| Runtime: | 47–49 minutes |
| Starring: | Gordon Ramsay |
| Narrated: | Gordon Ramsay |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Network: | Channel 4 |
| Num Series: | 7 |
| Num Episodes: | 35 (27 originals and 8 revisits) |
| Related: | Kitchen Nightmares |
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is a television programme featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2004.
In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just one week. Ramsay revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence. Episodes from series one and two have been re-edited with additional new material as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited; they featured Ramsay checking up on restaurants a year or more after he attended to them.
An American adaptation of this show, titled Kitchen Nightmares, debuted 19 September 2007 on Fox. It is broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA to avoid confusion with the original title. Its run ended on 12 September 2014.[1]
In October 2009, Ramsay announced that after his four-year contract expired in 2011 he would not continue with Kitchen Nightmares and would instead work on his other shows.[2] Despite this, the show returned for one last series in 2014 (retitled as Ramsay's Costa del Nightmares) where Ramsay visited and helped failing restaurants owned by Britons abroad. The final series also coincided with the ending of the US version after seven seasons (which was later revived for an eighth season in 2023). The show has won BAFTA and Emmy awards.
| No. overall | No. in series | Restaurant | Location | Original air date |
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| No. overall | No. in series | Restaurant | Location | Original air date |
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| No. overall | No. in series | Restaurant | Location | Original air date |
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| No. overall | No. in series | Restaurant | Location | Original air date |
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A one-off, two-hour special entitled Ramsay's Great British Nightmare was broadcast on 30 January 2009 as part of The Great British Food Fight, a two-week series of food-related programming on Channel 4. In the programme, Ramsay campaigned for viewers to start supporting local restaurants, especially in a bad economy.
| No. overall | No. in series | Restaurant | Location | Original air date |
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| No. overall | No. in series | Restaurant | Location | Original air date |
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In June 2006, Ramsay won a High Court case against the Evening Standard, which had alleged that scenes and the general condition of the restaurant had been faked for the first episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. These allegations followed reports from the previous owner of Bonapartes, Sue Ray. Ramsay was awarded £75,000 plus costs.[3] Ramsay said at the time: "I won't let people write anything they want to about me. We have never done anything in a cynical, fake way."
The programme received favourable reviews for its in-depth look into the restaurant industry. Jane Redfem of Off the Telly commented that the show "could have been cynically designed to exploit Ramsay's foul-mouthed reputation... But watch, listen and think about what he is saying, and his genuine commitment to his profession in general, and the task at hand become abundantly evident."[4] Lorna Martin of The Observer said "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is compulsive viewing – packed with excitement, emotion and entertainment."[5] Slate's Sara Dickerman was impressed by the show's "economic realism" in the tired food television genre. She wrote, "There is something refreshing about a show that doesn't promise a ticket to ride (a surgical makeover, a million dollars, Richard Branson's job) but instead offers restaurant owners the hope—if they seriously reform their establishments—that they might, just might, break even for the next few months."[6]
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was named Best Feature at the 2005[7] and 2008 BAFTA awards.[8] It also earned the 2006 International Emmy for best non-scripted entertainment.[7]
On 3 March 2009, Acorn Media released series 1 of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on DVD in the US. Series 2 was released on 1 September 2009. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares DVD news: Box Art for Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - The Complete Series 2 | TVShowsOnDVD.com
| Name | Ep# | Release Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | 8 | 3 March 2009 | |
| Season Two | 10 | 1 September 2009 |
For the Canadian market, Visual Entertainment has released the first three series of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on DVD in two volume sets.
| Name | Ep# | Release Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 | 8 | 16 October 2007[9] | |
| Volume 2 | 10 | 7 October 2008[10] |
Currently airing
New season coming
No longer in production
| Country | Title | Broadcaster | Chef | Original run | Source(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start date | End Date | ||||||
| Pesadilla en la cocina (Nightmare in the kitchen) | Telefe | Christophe Krywonis | Q3 2016 | ||||
| Kitchen Nightmares | Seven Network | Colin Fassnidge | 12 October 2022 | [11] [12] | |||
| Pesadelo na Cozinha (Nightmare in the kitchen) | Band | Érick Jacquin | 26 January 2017 | Present | [13] | ||
| Кошмари в кухнята (Nightmares in the kitchen) | Nova TV | Ivan Manchev | 8 October 2014 | Present | |||
| Pesadilla en la cocina (Nightmare in the kitchen) | Chilevisión | Gustavo Maurelli | 28 February 2016 | 27 April 2016 | [14] | ||
| Jezikova juha | RTL | Stephan Macchi | 15 May 2009 | 23 June 2011 | [15] | ||
| Ano, šéfe! (Yes, Chef!) | Prima | Zdeněk Pohlreich | 5 March 2009 | 1 October 2018 | [16] | ||
| Ano, šéfová! (Yes, Chef | ) | Jitka and Santo Pagana | 12 November 2018 | 17 December 2018 | |||
| Med kniven for struben (The knife against the throat) | TV3 | Bo Bech (seasons 1–4)Thomas Castberg (seasons 5–present) | 2007 | 2012 | [17] | ||
| Viaplay | 2017 | 2018 | |||||
| Viafree | 2020 | Present | |||||
| Köögikubjas (Kitchen Hood) | Kanal 2 | Juha Matti Rantanen | 2011 | 2012 | [18] | ||
| Kuppilat kuntoon, Jyrki Sukula! (Restoring Restaurants, Jyrki Sukula | ) | Nelonen | Jyrki Sukula | 2012 | 2018 | [19] | |
| Kuppilat kuntoon, Hans Välimäki! (Restoring Restaurants, Hans Välimäki | ) | Hans Välimäki | 2020 | Present | [20] | ||
| Cauchemar en cuisine (Nightmare in the kitchen) | M6 | Philippe Etchebest | 2011 | Present | [21] | ||
| Rach, der Restauranttester (Rach, the Restaurant Tester) | RTL | Christian Rach | 11 September 2005 | 4 March 2013 | [22] | ||
| 13 March 2017 | 10 April 2017 | ||||||
| Der Restauranttester (The Restaurant Tester) | Steffen Henssler | 24 February 2014 | 6 July 2015 | [23] | |||
| Rosins Restaurants | Kabel Eins | Frank Rosin | 24. November 2009 | Present | [24] | ||
| Εφιάλτης στην Κουζίνα (Nightmare in the Kitchen) | Alpha TV | Ektoras Botrini | 2009 | 2013 | [25] | ||
| 2020 | Present | ||||||
| מהפכה במטבח (A kitchen revolution) | Reshet | Asaf Granit | 2015 | Present | [26] | ||
| Cucine da incubo (Nightmarish kitchens) | Fox Life | Antonino Cannavacciuolo | 15 May 2013 | Present | [27] | ||
| TV8 | |||||||
| NOVE | |||||||
| Sky Uno | |||||||
| Herrie in de keuken! (Noise in the kitchen | ) | RTL 5 RTL 4 | Herman den Blijker | 2005 | 2013 | ||
| Hellstrøm Rydder Opp (Hellstrøm Cleans Up) | TV3 Viasat | Eyvind Hellstrøm | 25 September 2008 | Present | [28] | ||
| Kuchenne rewolucje (Kitchen revolutions) | TVN | Magda Gessler | 6 March 2010 | Present | [29] | ||
| Pesadelo na Cozinha (Nightmare in the kitchen) | TVI | Ljubomir Stanisic | 12 March 2017 | Present | [30] | ||
| На ножах (On the Knives) Na nozhakh | Friday! | Konstantin Ivlev | June 15, 2016 | Present | [31] | ||
| Paklena kuhinja (Hell's Kitchen) | Prva Srpska Televizija | Saša Mišić | 2010 | 2013 | [32] | ||
| Áno, šéfe! (Yes, Chef | ) | TV JOJ | Jaroslav Žídek | 7 March 2011 | 20 October 2011 | [33] | |
| Na nože (On the Knives) | TV Markíza | Martin Novák | 8 February 2023 | Present | [34] | ||
| Pesadilla en la cocina (Nightmare in the kitchen) | laSexta | Alberto Chicote | 25 October 2012 | Present | [35] | ||
| Kniven mot strupen (The knife against the throat) | TV3 | Alexander Nilson | 19 November 2009 | Present | [36] | ||
| Bumann, der Restauranttester (Bumann, the Restaurant Tester) | 3+ | Daniel Bumann | 15 October 2009 | 2021 | [37] [38] | ||
| На ножах (On the Knives) Na nozhakh | 1+1 | Aram Mnatsakanov (season 1) Olga Freimut and Dmitry Borisov (seasons 2-3) | 15 August 2012 | 31 October 2012 | [39] | ||
| 5 April 2016 | 2 April 2017 | ||||||
| Novyi Kanal | Alexander Yakutov | 15 October 2022 | |||||
| Kitchen Nightmares | Fox | Gordon Ramsay | 19 September 2007 | 12 September 2014 | 12 September 2014 | ||
| 25 September 2023 | Present | ||||||