(Warning: Strong languages ahead)
I have to say that during my 27 years of living on this planet, I am not a fan of reality television. These programs, even though have good intentions of showcasing regular lives of ordinary people, are cringeworthy for most of the time, as these same ones are watched by millions of people not because of the journey that these regular people have been through, but for all the drama surrounding it, and sometimes, the showrunners, producers, even the networks that authorize the broadcast often ask for more drama to attract more viewers, and in turn increasing their ratings to earn more profit, sometimes in the expense of the talents involved.
But even though these shows are allegedly not as real as they can be, some shows can be as a steppingstone to fame, or in this case infamy of the parties involved. And one establishment gained their notoriety thanks to a reality show centered on rescuing failing culinary institution. The program I'm currently talk about is called Kitchen Nightmares, hosted by non-other than the Scottish culinary legend Gordon Ramsay. The premise is pretty simple, Ramsay would travel across the United States to hopefully help saving various struggling restaurants, often drowned in extensive debt. On one side, this program paints a light about the culinary industry as a whole, that it's not all about serving good food and being a contributor to the community, but also the business side of it, and some restaurants are more struggling than everyone else. On the other, it also highlighted the grim reality that some restaurants, if not managed property, no matter how hard the efforts, would instead sink faster than it would be capable to do.
The program's format works as follows: Gordon would respond to the restaurant's request for help and traveled to said restaurant. His first step is to observe the both the exterior and the interior of the establishment, and to sample some of the dishes that the place offered. Most of the time the food is either bad at best or disgusting at worst. After the initial assessment, he would confront the staff and the owners and explained what went wrong with the food, often with explosive results. The show then moved to dinner service inspection, where Gordon oversees how the service was conducted, most of the time also ended in failures. At this point, he may be inspecting the cleanliness of the kitchen and the walk-in freezer, and in the majority of that occasion found nothing but filth, mold, rust, even expired and contaminated ingredients (cross-contaminations are prevalent, by mixing cooked ingredients with raw ones, especially meat and poultry products). After concluding and identifying the problems, he then proceeded to overhaul the establishment by revamping the interior and its menu, and the episode ends with the restaurant's relaunch, and Gordon left the place and continuing on his journey. Most of the time, the format has stayed in this formula for most of the show's time on air, until one establishment came and wreck it all forever.
Let's stop by Scottsdale, Arizona, and meet Salomon "Samy" Bouzaglo and his wife Amy, owners of Amy's Baking Company. Samy invested roughly over US$ 1 Million to the place, which was first opened its doors in 2006 as a way of fulfilling her dreams in the culinary arts. Samy is an Israeli national while Amy is American, both were married by the time the episode aired. Initially, they send their SOS to Gordon for "bad review-driven loss". Not only that, but they also have a surprisingly high staff turnover in the show's history. The episode's cold open showcased the couple's utter insanity, but not until Gordon arrived, when they finally reveal their true colors. At first, Ramsay was pleased by the interior of the restaurant, the cleanliness of the kitchen and the freezer, and also praised Amy for her exceptional baking skills (Mind you, looking at their behavior as depicted at the time, this is allegedly Amy and Samy's way to distract Gordon from the real problems at hand). But when it comes to their other products, however, let's just say it left a bad taste on his mouth.
And this is not limited to the gastronomy side of the restaurant, the staff treatment, as Gordon would find out, is as equally appalling. One server, Miranda, whom he met during filming revealed that she never made any tips from waiting tables, as the money she rightfully deserved went to Samy instead. Samy justified this by saying that he's the one working front house most of the time, albeit poorly (He is technologically crippled, as he demonstrated his inability to operate a point of sales (PoS) machine properly). It is revealed towards the end of the episode that the establishment has fired over 100 staff members in the span of 18 months (initial number was 50 according to a former employee). Come dinner service, the reality quickly descends on Gordon as he found out the reason why the food was sub-par, but not the desserts: Samy never told Amy about the problems and mishaps of her cooking, and she would instead deny any wrongdoings. It also became clear that the "fresh ravioli" offered in the menu was actually cheap, store-bought, frozen ones. The Scotsman then announced that ravioli is off the menu, much to Amy's chagrin. She also blamed others for her own mishaps as well; she accidentally told Kate, one of the servers the wrong table number while serving an order, but when asked to verify, she instead accused the waitress of "having an attitude".
And for the pièce de résistance, Gordon caught Samy pocketed the tip meant for the waitress, and proceed to tear him a new one, sparking a profanity-laced argument that ends with Amy shutting down operation and Kate, the poor waitress fired on the spot. During the final moments, before the inevitable truth, he tried to list everything that was wrong during the service, but the husband-wife team refused to listen. After that shocking turn of events, as well as finding the restaurant closed the day after service, and several interviews with former staff members, Gordon finally came to one unanimous conclusion: Samy and Amy Bouzaglo are too far gone and beyond help to the point of no return, and it's best for him to steer clear. For the first time ever, after roughly 5 seasons, on the 16th episode of the 6th season, Gordon Ramsay walked away from Amy's Baking Company before he could save it. This went down in history of the show as the one who got away, a restaurant he was forced to walked away from before he could salvage.
After the episode had aired, the restaurant, as well as Amy and Samy became an overnight sensation (in a bad way, of course), capitalizing on their infamy to gain more traction online, only to be met with more harsh reviews and trolls from those who want the laughs. At this point, they are pretty much the biggest lolcow both online and offline. Let me tell you, it's all because of the memes. But how did the Bouzaglos responded to this? In true unhinged fashion, especially on their facebook page, millions and millions of angry comments flooded the facebook timelines, but when it comes to clarify those comments denouncing the critics, these jackasses had the audacity to lie, telling the press that the supposed facebook page had been hacked. Some encounters after the episode detailed even more unhinged behavior, particularly from Samy, as he was once confronted a customer while holding what appears to be some form of a bladed weapon, most likely a kitchen knife. But Samy again denied this, claiming that the object he held was actually a pen. Hell, they once ended up in another TV show, this time Dr. Phil, where they were confronted by Dr. Phil himself about their behaviors before and after Kitchen Nightmares. Spoiler alert, they are still the same delusional jackasses that Gordon encountered. The fucking audacity of these two bozos.
Soon, internet detectives began to dig up both Amy and Samy's pasts and discovered horrifying facts about their previous endeavours. Amy Bouzaglo, or rather, Amanda Bossingham, was once involved in a bank fraud case of "misuse of social security number" in 2003, where she attempted to apply a US$ 15.000 bank loan using her ex-husband’s last name. As a result, she served almost one year in prison. Samy on the other hand, has even more grim record, as he is banned from France and Germany, and has records involving drug distribution, extortion and making threats. Some even say that the dude has ties with the mafia, although the details are mostly unspecified. This revelation then came back to bite Samy in his Israeli ass, as he was deported back to the country (?) in 2018.
So, what happened with Amy's Baking Company after all the fiasco? In short, the restaurant ceased to exist in September 2015. Amy herself tried to publish a cookbook but ended up with little to no success. After closing the doors for good in Scottsdale, the couple moved to California until Samy's eventual deportation. Nowadays, they spend their lives in Israel, with Amy resuming her baking endeavors and opening her own bakery. Kitchen Nightmares has since stopped airing, concluding its seventh and final season on the 12th of September 2014, putting an end to the program started in 2007. In its place, a similar program called Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back aired between 2018 to 2020, as the pandemic hit the world. There had been talks to revive the show, but so far, it is still in the works.
To bookend this piece, I must say that the culinary industry, although is quite glamorous with all of the indulgence of sense, taste, and smell, is one hell of an industry to ever existed. Chefs and all restaurant personnel are working tirelessly behind the scenes to deliver delicious crafts of gastronomy for the wider population to enjoy. Programs like Kitchen Nightmares painted us a harsh reality that if an establishment is managed incorrectly, either for low standards, toxic working environment, possible health hazards, and even delusional and insane restaurant owners could lead that restaurant into bankruptcy and eventually forced to shut down for good. And with Amy's Baking Company, their delusions and refusal to change their ways proven to be their own downfall. And that is the true kitchen nightmare.
