with, Peter was late picking up Chef Ramsay. Peter had this fancy car that I am sure was not cheap. That boy has a spending problem. In the pre-show interview I remember hearing that three out of the four stoves did not work, among other things, that being the biggest headache for the cook. Even though Tina is the owner, it seems Peter made the decision not to buy new stoves but spend the money on him.

The first thing Chef Ramsay does at restaurant is sample the food already one the menu. He started complaining right away. The salad with the first dish was old, and the crab cake was cold. He also noted the oldness of the crabmeat.

Sampling the ravioli did not go any better. Chef Ramsay made a comment about the mound of parsley on the ravioli, and the sue chef got his feelings hurt because he did it. Chef Ramsay had not even been there more than a few hours and a yelling match started in the kitchen over the parsley. Surprisingly Chef Ramsay was not involved in this one.

The next day, Ramsay checks out the state of the kitchen. He found some rock hard bread, the walk in frig was not working properly (too hot) and leaking. Of course since the refrigerator was to hot there was rotten food and onions growing, just awful. At 11:00am when Peter arrives, Chef Ramsay shows them all the condition of the walk in. Ramsay asked when was the last time one of them went in there was. Peter tried to pass the blame off to the cook Robert. I think Ramsay should have gotten on the Owner Tina for the condition of the refrigerator, not Peter. Since, he is not the owner. Before Chef Ramsay does anything to the kitchen, he wants them to clean it. It should be no surprise, that peter did not help clean. Finally, Ramsay says something to Peter about his spending. However, he did not push the subject. When Ramsay is talking to the cook, the cook tells him they have not put a cent into the restaurant.

For the first service chef Ramsay wanted to see how things normally went. Things were going ok until a bill collector shows up. Peter and the bill collector have a verbal fight outside on the sidewalk. Ramsay sits and talks to Tina asking what is at stake if this restaurant does not turn around. She will lose her house. She started complaining about Peter and how he does not help and takes money like the restaurant is his personal bank account. In addition, if she withholds his paycheck he will get it out of the register. Tina needs to be able to tell Peter no and stick to it.

The next day Chef Ramsay is going to try to get through to peter, by making him and his dad work the kitchen and the girls work the floor. Ramsay was hoping to bring back the family owned restaurant feeling. Peter and his dad finally understood the cook's frustration.

On day four, Chef Ramsay surprised the family with new stoves, refrigerator, and plates. During the night Ramsay's people transformed the place. Nothing to drastic like, knocking down walls, but new equipment is good enough.

This is when we finally get to see Chef Ramsay cook. After changing the menu to more home-style type food, he had to show the cooks how to prepare the new dishes. I was surprised that he did yell at the cooks when he was cooking with them. That must mean that Robert is a decent cook, if he was not being yelled at. Everyone seems to like the new menu and the new equipment; however, the test will be that night's service.

When Ramsay was giving the crew his pep talk another bill collector showed up. Chef Ramsay told to wait a "beeping" minute so they can finish up. That started another fight; Peter shoved the collector out the door. He followed and the fight was on. Most of it was the employees holding Peter back. What I was wondering is who do they owe money too that collectors like that show up, "pay or I'll Break your leg". At least this time it was before service and no customers seen it.

The restaurant filled up quickly, the cooks seemed to have to new menu down and love having working stoves. Service was going great until Peter got hungry and ate a customer's order of baked clams. This was just the start of his bad behavior. He made a server cry, because he was called out on being lazy. Even with all that the night was successful, they had an over two hundred satisfied customers and made some profit.

Chef realizes that this is his last chance to open Peter's eyes. Ramsay tells him that he needs to set up and as of right now the place would run better without him. You could tell Peter did not like hearing that. Fox made the viewers wait

through the commercials to see if Peter took a swing at Chef Ramsay, but he didn't. Peter just tried to BS he way out of it. Ramsay tells Peter to go home and seriously think about what he brings to the business and how much he really wanted to be a part of it. As the rest of the family walks away so Chef can have one-on-one with Peter, the family proclaims their love for Chef Ramsay because he said what they could not say. Peter seemed to get the picture.

The next day Peter came on time and actually worked. Peter's restaurant is going to be ok, the customers love the new menu, and they are getting more business due to word of mouth. Peter even said that he was going to name his first son Gordon Ramsay. I believe he will. It will make for a great follow up story.

The only thing that I do not like is that they squeeze the whole week into a one-hour show. I think they spent too much time on Peter and his drama. I cannot wait until next weeks show.

Go here if you want to sign up your failing restaurant for kitchen nightmares. http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares