'Kitchen Nightmares' finds another villain

Why exactly is it that every episode of Kitchen Nightmares has to have a villain? Why can it never be the case that while the owners, managers, and waiters (or waitresses) were all good, happy, nice people, the restaurant was just failing? Maybe it makes for better television to have an enemy. Whatever the reason is, there is always someone to root against on the show.

Tonight's episode, which took place at Finn McCool's, an Irish pub in the Hamptons, proved no exception. The villain of the piece, Brian, the son of the owner, was the place's chef (dad, Buddy, referred to him as "Chef Shortcut" due to Brian's proclivity for cutting corners).

There was also a minor problem tonight with Jason, the other son and McCool's bar manager. He was less evil than Brian, but Jason seemed uninterested in really getting his hands dirty with the place. Jason didn't want to help clean the kitchen when Gordon said everyone was going to, he suggested that it wasn't his responsibility. He seemed to want to do nothing but stand behind the bar and dole out drinks. It was not really the right attitude to have when your family's ship was sinking.

Enough about Jason though, the true evil, and focus of the episode, was Brian. Brian actually said to the camera prior to Gordon's first meal at Finn McCool's that he was convinced they would get a good rating from the Ramsay. Yeah, and Gordon might also have stood up, done an Irish jig, downed a Guinness, and admitted to being a blowhard.

After Gordon complained about the balsamic vinaigrette reduction on his salmon, Brian decided to dose the shepherd's pie Gordon was going to eat with more balsamic vinegar. Antagonizing your savior, always a good idea. Gordon took a couple of bites of the pie and promptly went to bathroom to heave (or so we were lead, by the sound effects, to believe). Shockingly, Gordon did not rate the food very highly.

Not too long after that, Brian went and gave the standard line that chefs, owners, and managers on Kitchen Nightmares give about not caring about Gordon's opinions. How is that possible? Even if you disagree with some of his points, even if you don't like the restaurants Ramsay owns, how can you possibly deny that he's a huge success? And, beyond that, wasn't Gordon invited to come and fix the place? Don't you have to accept criticism after you ask, specifically, for it?

At one point tonight, Gordon went to a fire department to find out about Finn McCool's, to get real people's opinions about the place. His logic was that the firefighters have "their fingers on the pulse" of the community. I'm not entirely sure I understand where he was coming from with that, but when asked, the firefighters weren't too pleased with the restaurant. Too much fried food, they said. Don't pubs tend to serve a lot of fried food? Do people really go to a pub expecting light and healthy?

The real problem with these firefighters came when they accepted Gordon's invitation to go to the restaurant for a meal. Gordon had them critique the food (they didn't like it) and Brian didn't want to hear what they had to say. Brian actually said to the camera that the firefighters shouldn't tell him what the problems were with the food because they don't cook for a living. Surely as customers, and as people that eat on (presumably) a daily basis, they know what they like and what they don't like. Did Brian think that people would come, eat what he gave them, and if they didn't like it say to themselves "eh, he's a chef, he must know what he's doing. It must have been delicious and I just didn't realize it. Silly me."

Amazingly, Brian did know that he was going to end up appearing to be a villain. He looked at the camera at one point and said as much. It doesn't excuse the behavior, but it showed a level of self-awareness that I initially didn't think he had. He even quit, at least partially due to this knowledge, leaving the family and restaurant in the lurch. Very classy.

Brian did come back the next day, and Gordon, inexplicably, backed off of his criticisms of Brian. Gordon said that he had no idea how much was on Brian's shoulders trying to run the kitchen. What a crock that was. I have to believe that Gordon knows exactly what it's like to be running a kitchen in a restaurant. He may not do it on a daily basis anymore, but he's been there, he knows exactly what it's like. He lied in order to make Brian feel good. And people say Gordon Ramsay has no heart.

As for the relaunch, it was too successful. The place was packed and the kitchen couldn't handle it all. That was a whole new kind of problem for the previously empty establishment. Certainly, that was a better problem for Finn McCool's to face, and one they quickly overcame, but it made for a fun five minutes.

It almost goes without saying (but not quite) that the restaurant was hugely successful when the producers visited it two months down the line.

Other thoughts and an interesting quote:

• Good for Buddy. The man wrote himself a paycheck on a regular basis and never cashed any of them. The poor guy. He knew the restaurant didn't have enough money for him to get paid, so he wrote the check, put it in the safe, and never touched it.
• Once Brian quit, Buddy was forced to run the kitchen. Buddy, however, was not up to the task and quickly fell behind. Gordon stood there and complained and pushed and did nothing to help Buddy out. Why is that? Surely Gordon ought to have done something to lighten Buddy's workload.
• When explaining the menu redesign Gordon stated -- "the first thing I did was got rid of two-thirds of the menu because A) you know, the majority of it was frozen, B) if it wasn't fresh what's the point of having it on there." So 1) he said one thing and 2) he said the same thing again using different words.
• Quick question -- was it just me or did the food critic that went to the relaunch seem truly obnoxious?

I know what you're thinking, I can be obnoxious too. Probably you're right, but if you don't go and check out The TV and Film Guy's Reviews how can you know for sure?

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