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When good TV goes bad: how the US ruined Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares — theguardian.com

The most successful TV formats hit a winning formula then repeat it ad nauseam. One of the most watchable things about Kitchen Nightmares – where the never-smiling Gordon Ramsay arrives to rescue a struggling restaurant – was its familiarity. Ramsay always oversaw a transformation in three parts. First was changing the food. That was easy: whatever dog’s dinners they were serving up could be upgraded by slimming down (always slimming down) the menu, and sticking in a few easy-to-cook Ramsay specials so that even the most inept chefs could add an extra star. Second to change was the restaurant itself, where Ramsay’s team worked “through the night” (the magic of telly, eh?) chucking that grotty wood-panelling into the bin and shunting the property-in-need towards 2007’s standards. Third, and hardest, to change were the people. But all that usually seemed to require was a rummage around their grotty (always grotty) walk-in fridge and a few stern words. This would see disillusioned owners, lazy staff and grumpy chain-smoking chefs miraculously affecting months-of-therapy-sized personality-changes overnight.

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