I imagined writing a full article on the show “Restaurant Impossible” but there’s no real point when you can just watch this wonderful show on youtube. The idea here is that a master chef and store manager goes into a business that is only weeks away from completely failing. He reshuffles the staff, reallocates jobs, throws out the existing menu and starts again, plus totally redoes the interior of the restaurant – all in two days while spending $10,000 only.
The central focus is always on the customer. The method has nothing to do with government regulators and federal laws, about which we hear absolutely nothing in the course of the show. It demonstrates the complexities and trials associated with entrepreneurship and the capitalist process. As everyone in this industry knows, it is an incredibly difficult industry. The failure rate is exorbitantly high. The hours are impossibly long. The level of uncertainty is frightening.
In this show, they house is packed on opening night, partially due to local marketing and partially due to the fame of the show itself. Just to prove the point, this is all very real. Here is the restaurant’s site. Special thanks to Edgar Martinez for the alert.
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HEY!!! I had mentioned this show and others over in the Forum under the heading of “work/business related reality shows”.
Here is what I wrote:
“* Restaurant Impossible- another ‘food’ show, this one is kind of the opposite of [Diners, Drive-in, and Dives]. Many of these places could have been like the ones on that show: long time places that have allowed quality to slip or didn’t change and that has made people leave. So they have to shake things up. Sometimes they have to clean up the place, sometimes that have to shake things up in terms of service and food preperation & quality. You don’t do a good job (poor food, service, etc), you will go under. I think they have had some failure (straigtened things out, but they slid back to old ways and went under). I see Spike TV now has a new show that’s similiar, focused on bars. [Bar Rescue]
In a later posting, I said this:
“Something I also got from shows like, say, Restaurant Impossible, is the reason for providing your customers with good food and the like (ie keeping the kitchen clean and such) was NEVER about government rules & regs (ie you’ll get in trouble with the health inspector) was the attitude that YOU as a good chief should never serve bad food. Its wrong, ruins your reputation, etc. Kind of, its in YOUR self interest not to do this.”
This is a US version of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (without the F-word).
Looking at the hygiene of some of the (US) restaurants, when Gordon goes into the kitchen or refrigerators, show what a lousy job US food inspectors do.
One problem – after the success of Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” on FOX, the Food Network has changed nearly all of their shows into challenge competitions – it used to be just the Iron Chef.
On occasion, both this show, and Bar Rescue, have dealt with unclean kitchens.
What is interesting with RI (and Irvine) is keeping a clean kitchen has nothing to do with Food Inspectors, but that as good chiefs, you should keep it clean. Its just the RIGHT thing to do, not ‘you must do it, else you’ll get in trouble with an inspector’.
I think one restaurant on the first season (Rascal’s BBQ & Crab Shack, I think) was horrible. I think this was their only failure, because the owners backslide into bad habits and they went under. I think all the rest were still going strong (for the most part) 6-9 months later.
Gordon Ramsay is one of the few Three Star Michelin chefs. As such, his emphasis is on high quality fresh foods. The idea of serving up “leftovers” is not something he would do.
Also, given the economic downturn, his empire has been in trouble. He has had to put some of the money he made with his TV shows back into the business.
When interviewed, he said that there has been a drop in the restaurant traffic in London. People are not ordering expensive bottles of wine where there is a huge mark up.
Incidentally, the reason most start-up restaurants fail is that they are under capitalized and sign bad leases, not because they serve up bad or bland food.
I’ve become a fan of Chopped, also on the Food Network, and the judges tend to make an issue of sloppy chefs as well. They never mention health codes either, just that great chefs don’t leave a mess behind.
I remember Gordon Ramsay show, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, doing the same idea. Ramsay is a great chef and enterprenuer too and he’s always focused on the customer. The British version of the show is a lot better than the American one: more focused on business than emotions.
One of the best lesson of the show is that restaurants are always opening and closing at a fast rate: only the ones which meet customers tastes survive. But they have to work really hard to keep ut the good job.
“The British version of the show is a lot better than the American one: more focused on business than emotions.”
Well, that’s the problem with most of the reality shows: the need to have drama, so in many cases you wonder how much of what you see is staged (ie scripted, or made up, or someone is being a jerk just to create the drama).
“One of the best lesson of the show is that restaurants are always opening and closing at a fast rate: only the ones which meet customers tastes survive. But they have to work really hard to keep ut the good job.”
One thing I fine funny, is I feel to a degree, the Food Network’s “Drive-in, Diners, and Dives” is the opposite of RI. (as I mentioned above) Because in many cases DDD highlights places that have been around for decades, and have NOT changed a thing (decor, menu, etc), and yet have continued to be successful. They have to be sure NOT to allow quality to slip, but they still do things the way they’ve always done. It’s just that in the case of some of the places on RI, this hasn’t worked.
I know it’s not related to restaurants nor this article, but have you ever watched TAPS, the ghostbuster reality show ?
I can tell you that most of this stuff is staged. There was a video about a moving bed sheets once. You could tell that the sheet was pulled by a string because as the sheI am not saying that supernatural doesn’t exist, I think it does.
But TAPS is certainly more about the show than anything else.et moved, all the lines were concentrating on a single point, as if a string was attached at that particular place.
Or, have you watched Cake Boss ? I can tell you that some of the tantrums thrown in there are completely staged. Reality shows might not be so much about reality after all.
I don’t believe in the supernatural, so I hate all the paranormal-based reality shows like TAPS.
I prefer Ace of Cakes over Cake Boss. I like the people on AoC, and there is little drama. Its more on the creativity of their work, then the personality-drive drama of other shows.
I agree with you but you must admit that Cake Boss also made very impressive creations.
Jeffrey:
Iberico de Bellota Ham comes to America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utZs5bEd6YM&feature=related
“and he’s always focused on the customer.”
Some restaurants are focused on the process where they calculated everything to the second and to the cent and when a customer comes and disturbs the process a little bit, he is blamed by the staff and the manager for not following procedures.
It happened to me and I left, never to return. I understand that the manager has planned everything penniwise in order to maximize profits and cut costs but when I go to a restaurant I don’t like to be treated like I was some bizarre Martian coming from another planet.
Service, above all, is what is the most important for me. When servers are polite with a smile I usually give a huge tip and I come back. But when they treat me with contempt because I don’t follow procedures, like ordering at the counter instead of going to take a seat (I did not know it worked that way) then I usually get upset and leave.
I cannot tolerate rudeness when I am a customer, especially a restaurant customer. I pay for good service, the food comes second. I will prefer a place with good service with a lesser quality food than a place with top notch food with bad service.
Service in restaurant, like in any other industry, is the most important thing. I don’t always pick the better product, but I always pick the better service.
I will occasionally accept a lower service if I absolutely need a better product or an exact product and there is no better service for that product.
I don’t like it when staff gets bossy with me, give me orders, tell me how to behave as a customer etc.
A business should tailor to customer demands and not try to fit the customer into their already pre-planned logistics.
Should have just left the chairs alone. Painting them was foolish. The rental chairs made all the rest look like what it cost (cheap) Without that decision it would have looked great for the budget. The time frame and budget make it an amazing accomplishment, but the result could have bee 100% better with a week and $20,000. It was both amazing and a bit disappointing.
You have to wonder if the time limit (2 days) and budget ($10K) was done in large part to up the drama.
If you had a week instead of 2 days, things would NOT be amped up. Same with a larger budget.
I agree, the chairs were a tragic decision. That being said, it could serve as a valauable cautionary tale to all restauraters; keep your shop updated, clean, simple, yet stylish. Also, keep your menu updated daily, practice hygiene in the kitchen, cook simple meals well, and use the freshest ingredients. Whenever the wife and I watch these shows, we scream these concepts at the TV.
This is an interesting article because just last night, I was thinking that “reality TV” based on occupational drama was perhaps leading to the popularity of Libertarianism. That is, people watching “Deadliest Catch”, “Ice Road Trucking”, “Eat Street”, and even one of the tow-truck shows are getting first-hand insight to entrepreneurism. Maybe younger folk are watching these shows and realizing that it is fun, challenging, and possibly rewarding, and “cool” to make your own job/ career. After all, that is how this “spontaneous order” thing is supposed to work, right?
Yup.
Some other points I get from RI is the use of fresh, hand made stuff rather then packaged premade stuff. Its almost funny in some shows the cooks WANT to do this, but the owner won’t, and Chef Irvine has to show them that the cost of making it fresh is the same or cheaper then the packaged stuff, and better, and not that time consuming.
Another thing I thought interesting is the need to ensure the waiting staff knows the menu AND has tasted all the dishes, so they can sell them to the customer. One place (the one in Mystic) the chef refused to do this! Irvine put a stop to that.
I would add “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover” on Bravo. Brilliant show about business and about helping troubled businesses that have lost focus on the customer. Sure it is set in a salon but it is one of the few shows on TV that don’t vilify business.
Never heard of that.
Spike now has “Bar Rescue”, which is similar.
Re: Ed M.,
My wife likes that show a lot. And you’re right: Tabatha’s emphasis is in the business and customer service side of hair salon management. She sometimes finds owners that argue that they are in the business for something other than “merely” making money, and boy does she put them straight!
The first few generations of broadcast reality TV really were crap TV. I think their problem was that they were not, in any real sense, real. The more recent cable network take on reality TV is much more interesting. From following coal miners or crab fishers, to pawn shop and restaurant owners, such TV is much more real, and much more interesting.
Reality TV is an oxymoron, a near impossibility, suffering from the ‘observer effect,’ exacerbated by subjects who hallucinate celebrity futures promised by a Warholian instant.
Theater, through and through.
Nevertheless, any show that champions entrepreneurship is welcome indeed.
Re: Franklin,
I believe you’re being a bit harsh about these business-oriented reality shows; they’re certainly not like Jersey Shore. While they are not without some dramatic trickery, they still show an aspect of life that many only barely notice at work, if ever; for instance: Customer service, inventory control, pricing, costing, management.
Other TV shows give people a glimpse on something we’re very familiar with, which is subjective valuation, for instance: Pawn Stars. An ex-coworker did not like that show because, she felt, the owners of the pawn shop were deliberately low-balling the sellers. I told her that there was nothing different between what they were doing and what WE do in Negotiations every day: Trying to obtain the best deal possible from our suppliers.
Another fantastic show is “Say Yes to the Dress,” which covers sales in a wedding dress shop. Fantastically interesting.
Exactly why “Food Carts” have exploded on the scene in the last 5 years. Great cooks/chefs offering good food at great prices with very little overhead. That overhead will diminish though, when City food-cart-fees catch up with them. Government is nothing more that well organized [LOL] BIG Ivy-League schooled mafia.
Second hand knowledge but brother and husband former bank officers: a bank will give anyone the funding to open a restaurant knowing full well fifty percent of them fail. Most restaurant owners immediately go out and buy a new car the minute they get the loan.
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