Product Details

• Actors: Gordon Ramsay
• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Acorn Media
• DVD Release Date: March 3, 2009
• Run Time: 387 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001JXPC0U
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,268 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: Complete UK Series 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares shares the same sense of tension as cooking contest shows, Iron Chef or Top Chef, but somehow this series beats them all, if you’re looking for something more than a straight view of the chopping block. Whereas the aforementioned programs portray a chef’s extreme duress from the chef’s point of view, Gordon Ramsay offers the best of both worlds by offering an outsider’s business perspective while tying his apron on a few minutes per episode to teach his audience how to cook. The premise of the show is simple: a master chef studded with Michelin stars visits struggling restaurants to business consult and jump start their menus. Scenes alternate between his meetings with the restaurant owners, Ramsay teaching the kitchen members how to cook decent food, and Ramsay in his hotel, venting about his clients’ low competency levels. Started in Britain in 2004 and picked up by Fox television in 2007, this first season of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares takes place in small town England and Wales. As such, one will learn more than ever thought possible about lamb shank, mushy peas, haddock, Yorkshire puddings, and other hearty foods indicative of that culture. The series opens with a nightmarish glimpse into a filthy kitchen at Bonapartes Restaurant in Silsden, England. Ramsay tries to slap the lazy chef into shape, with sad results. Episode two, "The Glass House," is slightly less disturbing on a hygienic level but exemplifies how structural problems amongst employees can drag a business into the mud. "The Walnut Tree Inn," set in Llandewi Skirrid, South Wales, and "Moore Place," set on a golf course in Esher, England, focus on how tradition can choke out customers who crave new, innovative menus. These two episodes feel especially indicative of the British Isles, as the restaurateurs struggle with how to maintain their reputation while rejuvenating notions of how people want to eat. In "Moore Place," for example, Ramsay recommends Americanizing the menu, to break from the local pub competition. It’s a brilliant business strategy, and it works. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares also works because of follow-up episodes titled Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Revisited, in which he tests how long-lasting his suggestions are. If one is interested in not only a straight cooking show, but also in the many facets of running a restaurant, this program is highly educational and fun to watch. --Trinie Dalton

Stills from Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Click for larger image)

Product Description

The star chef saves failing restaurants from culinary hell

Go behind the scenes at struggling restaurants with Gordon Ramsay, Britain’s most celebrated gourmet. One of the world’s top chefs (with 12 Michelin stars to his name) and three-time winner of a Catey award (the British hospitality industry’s highest honor), Ramsay knows restaurants top to bottom. And he needs every bit of his expertise to rescue these real-life culinary and commercial disasters in just one week.

Foul-tasting food, chaotic kitchens, misguided menus -- Ramsay confronts them all, along with incompetent cooks, boneheaded servers, and painfully obstinate owners. He handles staffers with his profanity-filled, in-your-face style that suffers no fools and spares no egos. Also includes four episodes of Kitchen Nightmares Revisited, in which Ramsay returns to these restaurants on the brink to see whether his shock treatment worked. After just a few episodes of this International Emmy®-winning reality series, you’ll never dine out quite the same again.

DVD FEATURES INCLUDE production notes and biography of Gordon Ramsay.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You may already own this, January 19, 2009

By	Rodney L. Hayes (Hamden, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A great show & the reason I came to love Gordon Ramsay in the first place (from the airings of these episodes on BBC America). These episodes are uncensored, so be prepared to hear F-Bombs droping throughout the shows.

But be warned: If you were lucky enough to pick up "Kitchen Nightmares: Vol. 1", then you already have all the episodes on this release. Volume 1 actually has all the episodes from Series 1 & 2. Volume 2 has all the episodes from Series 3 & 4. Volumes 1 & 2 were a Canadian release & were sold thru Amazon for a short time (Amazon is where I got mine). Sadly, it looks like they are no longer available thru Amazon.

If you don't have Volume 1, then by all means order this Series 1 DVD. If you do have Volume 1, then you are just buying the same episodes that you already have.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's simple, it's rustic and it's DELICIOUS, March 9, 2009

By	Reine des Coeurs "reine_des_coeurs" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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Finally, in all it's uncensored glory, the first series of the UK "Kitchen Nightmares" has arrived! The first four original episodes and Gordon's revisits are:

1. Bonaparte's
2. The Glass House
3. The Walnut Tree
4. Moore Place

Bonaparte's is notoriously known to KN watchers as the restaurant whose owner, Sue Ray tried unsuccessfully to sue GR. The Glass House features one of Gordon's least favorite (and bad risotto making) chefs, Richard. The Walnut Tree, whose owner basically refused to take Gordon's advice is a classic example of a restaurant desperately holding on to past glory. Moore Place, the big purple monster, where the deep fryer and microwaves work longer hours than the kitchen brigade.

It's a great show, with none of the overblown music and 'impending doom' narration of the US version. Bring on Series 2, 3, 4 & 5!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Show If You Cook or Not! , January 15, 2009

By	Matt J. Rose "Blu Aficionado" (De Pere, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I caught this one night on tv and was hooked! I love to cook and be in the kitchen, so this was a good fit. Its interesting to get an inside view of some fancy (and some not so) restaurants and see how things work...and well don't.

Ramsay is hard on these people and its good, you can tell he has a love for food and quality! All in all the show is pretty quick paced, with some pretty rough times for these restaurant owners and employees. I will caution you though some of the episodes will make you never wanna eat out again :(

I will be purchasing this on DVD as soon as it releases!