How My Dream Restaurant Was Lost to a Kitchen Nightmares Fantasy

I had an unfortunate runin with Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay back in 2014 I was helping one of my first restaurants turn around in the Youth of my career I got a small steak in a restaurant returned from my services and I couldn't be more excited to be a restaurant owner and everything was going great we were 60 days into my restaurant turnaround service and things were humming along beautifully with sales already up one day the owner came in more excited than ever and said he had to talk to me at once being full of myself I thought for sure he was going to praise me and my work and tell me how happy he was with everything but to my surprise he opened the conversation by saying he had an opportunity that involved Gordon ramsy I was taken back but excited to hear this after all I was a huge fan of Kitchen Nightmares but one thing I knew about Kitchen Nightmares besides the fact that it was insanely entertaining was that it was all a sham because in all my experience I knew someone coming into a failing and flailing restaurant and spending money on a remodel and 30 days on a turnaround is like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound so the restaurant owner came in one day extremely excited and he said he had an opportunity that involved Ramsay I thought wow was he going to do a kitchen nightmare here but I already knew it was too late the restaurant was turned around and on top of that even at this restaurant's worst it was nowhere near as bad as the ones you see on Kitchen Nightmares finally the owner sat me down cut the suspense and told me what this opportunity was all about and to my dismay he had watched Kitchen Nightmares the night before before and wanted to implement one of those changes or many of those changes he saw on the show I of course interjected and tried to convince him that it was a huge mistake he did not oblige he was dead set on his new ideas so we went with his way 14 days later I realized that this new formula was not going to mesh with mine and I had to part ways I gave him my share of the restaurant back and I said goodbye 2 months later the owner of the restaurant I had just left called me back to ask if I could come back the ramsy experiment had failed miserably but I already had a new client and I had a decline a little over a year later they closed their doors for good it was sad this story always frustrates me but I wanted to learn from it so I dug into Kitchen Nightmares because I knew it was complete BS of course Ramsay's food ideas were great and his ideas are turn around the restaurant were spoton but the problem that ideas without systems are just dreams wandering thoughts for example ramsy would train the cooks and the servers for 30 days is and then what are there systems to manage the staff after that to make sure they keep the high standard implemented what about all the new hires are there systems to train them in the new ways or their manuals created because without all that stuff it's just a matter of time before everything goes back to the way it was you can't just train people once and expect for the best so with that I did some research to find out what I could learn about kitchen nightmare success rate of the restaurants it saved and honestly it was a lot worse than I ever thought but before I get into that let's give credit where credits do Gordon Rams is of course a Titan of The Culinary world he has owned and operated an impressive 132 restaurants globally expanding his Empire with 67 venues in just the past 5 years alone and a deep dive into those establishments reveals a striking Testament to Ramsay's badassery because Although statistics say the restaurant industry is brutal and as an industry it sees 30% of new restaurants falter within the first year Ramsay's Ventures boast an impressive 9% closure rate a figure that significantly overshadows the norm for restaurant tours this data not only highlights Ramsay's exceptional skill in navigating the restaurant business but also cements his status as a Titan of The Culinary world so he's clearly a master of opening and keeping open his venues but what do the numbers of the restaurants he tried to save during Kitchen Nightmares show us well over the course of Kitchen Nightmares Gordon Ramsey attempted to save over a hundred restaurants so how many did he actually save in the original British version only five of the 28 restaurants Ramsay visited are still open and even worse 59% of them closed within the first year of the episode airing in the American version of the 77 restaurants that were saved only 13 are open today which lands his success rate at just 177% combining both the American and British versions that adds up to just 18 of 105 establishments still operating now if you think about it if Ramsay never attempted to save any of those 105 restaurants in the first place then statistically around 15 would still be in business that means outside of Statistics only three restaurants were technically saved out of the 105 Ramsey attempted to save so why did Ramsey fail so hard at saving these restaurants when he clearly has such a talent as a restaurant tour that's because he wasn't fixing the problem Gordon Ramsay's approach to revamping restaurants on his Kitchen Nightmares often resembles like I said putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound yes he mo modernizes the menu with state-of-the-art dishes but once he departs significant challenges arise like who manages the ordering of the produce and proteins for the new menu how is the quality of the ingredients maintained who ensures ongoing training for all staff and new staff and who makes sure the staff adheres to Ramsey standards typically the answer is nobody and nothing struggling owners are usually challenged with managing their employees in the first place which is a big part of the reason why the restaurants were faltering in the first place having someone come and train their staff one time over isn't going to change this it will only be a matter of time before things inevitably go back to the way they were the problem lies in the absence of systems for a restaurant to maintain the improvements Ramsay introduced it needs robust systems for quality control training and inventory management Etc you get what I'm saying without these systems Ramsay's Innovations are merely ideas lacking the structure for long-term implementation the issue extends to the service portion of the restaurant as well ramsy might reach retrain servers bartenders and Hostess but without systems to ensure continuous adherence to these standards the initial improvements will wither and die the essence of a successful restaurant lies not just in excellence of the food and drinks but in the systems that underpin every aspect of its operation great systems can Elevate even the most mediocre offerings but not the other way around because lack of systems can Doom even the finest food and drinks Ramsay's High failure rate with Kitchen Nightmares post intervention is due to this fundamental oversight of providing ideas but not the mechanism to sustain them missing the most critical piece of the puzzle for lasting success the most successful restaurants in the world in fact all the successful restaurants in the world have intricate systems for every aspect of the daytoday systems aren't hard to create and implement it just takes the knowledge and the strategy why am I telling you all this because I'm here to help independent restaurant owners grow their restaurants far beyond what they thought imaginable using my 20 years of experience of growing restaurants in the corporate world I can help so subscribe to learn more profit hacking tips and tricks like this and click the notification button so you get the latest updates and start applying these ASAP until then take action

Channel: The 30% Rule By Preston Lee

Views: 14,740

Keywords: How I Lost My Restaurant, Kitchen Nightmares Analysis, How to Save a Failing Restaurant, Restaurant Consulting Services, gordon ramsay, Kitchen nightmares, Management, Marketing, Hospitality, Ramsay, popular restaurant makeover, struggling, optimization, untold stories, Gordon Ramsay Sham, michelin star, my restaurant, gordon ramsay restaurants, gordon ramsay likes the food, are gordon ramsay restaurants worth it, success story, restaurant ownership, restaurant closure

Id: 3Kh08hOLA2k

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2024