A couple finds it hard to listen to Chef Ramsay's advice.A couple finds it hard to listen to Chef Ramsay's advice.A couple finds it hard to listen to Chef Ramsay's advice.
Photos
- Narrator
- (voice)
- Self - Head Chef
- (as Amy)
- Self - Owner
- (as Samy)
- Self - Food Runner
- (as Katy)
- Self - Server
- (as Miranda)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOwners Amy and Samy Bouzaglo were initially able to cash in on the notoriety of their "Kitchen Nightmares" appearance. Their restaurant became something of a tourist attraction, and they even marketed t-shirts emblazoned with quotes from the show ("I speak feline MEOW", "Here's your pizza, go fuck yourself"). But the couple's continued erratic behavior, and a firestorm of criticism on social media, finally forced Amy's Baking Company to close on September 1, 2015.
- Quotes
Himself - Host: Well, it's finally happened. After almost a hundred Kitchen Nightmares, I met two owners who I could not help. It wasn't because I didn't want to, it was because they are incapable of listening. And in a short period of time, they've managed to piss off the community and go through over a hundred employees in one year. Samy and Amy continued to blame everyone else, yet their biggest problem is themselves. And I know whatever changes I would've made, they were never going to stick with them and that's why I've decided to do something I've never done before. It's such a shame.
[Gordon walks to and enters his car, starts the engine, and drives off]
- ConnectionsFeatured in MsMojo: Top 20 Most Shocking Dr. Phil Guests (2020)
"Kitchen Nightmares", the US variation, was a whole new ballgame. Here we had a chef Ramsay who simply loved being a TV-personality and people who simply wanted to be seen on television, no matter what the cost. The issue of food quickly became secondarily, Ramsay soon turned from cook to family-councilor and the show degenerated to a Reality-TV soap-opera.
The 'Crazy Amy' episode (as it is commonly known in its form as internet meme) summons up all that is rotten about KN-US and, to an extent, with Reality-TV. We have a couple who's obviously dysfunctional (and that is putting it mildly). Any layman psycho-analyst will tell you that the show's "antagonist", Amy, is a severely disturbed person, suffering from a histrionic personality, psychotic paranoia and possibly schizophrenia. Along comes her delusional, self-loathing husband, who likewise has dreams of grandeur, although one isn't sure if it's about running a restaurant of playing a mafia-crook (or perhaps he has watched one "The Sopranos"-episode too many). But do people really want to gawk at this on TV? That's not a documentary; it's not even Reality-TV. It's voyeurism in its purest form.
Now, I wonder, what does this have to do with cooking? What does this have to do with anything apart from gawking at the mentally unfit? What next? Will people go to Ramsay's restaurants in London and expect a bearded lady, Siamese twins and the elephant man tap-dancing? Loud, obnoxious, completely acting it out and over-acting it as long as somebody is watching; it represents much (if not everything) that people outside the US find discomforting about Americans. Which bring us to the issue of "BEEPS" on the show: In case you were wondering, yes, people tend to swear a lot – not only in the US. Few can finish a sentence without the f-word (or an n-word. Or an s-word. Or a y-word, you name it). It's a symptom of TV-programs to put "BEEPS" over how people generally talk and if you feel that this is a cop-out, you're probably right).
US TV-format is a little different from the one in Europe, we all know that (especially the FOX-stuff which, if it weren't for The Simpsons, nobody but the Jerry Springer crowd would go near with a 10 foot pole). Yes, the voice-over does sound like a desperate used cars salesman and after the 10th commercial break (no, thank you. I do not want to purchase your crap, no matter how loud you scream), one almost feels that whoever is yelling "AND Now! COMING Up!" is suffering from Tourette's syndrome.
In the end, it's just trash. One would have thought that a chef like Gordon Ramsay had more taste than that. Distasteful – that world should summon up both this episode and the US-franchise of the show. And that's not the most flattering thing you can say about a chef who was once one of the greats (we're talking about the kitchen here, not television). If this would be a pure "guilty-pleasure" freak-show, I'd give it 8/10 – but this, despite everything, still carrying the names "Gordon Ramsay" and "Kitchen Nightmares", I'll have to reduce that to a 4.
- t_atzmueller
- Nov 16, 2014
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Scottsdale, Arizona, USA(Amy's Baking Company)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro