Gordon Ramsay is one of the most popular names on TV, and he has built an empire for himself through the years. He has dealt with insane business owners, has crafted hit shows, and has made hundreds of millions of dollars.
Chef Ramsay is on stranger to controversy, and he has dealt with lawsuits during his time on TV. In fact, one of the lawsuits filed against him and one of his shows led to the show having to do a sweep on their social media accounts.
Let's take a look at Kitchen Nightmares and one of its lawsuits.
Why Was Gordon Ramsay Sued For 'Kitchen Nightmares'?
September 2007 marked the debut of a little show called Kitchen Nightmares, which was hosted by Gordon Ramsay. This show was based off of a previous Ramsay show called Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares overseas, and it gave stateside audiences a chance to see how Gordon Ramsay conducts business while giving advice to other restaurants.
Each episode featured Chef Ramsay heading to a struggling restaurant to give an honest assessment, and to give the owners pointers and a revamp to get them going in the right direction. Ramsay was brutally honest on the show, and this was a huge reason why people tuned in each week. Conflict always seemed to be around the corner, but at the end of the day, Ramsay was just doing his best to ensure that the restaurant had a fair chance at surviving.
For 7 seasons and nearly 100 episodes, Kitchen Nightmares was a success on Fox. Ramsay pulled the plug on the show, a decision that he still regrets, but this does not change the fact that the show was quite the success in it prime.
Given the nature of the show, it makes sense that Chef Ramsay and the show itself got into some hot water along the way.
The Show Got In Hot Water Several Times
Kitchen Nightmares has a successful run both stateside and overseas, and there were some controversial moments both in front of, and behind the cameras that caused some issues for the show.
At one point, Gordon was accused of having an affair, and this was something that put production at a halt.
Per Mashed, "Not that we can say for sure Gordon Ramsay even had an affair, but in 2008 British authoress and self-titled "professional mistress" Sarah Symonds did, and furthermore, that they'd been carrying on the on-again, off-again relationship for the past seven years."
This is bad enough, but there have also been some social media posts that have caused trouble for the show.
The show's Twitter account shared a montage of Ramsay going mental, and people were none too pleased with it.
Jay Rayner of The Guardian wrote, "What a sad, inadequate man. This is everything that has been wrong about restaurant kitchen culture. Because he suffered violence and abuse as a young cook, Ramsay thinks it's character building and so the cycle continues. All he's doing is glamourising bullying."
These are just a few examples of things that went wrong for the show, but they pale in comparison to the lawsuit that was filed years back.
The Lawsuit In Question
In 2018, Oceana Grill, a restaurant based out in New Orleans, came after Gordon Ramsay and the show after the way that they were portrayed on Kitchen Nightmares.
"The show was called “Kitchen Nightmares,” and for one French Quarter restaurant featured on an episode in 2011 the bad dream won't end. In fact, the restaurant is suing the show's star, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and its producers, for dredging up old footage of the restaurant, while also accusing them of "fabricating" scenes to inject some added drama and make the restaurant look as bad as possible," writes NOLA.
This must have come as quite the surprise to Ramsay and the folks that made the show, as they likely assumed that they had conducted business as usual.
According to the lawsuit, "During the episode's filming, defendants went to great lengths to over-dramatize and even fabricate problems with the restaurant in order to increase ratings. The footage intentionally portrayed Oceana and its employees in a patently false and negative light, as it depicted the appealing restaurant as an unsuccessful, unsanitary and mismanaged restaurant."
The suit itself worked to a degree, as the team from Kitchen Nightmares stopped using clips featuring the restaurant on social media, per Big Hospitality.
At the end of the day, the lawsuit against Kitchen Nightmares did little to fix any damage that might have been done.
