Tonight on Kitchen Nightmares,
Gordon goes to Philadelphia,
the city of brotherly love,
to help a family business in ruins.
This restaurant's sucking the life right out of me.
Three sisters
Who are all on the verge of a breakdown.
We have have no passion and we have no drive,
and I don't even know how to get that back.
Their niece may be the chef,
But she wants out.
This is not a career choice for me.
This close family
is falling apart.
We don't enjoy each other's company.
Losing customers by the day,
and losing hope by the minute.
We need to pull it together.
I don't know what else to do.
And when Chef Ramsay arrives,
he is confronted with a number of problems. Tastes dreadful.
Is there anything that we don't freeze here? No.
You just served me three-week old
frozen potato skins.
And the one problem
He refuses to put up with
is the owners' pathetic attitudes.
We don't know anything.
For the first time ever,
Chef Ramsay chooses to leave.
Goodbye!
Find out exactly why
Chef Ramsay makes the most dramatic,
day-one decision
in Kitchen Nightmares history.
No one cares here.
We're so freakin' buried and so lost.
Is failure finally an option in Philly?
This is our last hope.
We're about to find out
on a heart-breaking episode
of Kitchen Nightmares.
I don't want to close the restaurant.
Philadelphia--
The city of brotherly love,
the birthplace of American independence,
and home to more than 1.4 million people.
Two years ago,
sister Claire and Kathryn,
along with their sister in law, Erin,
decided to open the Hot Potato Cafe
in their East Philadelphia community of Fishtown,
where they all grew up.
One day we just kind of looked at each other
and said, "Somebody should open
a really good restaurant in Fishtown."
Oh, hi. Welcome to the Hot Potato.
We thought it would be a lot of fun.
People would just walk around the corner
and hang out here.
How've you been? I haven't seen you in ages.
Our intention when we opened Hot Potato
was to make this a very comfortable,
casual, friendly environment.
We bring a lot of our friends here. Oh, thank you.
Anybody new in town, we go, "Oh, we'll take you
to the new restaurant." Oh, thank you so much.
We did the fun things.
Like, oh, we're picking out salt and pepper
and all that cute stuff.
I don't think you can even wrap your mind
around how big it is to open a restaurant.
Oh, my God.
We were open for about eight months,
and we had a really, really bad review.
A local paper had come in,
and they wrote an article,
and they called us spuddy hell.
They ripped us apart.
Like, one stroke of the pen and you're done.
There we were,
sitting inside, waiting for customers to come,
and they weren't coming.
That's when we, you know,
really started scraping together some money.
It's just overwhelming.
The three of us all chipped in
pretty much our whole life savings.
Have we paid insurance lately?
No. We owe 'em, like, $780 on the insurance.
We knew that we didn't have the experience
that we needed in that kitchen,
and we couldn't afford to hire somebody.
I think it's good.
What is it?
Did this go out?
My niece Danielle
had some back-of-the-house experience.
Come on, Danielle.
Even though I don't want to be a chef for a career,
I was willing to help her out
any way I could.
How's that New York strip doing?
Charbroil on the outside. That one.
I don't even know how to charbroil on the outside.
We doing anything right around here, or what?
I mean, it's just not good.
This restaurant has put tremendous stress on the family.
You know, it's hard.
We don't have a clue about what we're doing.
Well, we don't.
At times, it feels like this restaurant's
sucking the life right out of me.
Out of all of us.
I'm just so frustrated.
Somebody's got to do something here.
We're dying.
I'm here in Philadelphia,
the city of brotherly love,
to check out a restaurant
that isn't getting much love from anybody.
Now, according to a recent review,
they referred to the Hot Potato Cafe
as spuddy hell.
That doesn't sound very interesting, does it?
Here we go.
Hello. Hi.
How are you?
Good. How are you?
Nice to see you. I'm Claire.
Claire, nice to see you, darling.
You too.
With Gordon Ramsay here,
it's like winning the lottery for us.
My sister, Kathy.
Good to see you too.
Hi. I'm Erin.
Erin. Oh, my God.
Without Chef Ramsay's help,
I don't think we'd see three months.
Everything that we have has been depleted.
Philadelphia Weekly
is quite an influential newspaper.
It closes restaurants and makes them successful.
Yeah.
The review, "Spuddy hell..."
It hurt. Yeah, it hurt us big time.
So what's wrong with the restaurant?
Huh?
Normally when I ask owners,
"What's wrong with the restaurant?"
I get some form of response.
I don't feel like when people come here and eat
we get really bad complaints. no.
People walk in, they say, "Oh, it's really cute in here.
We like the colors. It's pretty cool."
So it's not the food. it's not the decor.
We don't know. Honestly.
We're at a loss. Yeah.
That makes it ten times harder for me.
I need to hear the truth.
So who's the head chef? Our niece Danielle.
And that's your niece? Yes.
It's all very close knit.
But how old is she?
21. 21?
She hasn't even had a chance to learn yet.
What's the specialty of the house?
Crab cakes.
Name me another.
Shepherd's pie. Shepherd's pie.
Perogies. Perogies.
How weird is that?
Three owners,
not one of you recommending a potato.
Did we decide? Sorry, I didn't catch your name?
I'm Brian. Brian, good to see you.
Nice to meet you.
So, um, let's start off with the hot potato soup.
All right.
And what kind of baked potatoes do you have?
Spud skins.
Okay. And they're all fresh?
They are fresh when they come in.
We do cut them,
and then we freeze them,
and then pull them to order.
So they're not fresh, they're frozen.
Correct.
So the Hot Potato's frozen potato.
Or lukewarm potato.
Depends on what shift you come in on.
Damn.
That sounds intriguing.
I'll go for that, please.
Okay.
And finally the shepherd's pie.
Thank you. Thank you, Brian.
Oh, wow. Is that all for him?
Come on, Danielle. The pressure's on.
Potato soup.
Never ever ever have I cooked for someone
of such caliber.
I don't even know what I'm doing.
The hot potato soup.
Hot potato soup.
Thank you. You're welcome.
It's thick.
It looks a mess.
That is a mess.
Oh, my God.
He just made the most God awful face.
Holy mackerel.
It's like lumps of glue.
What a embarrassment.
How's the soup there for you?
It's like it's been made out of leftover mashed potatoes.
Made fresh every day?
They make it probably every other day.
Every other day.
Definitely not today.
This is crazy.
Crazy.
Thank you, Brian.
Beautiful, sunny day outside,
and thick, rich, bland stodge
on the inside.
What a shame.
He didn't like the soup.
He didn't?
Bland.
Bland? Oh, my God.
How's the, um, skins?
They're fine.
Okay.
These are your ranch and bacon potatoes.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Right. Hot potato cafe,
baked potatoes.
These are the frozen ones?
They're the frozen ones.
God, they taste dreadful.
When were they baked?
Probably about three weeks ago.
Three weeks ago?
I know it may sound like a stupid question,
but if they were baked three weeks ago,
where's the filling gone?
We use the filling for the mashed potatoes.
So my potato's been sold already?
Yes.
This restaurant's called Hot Potato Cafe. It is.
Yeah, and you just served me
three-week old frozen potato skins
that have no potato inside.
I feel like I'm a potato organ donor.
Strange. Now you laugh.
I'm glad you find it funny, 'cause I don't.
I'm sorry.
I don't want you to be sorry.
I'd be embarrassed if I had to serve that.
Anyway. Next.
All right.
I'm gonna go kill myself in the kitchen.
It's hard to hear sometimes when somebody comes in here
and tells you how bad your food sucks.
It's like someone calling your kid ugly.
It's hard to hear.
Oh, my God.
What was he saying?
That we should be embarrassed.
We baked potatoes three weeks ago,
so he's like, "So somebody else ate my insides?"
'Cause I said we used 'em for mashed potatoes.
Oh, my God.
Well, we did.
I know, but when you see you're broken down like that,
it sounds God awful.
I can only do so much, you know?
I've been given these recipes,
and I'm just rolling with 'em,
and I'm completely lost myself.
I'm gonna bring out the shepherd's pie.
Say a rosary before you walk out the door.
And remember the bowl's hot.
Gotcha.
And we have the shepherd's pie.
Size of that portion.
I got two thirds mash,
and one third of greasy, minced lamb.
That's not the shepherd's pie I know.
I'd like them to taste that,
'cause each and every one of those owners
need to know what kind of 's
being served. you got it.
My God.
He wants all three of you
to taste the that you serve people.
All right. Give me a spoon.
That's like something you get in the cafeteria at college.
It does suck.
It was like, "Hello?"
I think maybe I have, like, palate of a five-year-old
or something.
Obviously, we don't know anything.
After a sampling
Of what has been referred to as spuddy hell...
Holy.
A disappointed Chef Ramsay heads to the kitchen
to meet the owners' 21-year-old niece
and head chef, Danielle.
How are you? Good. How are you?
Good to see you. You're the head chef? Yeah.
Where did you study?
I actually have no formal experience.
So you're not even a trained chef. No, not at all.
Why did you come here as the head chef?
Just to help out the family. That's it. Just to help out.
This is not a career choice for me.
Damn.
Is there anything on that menu
that you've put on yourself personally,
or is it the kind of
you inherited before you came here?
I haven't put anything on the menu.
Nothing. You just continued processing that crap?
I can't blame you entirely,
because you shouldn't even be cooking here.
Yet you were forced to, because of family reasons.
But more importantly,
you haven't even been given the chance
to cook or to learn how to cook properly.
He was right about everything he said.
Um, so hopefully he just knows how to help us out.
Is there anything that we don't freeze here?
No.
There's your answer.
The food is.
God bless that critic.
"Spuddy hell," right now,
was being very kind,
'cause the food is dreadful.
Okay. See you later.
See ya.
I'll be back.
Unbelievable.
Here we've got a situation with a menu
passed down from a bad chef to an inexperienced chef,
and all three owners
call it comfort food.
It's frozen food,
and I'm not comfortable about that at all.
Coming up...
What I saw tonight was embarrassing.
It's a Kitchen Nightmares moment you won't forget.
It's clear you've given up.
The shocking showdown that led to this.
I'm done.
I'm out of here.
Gordon.
We're so freakin' buried and so lost.
I can't help any of you.
Sensing a lack of passion
By everyone in the restaurant,
Gordon returns to the Hot Potato Cafe...
Aye-yi-yi.
To have some private time with each of the sisters.
What's the total debt across the board?
A little over a quarter of a million dollars.
Claire, it's a lot of money you're backed up with.
Yeah, we're never gonna get out of this.
You've never made money in two years?
We did not.
We had no clue what we were doing.
Obviously.
What's it done to the three of you
in comparison to what it was like two years ago?
Well, I guess two years ago
we had high expectations.
Everybody was happy, giggly, getting along,
and now it's just, you know,
it's just so tedious.
And we don't enjoy each other's company
like we used to.
How do you stay motivated?
I don't think I am motivated.
I'm just trying to get through the next day.
Mm-hmm.
Day by day.
And hopefully just enough to pay the bills,
and enough to just keep us afloat.
I don't know what else to do.
I mean, I feel like if we shut the door,
then we're really screwed.
Okay. Listen to me.
Tonight I need to see
a fight in this dinner service.
I need to see you stand strong
and fight for this business by pulling on the rope.
You need to find that internal flame first.
Okay.
'cause I can't work with corpses.
Okay? Promise? Promise.
Do you care? I do care.
Have you given up? Not completely.
No. Show me tonight.
Okay. Yes?
All right.
This is our last hope here.
We need to pull it together,
and, frankly, I don't even know
if we could do that, but I would try.
We have two, four, five.
News has spread
That Chef Ramsay is in Philadelphia...
Hi. Welcome to the Hot Potato.
And the Hot Potato Cafe is packed.
Ready to order?
I'm gonna do the crab roast.
I'm gonna get the beef burger.
How would you like that done? Medium rare?
Uh, Claire, I want to hear you tonight. All right.
As orders pile into the kitchen...
All right, here we go.
Chef Ramsay will be focusing
on the owners' leadership skills
and their willingness
to fight for their restaurant.
Whose hot potato soup?
Anybody have a clue?
Oh, that looks like a sloppy dog mess.
Nice.
Whose soup-- is this your soup?
Mary.
Mary, here's your soup.
I try to expedite.
I try to help them out.
They look-- they look freakin' raw.
All right, just give 'em to me.
I don't know if I'm doing it right.
This is gonna be three.
Perogies and spring rolls together.
Wait. Fried zucchini.
Now take it. Pay attention.
Got to calm down.
Well, you're confusing the hell out of us.
Who's in charge?
Danielle calls out the orders, or--? No?
I don't know what's going on.
There's no proper support in there,
and it's crazy.
Come on.
It's like no one cares.
My aunts are giving up.
Now it's just slipping through their fingers.
We're a mess back here.
I need table five.
It's ready.
With Claire expediting
Without any standards for quality control...
Can you drop those fries in, Kath?
And Kathryn standing by and doing almost nothing...
Show me you care.
Danielle manages somehow
to get the entrees out on time.
Hot potato chips.
Ugh. That's horrible.
It really is.
It's, like, really doughy and soft and undercooked.
Is it good?
They taste like frozen spring rolls.
This is so sad.
I've come to accept it.
It's sad that I have to accept it,
but it's the only thing I know here.
No one gives a.
Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi.
What I saw tonight was embarrassing.
So sad to see no structure,
no togetherness.
To my amazement, Danielle kept it together
for her aunts.
She just--head down, and focused like a chef.
It was really weird,
because she's not even trained as a chef,
but she just took it in.
Claire, Kathryn,
where's the motivation?
Where's the spirit?
Anybody?
Oh.
He's right.
We have no passion and we have no drive.
Everybody's so tired.
I guess the fire's gone.
I--I don't know what else to do.
If this was my restaurant,
I'd be fighting.
Every table, every plate.
You, you, and you,
it's clear you've given up.
It's on your faces,
in your eyes,
and it's clear.
Not just to me, but to your customers.
I honestly thought when Gordon showed up,
Like, he's just gonna come in
and he's gonna tell us what's wrong
and he's gonna fix us,
and he's like, "No, that's not how it's gonna go down."
I said to you this morning
one thing I need to see is the fight,
the determination, and the grit.
No one gives a.
It's like zombies.
I honestly don't know
if you've got the passion and the drive
to take it through.
I'm really sorry.
I'm left with no choice.
I'm done.
No. No way.
No chance.
I'm out of here.
Going.
Get the out of here, will you?
Pick up and off.
No one cares here.
That.
It is embarrassing.
We're screwed.
I didn't want to fail,
but I feel like we're way beyond that at this point.
I don't want to close the restaurant.
I can't do it.
No one cares here.
For the first time in Kitchen Nightmares history,
Just hours after arriving....
I can't do it.
Chef Ramsay has made a drastic decision,
and has decided to leave.
Can we just go talk to him?
Erin.
He just went down the street.
Gordon.
This sucks.
We really need your help.
Can you just help us, please?
Honestly, from, you know, from my point of view,
no one cares.
No one cares.
If you three don't care,
why should I care?
It's not that we don't care.
I just think we need help.
I don't think...
I mean, we do care.
We care about each other.
We care about this business.
We just feel like we're so freakin' buried
and so lost.
Please help us.
It's not normal to be in this situation
and work with a family that don't give a.
I can't jump on Danielle.
And she's so heart-broken.
She doesn't want to disappoint you.
She's a young woman.
If you weren't her aunts,
she would have told you to off long ago.
Come on.
Isn't that enough to see what you're doing?
Food,
The complaints...
And it's like it's all over your head.
There's no feeling left in any of you.
And where's there's no passion or heart involved,
I can't give you that.
It's, like, you can't see a light at the end of a tunnel.
And we weren't always like this.
We weren't.
We give a.
We do. Honestly.
I don't think we don't have heart.
I just think we're tired.
And we're frustrated.
And we're out of money and we're out of ideas,
and we just don't know what to do anymore.
And we did whatever we could to make this business work.
We're scrubbing toilets.
I thought that was passion and heart.
We really care. We do.
We just need help.
We really need your help.
Please help us.
Don't leave.
Okay.
This is the most open you've been
in terms of honesty.
I'm not here to blow smoke up your ass.
You asked me to come here and help you.
I can't help any of you
if you're not gonna start helping yourselves.
Philadelphia. Look at it. Down there.
That city center down there
needs to know there's a heartbeat
inside the Hot Potato Cafe.
And there's barely a pulse
between all three of you.
Are you committed?
We are.
Yes.
I need to see it.
I need to see it quickly.
You've got to seriously snap out of it
and fight for this.
It has to come from us.
It has to come. You're exactly right.
We'll do whatever it takes.
I am 100% committed to all three of you.
In return,
you've got to be 200% committed
to what I'm doing.
And tomorrow we turn a page,
and we fight back.
Okay?
I'll see you in the morning.
Thank you.
Good night. Good night.
Holy.
Very, very few people in the world
Have an opportunity to have a world-renown chef
walk into their restaurant in the middle of Fishtown
and offer us help.
And, you know, we need to pull it together.
With the belief that the three owners
Are now truly committed to their restaurant,
Chef Ramsay returns to help.
So, today,
let's start off with something fresh.
Let's do something new.
Let's do something together.
And his first order of business
is to focus on what he thinks Hot Potato Cafe
should obviously be known for--
fresh potatoes.
Let's take one potato, boil it,gratineethem.
Each of you come up with a filling.
Let's have a taste, yeah?
The best-tasting potato
goes on the menu tonight. yeah?
Yes. Yeah.
Chef, excited? Yeah.
Good. Excellent. Okay, let's go.
So there's the potatoes.
Whatever you wish. Okay.
But let it go, yes? All right.
Excellent.
The idea behind this is coming up
with a stunning hot potato dish
that we can evolve and tweak
and go on the menu, yeah?
Why didn't we go with fresh potatoes?
So simple, so easy, but so good.
Crazy.
Okay, into the dining room.
Right. Take them in. Onto the round table.
Yours looks cute. Thank you.
Okay.
So what is that?
It's a classic baked potato
topped with butter, sour cream, and chives.
Nice. What, you served the potato inside the skin?
I did.
Amazing!
You just served me three-week old
frozen potato skins
that have no potato inside.
I'd be embarrassed
If I had to serve that.
Hallelujah!
Thank you very much. It looks amazing!
I think he was very impressed by my potato.
And the fact that I used the same stuffing
in the same potato on the same day
was like, oh, my God.
Claire, let's taste yours first,
because one of them is gonna go on the menu.
So sour cream, chives...
Butter, salt, pepper, chives.
Mm.
A bit too much of a plain Jane for me.
Could have done better. Aw.
So boring.
Erin, what's inside there?
I scooped out the potato.
Yep.
I mashed it with a little butter,
little green onion.
Mm-hmm. No cheese on there. No cheese.
Yeah, it's seasoned nicely,
but it just needs a little bit more.
You know, to take it to another level.
And this one was made by--?
Kathryn.
Kath. Now, inside is what?
Parmesan cheese,
heavy cream, salt, pepper, and garlic.
One problem, too much garlic.
More, it tastes more, more, more,
but all of a sudden, bang,
this powerful garlic flavor's hitting you.
This is Danielle's.
Danielle's. And what's inside there, Danielle, please?
We got the roasted red peppers,
spinach, um, some onions,
and topped with Parmesan cheese.
That's really good. Love the crispy skin.
I really like that.
Really good job. I like that one.
That's good, Danielle. Thank you.
Danielle's goes on the menu.
Danielle, great job. Delicious.
Thank you.
Chef Ramsay today
Has definitely ignited a passion inside of me.
My passion for cooking.
It's definitely brought it right out of me.
Pulled out of the woodwork inside.
Coming up,
Danielle gets a chance to shine.
You're the chef. Tonight you got to prove it.
I need shepherd's pie.
I have enough for these three. That's it.
But will the 21-year-old head chef
Help or hurt the future
of the Hot Potato?
Danielle, you need to take control.
I don't know where you left off.
Oh, my God.
And you won't believe
What Chef Ramsay does to make her cry.
Aside from the level of commitment
Chef Ramsay is now getting from the owners...
Okay.
...He is also starting to believe
in the talented Danielle.
So before dinner service,
he gives her the secret
of how to make a great shepherd's pie.
Foremost important part, yeah?
Minced lamb.
Proper shepherd's pie
has 100% lamb in there.
Chef Ramsay's style,
I mean, I couldn't tear my eyes
away from what he was telling me.
Really get some good color on there, yeah?
So we two thirds mince
and one third vegetables, yeah?
To cook side by side with Chef Ramsay,
is the biggest honor
that I've ever had in my life.
If anyone complains about that shepherd's pie,
doesn't deserve to be in here.
Right.
Oh, hi. Welcome to the Hot Potato.
How's everybody tonight?
Everybody hungry? Good.
I'm really excited for tonight.
I feel like there's been
new energy pumped back into the restaurant,
and we're ready to give it a go.
Tonight's dinner service menu
Features two specials--
Danielle's tasty Potato Florentine,
and the shepherd's pie.
Potato Florentine?
What can I get for you this evening?
Okay, Danielle. You're the chef.
Tonight you got to prove it.
Let's go.
Got Potato Florentine with spring rolls.
Shepherd's pie. Two shepherd's pie.
And then two of our special potato.
How long on the Potato Florentine?
I got it. All right.
Here.
Nice. Nice, nice, nice.
This looks good.
Three left.
Wow.
Three shepherd's pie.
How many Potato Florentine?
Two. Table 9, table 12.
That's it. Then we're done.
All right.
This is the Potato Florentine.
Can't believe how quick these specials are flying out.
The specials went like that.
I made something, and, uh, everyone wanted it.
That's incredible.
It's so fun.
While the specials have clearly
Struck a chord with the customers...
I like it.
The old menu has hit a sour note.
Aah, it's huge!
It's huge.
Is it me, or are portions humongous?
Portions are very large.
Whatever you don't eat, I'll wrap.
All right. Yeah.
Pasta looks low.
How is there not enough pasta?
It's not even a full bowl.
Danielle's asking me why is that not enough.
Our portions are ridiculous.
I don't agree with them at all.
Way too much food.
Chicken goes on top of that?
Look at that.
Too much?
Oh, my God.
No one needs to eat that much.
I feel like I'm hurting people
putting that much food onto a plate.
It's crazy.
You want to take it home?
Yeah.
Thank you.
You want to wrap it up? Okay.
It's an hour into dinner service,
And although many customers have finished eating...
Don't throw this out.
I have to wrap it. Thank you.
No, don't throw that away.
You're gonna wrap that to go.
Really? Surprise, surprise.
...They have not come close
to cleaning their plates.
Come here. Two seconds.
And Chef Ramsay wants to demonstrate
how big the leftovers really are.
Look. That's come back from the dining room, okay?
Look at that on a normal-sized plate.
And that's been asked to go.
That's an entree returned.
So they got two meals for the price of one.
Our portions were so huge.
Oh, it was such a waste.
It was ridiculous.
How's that?
Okay, that's yours.
I mean, we might as well change this
As a to-go restaurant.
During tonight's dinner service,
There were some encouraging signs.
Danielle took control of the kitchen,
and the specials were well received.
But the Hot Potato Cafe
is not even close to being out of the woods.
Let's be honest.
The Hot Potato Cafe
needs real, significant changes, yeah?
Not tweaking the menu.
Hang on a second. Yeah.
Let's--let's start here.
Here we go.
Ten?
This is how many boxes of food
people took home tonight?
Oh, my God.
We get the point.
That's the exact number
that we gave away tonight.
Appetizers to go,
entrees to go,
and even desserts to go.
And it is embarrassing.
Everything I worked for is in those boxes,
an it's just leaving this restaurant.
It's ridiculous.
Not only are your food costs out of control,
you're giving away double.
Bang.
You must be mad.
We cannot afford to do business like this one more day.
So I need all of you to come with me.
Right now.
Yeah, last one out close the door.
Oh, my God.
I need all of you to come with me.
Completely outraged
By the amount of leftovers taken away by customers...
Last one out close the door.
Chef Ramsay decides
To take matters into his own hands.
Oh, my God.
Tomorrow will be a make-or-break day.
We are relaunching this restaurant
like you've never ever seen before.
As a way to say good-bye to the old reputation
of the Hot Potato Cafe--
the frozen potatoes,
the oversized portions,
we say good-bye by doing this.
Don't strain a muscle.
Okay, up in the air.
Goodbye.
One, two, three.
Oh, my God.
Excellent. Well done.
Well done.
There is no need for a plate to be that big.
I never want to see a plate like that again
in my life.
Well done. Well done.
Just a couple of days ago,
Gordon was ready to walk out.
But now, feeling a sense of hope,
he, along with his staff, spend the night
transforming Hot Potato Cafe
into a fun, contemporary,
Philadelphia restaurant.
Ladies, good morning.
Look at our sign!
Wow.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
Awesome. We're a restaurant.
Doesn't that look amazing?
It's gorgeous.
Is it lovely? I love it.
Ready to go inside? Yeah.
Here we go. Come in, please.
Wow!
Oh, my God!
Wow! Oh, my God!
A nice lounge area.
Oh, this is gorgeous!
The walls have been freshly painted, clearly, yes?
So what we needed.
We've got some stunning artwork on there.
Oh, my God. The colors are gorgeous.
None of that horrible, vinyl, greasy stuff.
New wooden table tops.
Yeah, yeah.
And by the way,
webstaurant, the store,
okay, they've donated $5,000 worth
of dishes, pots, pans, China.
Oh, my God. You name it. 5,000.
Thank you.
It looks amazing. Yeah.
Doesn't it?
This is potato heaven.
Yes?
I feel overwhelmed. It's so much to take in.
It's beautiful in here.
I don't think it's anything
I could have ever imagined for myself.
This is beyond help.
This is so huge.
Really.
The most important change
is the menu.
It oozes potatoes clearly, yes?
This menu is not a tweak. It's an overhaul.
So I've brought in
a very successful, local restaurateur, yeah?
So I want someone to mentor Danielle.
Please welcome Richard marsh.
Rich, come in please, sir.
Good to see you. Come over here. Yeah?
Excellent.
Okay.
I've hired this man for a month
to mentor you, Danielle,
to stand and support you.
And he seriously, seriously,
knows his potatoes.
Thank you so much.
Of course.
It's a helping hand. Yes?
A proper helping hand, okay?
Okay? So you're not left in the deep end.
Okay? 'cause you got it.
It is a huge relief.
I finally got someone that cares.
Someone that's gonna help me out.
21 years of age.
I'm telling you, you're so composed.
No one's told you that. Well done.
I can finally do something.
I can learn-- I can learn how to do this.
And do it right.
Mm-hmm.
And it's a great feeling.
Just hours before the relaunch,
Chef Ramsay shows the staff
a sample of all of the menu items,
which of course includes a number
of exciting potato appetizers,
entrees, and side dishes.
Start off with the soups, yeah?
The starters, the appetizers.
Hot potato soup.
The Fishtown chowder--
yeah, bacon, onions, clams, potatoes, and creams.
The veggie--classic cheddar cheese, broccoli,
and green onion.
The entrees--potato roesti
with smoked salmon. beautiful.
French fries, sweet potato fries,
Parmesan fries,
and mashed potatoes.
That's it.
Small, exciting, and vibrant, yeah?
Gorgeous.
I'm really excited to serve the new menu.
Everything smells fresh, looks fresh, feels fresh.
It's turned into potato heaven.
There's one more surprise.
Yeah.
The Idaho Potato Commission
have given you for the next three months
a free supply of potatoes.
Oh, my God.
Guys, come on in.
Oh, my God.
They're gonna save us so much money.
To have free product come in here?
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you. It's our pleasure. Absolutely brilliant.
For a potato restaurant
with free potatoes for three months?
It's a new start.
It's relaunch night,
And everyone is already nervous,
but Chef Ramsay has saved some startling news
just minutes before the doors are about to open.
Here's the bombshell.
The man that destroyed the reputation
of the Hot Potato Cafe,
Mr. spuddy hell himself, is back.
Oh, my God.
The Philadelphia Weekly food critic,
he's back in here tonight.
It doesn't get any more serious than this.
Tonight is where it all counts.
Yes.
The pressure was on. It was on all of us.
Our asses are on the line,
and it's unbelievable.
Hi. Welcome to the Hot Potato.
Please come in. Make yourself comfortable.
Place looks really good.
The last time I was in here,
it just didn't look this nice.
This is a beautiful menu.
It's amazing.
You got it.
All right, dining room's getting busy.
You're all gonna be immense pressure,
but if I didn't think you could do it,
you wouldn't be here. make it work, yeah?
Vocal, talking, understanding what's going on, yes?
First ticket of the relaunch.
Okay, here we go.
Loud and clear.
Perogies. Good.
Chorizo hash.
Traditional potato, fish sticks.
That's great.
Nice and vibrant like that, yeah? Loud.
Got another perogies.
I'm nervous for Danielle in the kitchen,
but I know how tough she is,
and if anybody can pull it off,
it's Danielle.
Perogy up.
Good. First ticket. Well done.
Seven minutes. We're in business.
Next. Shepherd's pie.
Can somebody take this?
Table two, perogies.
It's an hour into dinner service...
Here you go, guys.
And with customers impressed...
Oh, my God. That's so good.
Delicious.
These are really on point.
...The night is off to a solid start.
But the guest who can make or break the restaurant,
the food critic from the Philadelphia Weekly,
has just arrived.
I'm Brian McManus. I have a reservation.
Yes, you do.
Okay, is the critic here yet?
He just arrived.
You know how important this is
with this critic coming back in here?
Yeah.
They normally never visit a restaurant, yeah, twice.
Make sure we don't fuss over him too much
where it becomes obvious, yes? let's go.
The last time that food critic was in here,
he trashed the out of us.
I'm very grateful
he's giving us another chance.
It's gonna make or break us tonight.
Tonight it's your night. Come on. Yes?
Okay. Come on.
How are you this evening?
How are you?
My name's Brian. I'll be taking care of you.
I'm gonna get, uh, potato soup.
I'm gonna get perogy.
Potato soups and perogies? Right, right.
I'll be right back with them.
Thank you. No problem.
This is gonna try and get out as soon as possible.
It's the critic's.
I'm like, "Oh, goodness."
I'm nervous, but I'm confident.
I'm like, "Well, why can't I do this?
Brian, take this out.
Right here. This is his.
I have potato soup. I have your perogies.
Appreciate it.
Enjoy.
Man, this is so, so, so very different.
It's relaunch night,
And the food critic from the Philadelphia Weekly
is about to take his first bite.
In his last review,
he called the restaurant "Spuddy hell,"
and ruined the restaurant's reputation.
Man, this is so, so, so very different.
Is it chunky?
Or is it creamy?
Very smooth. It's good.
This is what we worked so hard for,
and it's not spuddy hell anymore.
Spuddy heaven.
Ironically,
The man that virtually destroyed the restaurant
with his review is now enjoying dish...
After dish.
He said everything was good.
They ate almost everything.
He said he was full.
The critic is just loving everything.
Never did I think something so huge would happen.
Oh, so amazing.
It really is, like, the greatest feeling.
Yeah.
Yeah!
Oh, my God.
We rocked it.
He can't say anything wrong about the potato.
Got three tickets left.
Focus, focus, focus.
All the way to the end. Come on.
Come on!
Seven. Sloppy and veggie.
Enjoy. Wow.
You girls cleared the board.
Okay, Danielle. Nice.
You guys are done.
I've never served this many people
in one night ever.
Ever.
In two years.
That's crazy to me.
It's gonna be like this for a month.
And maybe, God forbid,
we might catch up on our bills.
Oh, my God.
Calm down. It's okay.
Nothing's wrong. I'm just blown away.
This is so amazing.
I can't even describe it.
Like, what's happening between all of us.
Our relationships are better.
We're all communicating.
Like, it's crazy.
Holy.
After feeding well over 100 guests,
And having no dishes returned,
Gordon has some final words for the staff.
When I first arrived, honestly,
I was looking at a family
that had lost its drive, passion,
and so fragmented,
I honestly felt, for the first time
in five years in Kitchen Nightmares,
I was wasting my time.
But you showed me tonight
that each and every one of you
has got the capabilities to turn this around.
But you, madam,
you're gonna explode.
I believe in you.
Now believe in yourself.
It's incredible how much has changed
In just a few days.
Cooking wasn't really a huge aspiration of mine,
but this whole thing has just changed me around, 360.
I'm really thankful for everything that's happened.
This is a career that I want.
Great family, great restaurant,
and honestly, a great future.
Stick with it.
Thank you. Thank you.
I think Chef Ramsay's amazing.
Take care, darling.
I mean, times with my family
have been really rough the last couple years,
but, you know, having this experience
was probably one of the best days of our lives.
Good night.
Thank you.
The other night when I walked out,
I felt really depressed.
And I actually felt
I'd met my match for the first time.
But on the back of that,
tonight has been one of the most
gratifying experiences
I've ever had in Kitchen Nightmares.
Now the Hot Potato Cafe
is the talk of Philadelphia, but for me,
it's about an amazing turnaround
of four women--
three aunts and one niece.
God.
Long live the power of women.
The turnaround for the Hot Potato was amazing.
I'm gonna take you back to a table.
How about that?
And Gordon helped spread the word on the airwaves...
Chef Gordon Ramsay as you see here,
busy now, hitting the road
for another show, Kitchen Nightmares.
From the Hot Potato Cafe,
thank you guys for coming in.
...And on the streets.
Whoo!
Come to the Hot Potato Cafe, guys!
The city of Philadelphia has a new jewel
that has the best potatoes in town.
Hot potato cafe rocks!
And the Hot Potato received rave reviews
from the Philadelphia Weekly.
Going from spuddy hell to new starch.
"Fishtown's Hot Potato Cafe
went from spud dud to spud palace overnight."
Overnight.
I--I am so happy.
Now I love this place.
There's no where else I want to be.
Atmosphere-- quaint and homey,
service-- friendly, helpful,
food--outstanding.
I just can't even tell you
How amazing this gift has been.
People don't get opportunities
like this in their lifetime.
Oh, I love you.