As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- "Amy's Baking Company":
- The fact that Amy's Baking Company managed to be so unhinged that it was the first episode to have its own page - both here and on Wikipedia. It takes a lot to stand out amongst twelve seasons' worth of shows produced in two different countries.
- Gordon's "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Amy and Samy, who refuse to listen to him and repeatedly try to play the victim card. Gordon just outright tells them he can't help them and leaves.Ramsay: I can't help people who can't help themselves and cannot ever take one ounce of criticism. If you're not willing to change, I'm not going to butt heads, argue, scream... but this is not normal. And it's not normal for a restaurant to go through that many staff, it's not normal for a kitchen that small to have sixty-five items on the menu, and it's not normal for the level of animosity that you've built inside this restaurant and outside. You have the right to run the business the way you want to run your business — I have the right to do the right thing. And the right thing for me is to get out of here.
- That last bit is even more awesome considering that this is Chef Ramsay we're talking about! He only had one loud outburst throughout the entire episode, and was pretty much calm and collected the rest of the time.
- Really, Ramsay during the entire episode was awesome, calling the owners out multiple times on their bullshit and explaining to customers what was wrong with the place twice. He also stuck up for the abused waitresses, telling the customers that they were getting their rightfully deserved tips stolen. Given the managers' behavior, he acted very mature and was a much bigger person than they were. Any other person would have given up on them a long time ago.
- In the "return" episode, Miranda reveals that Amy and Samy fired her, begged her to come back, and then called her a thief and fired her again after taking a $5 tip that had been left for her — which, for the record, was rightfully hers as opposed to the owners actually illegally stealing all the waiting staff's tips for themselves. Furious with their blatant hypocrisy, she promptly threw the money in Samy's face, told both him and Amy to go to hell, and quit on the spot.
- The American episode "Sebastian's", in which the owner was a complete egomaniacal nutcase who pretty much tried to actively sabotage Ramsay's efforts to improve his restaurant, hurting not just the business but the staff as well. After Sebastian tries to push his "concept" one final time on relaunch night, Ramsay pulls him aside and calmly tells him that. After watching this guy putting on a façade the whole episode, seeing Ramsay put that schmuck in his place and leave him finally flipping his lid, petulantly ranting and raving at no one in particular ("THIS IS MY FUCKIN' LIFE!") is immensely satisfying.Ramsay: Okay... when I first arrived here, we got off to a shaky start, sure, think about it. And then we kept our heads down, and we got through it together. And we made some really exciting changes! The menu's changed, the staff have changed. Mate, there's one thing that hasn't changed in this establishment... and that's you, Sebastian. I'm forty years of age, and I've gone to a lot of restaurants. But I've never, ever, ever ever met someone I believe in as little as you. I think that you will go back to your sloppy, shortcut, five-out-of-ten frozen ways. (Beat, then he sarcastically pats Sebastian on the arm) Good luck.
- Here's a video of it.
It gets even better when a thoroughly-humiliated and furious Sebastian pursues and tries to pick a fight with Ramsay afterward backstage: but he doesn't rise to it at all. After calling him on being the "ungrateful, nasty, vindictive joker" that he is, he simply stands firm and brushes his threats off with "Got anything else?" without even raising his voice, leading the fratboy to back down and run away. Worth pointing out; Gordon's a black belt in taekwondo and a trained boxer, so he would have destroyed Sebastian if things had gotten physical. Running away was the one smart decision Sebastian made the whole episode. - In that same episode, Sebastian is crowing that "I just won that one!" after Ramsay walks out on an argument to clear his head. Upon returning, Ramsay immediately announces to him, "You have won jack fucking shit!".
- Gordon would eventually prove to be right, as Sebastian immediately went back to his old style and (predictably) had his restaurant fail on him within only a few months as a result.
- Here's a video of it.
- In the Spin-A-Yarn Steakhouse episode, the owner, Saki, has his wife serve the restaurant's new signature prime rib tableside as part of an effort to involve her more in the business. Being new to the task, she cuts enormous portions, practically giving away the meat. After an entire sports team arrive and all unanimously choose to order the steak, the owner, wife, and Ramsay find out that (to their horror) there are only about 2 pounds of Rib left, certainly not enough to serve an entire team. Cue Victor, the head chef (who earlier in the episode was reduced to washing dishes during dinner service because of the lack of help), mentioning that he prepared one last rib roast just in case something went wrong.
- It's not made entirely clear to the viewer just why this is so crucial. Prime rib is different than some other steaks because it takes much longer to prepare properly. First, it (i) sits at room temperature for about two hours, then (ii) spends another two hours in the oven at varying temperatures. Without the "emergency" prime rib, it would have been literally impossible to fill the order and no amount of chef wizardry could have done anything about it.
- In the Park's Edge episode, one of the line cooks has voiced opposition to including chicken wings on the new menu, and begins to intentionally screw up orders during the relaunch night. The head chef, who had no previous experience outside of cooking school, tells him to stop complaining and just cook the food properly. When the line cook mouths off again, the head chef fires him on the spot in the middle of dinner service.
- In the Blackberry's episode:
- Basically any time Mary opens her mouth.
- First, she tells her daughter to shut up, ditch her arrogance, and accept the help that Gordon is offering.
- The second instance is when she confronts Shelly for walking out of the dinner service, telling her that if she is going to behave like that, she should just close the restaurant down.
- Not to mention her red velvet cake was the only food Ramsay liked during his sample meal.
- When James accuses Gordon of planting the dead rat by the door and the latter sees that Shelly believes James' lie, Gordon doesn't attempt to negotiate or backpedal; he immediately declares that if they're going to lie and pin it on him, that's it; he'll walk out and leave them to save the restaurant themselves.
- Shelly walks off the line in the middle of the relaunch after being called out for interfering with the other chefs and reverting to her old ways, which included meddling in dishes that others were cooking. Mateen, with some encouragement from Gordon, steps up and gets every dish served properly once she leaves.
- Basically any time Mary opens her mouth.
- Gordon catching and confronting the guy who's stealing food and booze from the kitchen (named, appropriately enough, Buzzard) in Lela's and setting him up to be fired with the evidence is at once badass, awesome, and quite brave, too. Gordon instantly bursts the guy's bubble as soon as he comes swaggering into the kitchen wearing a pair of Cool Shades and then tells him what he would do in the situation:Gordon: Can I see your eyes, can you take your glasses off? And, Buzzard, anything that's inside restaurant belongs to Lela, yeah?
Buzzard: Yeah.
Gordon: Yeah, end of story. Nothing gets taken off those premises. [...] I get lots of people stealing from me, and I just have one discipline. Anyone who steals from me is out, end of story. Because the message you send, they will see you doing it, they all do it. [to Lela] Anyway, Lela, you're the one who gonna make the decision. It's your question. - "Burger Kitchen":
- Gordon's utter shredding of the owners of Burger Kitchen, who insisted upon almost force-feeding him their gimmicky Wagyu burgers (which, incidentally, he routinely mispronounces as "way-goo", further making it clear he doesn't have a clue what he's talking aboutnote ), to the point of getting in the way of their (former) head chef David's attempt at showing Ramsay his own burger recipe that the owners were refusing to implement. Even better, Ramsay declared David's "Redemption Burger" to be absolutely delicious.Ramsay: (tries it, and is visibly impressed) That is delicious. I'd give that nine out of ten. Love that title there, by the way — "Redemption Burger", and you certainly did that!
- Ramsay bringing in all the people who wrote the bad reviews on the restaurant was also epic, showing how yes, they're real people, not trolls or spokesmen for the competition.
- Daniel's girlfriend Wendy is frequently complimented in YouTube comments for standing up for her partner and angrily delivering invective speeches against his parents who refuse to see their flaws and have the audacity to insult her for it.
- Gordon's utter shredding of the owners of Burger Kitchen, who insisted upon almost force-feeding him their gimmicky Wagyu burgers (which, incidentally, he routinely mispronounces as "way-goo", further making it clear he doesn't have a clue what he's talking aboutnote ), to the point of getting in the way of their (former) head chef David's attempt at showing Ramsay his own burger recipe that the owners were refusing to implement. Even better, Ramsay declared David's "Redemption Burger" to be absolutely delicious.
- "Mill Street Bistro":
- This exchange between Gordon and restaurant owner/head chef Joe.Gordon: Defensive, ignorant, and in complete denial...
Joe: Guess what? If I'm all that, you're my twin.
Gordon: What?
Joe: Yeah, 'cause I've been called you here many other times, so let's get over bullshit.
Gordon: (softly in Joe's ear) I can cook, Joe. - That whole episode was amazing. When Joe decides to put raw onions in a French Onion Soup and Ramsay goes off on him with such anger and ferocity.
- When Joe starts cooking like he used to before Gordon's arrival, Ramsay has finally had enough of his denial and incompetence and kicks Joe out of his own kitchen and throws the latter's crappy elk quesadilla on the floor and rhetorically asks him to take it with him. Joe's exit allows Gordon and sous chef Tom to complete service without much issue.
- This exchange between Gordon and restaurant owner/head chef Joe.
- Ramsay's reputation has begun to precede him. In Cafe Tavolini one of the waiters was scared of being stabbed with a fork if he disagreed with Ramsay's opinion of the food.
- At Fiesta Sunrise, Gordon royally rips its general manager a new one multiple times over for his careless business management and for having jeopardized his entire family's fortunes by convincing his stepdaughter to put it all on her credit alone. The first night Gordon is there, he uncovers one of the filthiest kitchens in the show's history, with truckloads of exposed, hopelessly expired food. And then he discovers buckets full of refried beans, as in garbage buckets, and the beans had the consistency of cement. Gordon explodes at the manager for daring to charge people for the inedible mush, and when he refuses to show it to his diners, Gordon takes it out himself, breaks a table with said bucket, and warns the customers against eating any more spoiled food. Immediately ending service, he refuses to let the restaurant charge anyone for what they've been eating and leaves the beans out for all to see. Given the owner's reputation for arrogance and overall cluelessness, this was a very satisfying scene.
- In the Piccolo Teatro episode of the UK series, Gordon decides to prove that lunch services can be profitable by opening the restaurant for lunch without the owner's knowledge. He ends up prepping, cooking and serving the lunch item (tomato soup with a toasted cheese sandwich) by himself, and ends up making over €500 in profit.
- Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack had a first-and-only moment for the show: Gordon Ramsay liked the food and didn't send it back. He thought the presentation wasn't the best and the restaurant was a little small, but he cleaned his plate; when he brought the empty dish back to the kitchen, he declared the meal to be "bloody delicious." There's a reason why the quote below is also on the top of this very subpage.Charita: I fed Gordon Ramsay... and he cleaned his plate!
- Ramsay laying the smackdown on chef Damien of Oceana after realizing how poorly the food is being maintained. At one point, Damien - visibly flustered - calls Ramsay an asshole, which only increases his criticism. Eventually, Ramsay manages to somewhat break through to him.Ramsay: I've got just one question to you; who's the arsehole now, "chef"?!
Damien: ...I am. - In the Lido di Manhattan episode, half of the kitchen staff walk out on Gordon and the owner of the restaurant. Gordon quickly saves things by calling in his right hand man Scott and with Scott's help, they save the service and make it a success.
- Ramsay also lets everyone take a swing at a computer with an awful POS system that slowed down service all the time.
- Lisa, the young owner of Lido Di Manhattan, is maybe the biggest success stories on the show. She brought the restaurant when she was 22 years old, fresh out of college, with her dad co-signing the loan. The one thing she was lacking was experience and had her staff walk all over her. Gordon Ramsey even got to her so much that she spent a whole evening crying in the bathroom. Once Gordon gave her a crash course on running the restaurant, she took them to heart, fired the lazy staff and even started her own wine brand, which Chef Ramsey was pushing her to do in the episode. When he returned a year later for a follow up, she had turned over a new leaf and was active with the kitchen. She made a few changes from his original menu and said her profits had been way up since then. Lisa has also expanded into Lido brand wine, catering and private dining. She is one of the few restaurants who are still in business up to 2021 (yep, she made it through COVID-19) and has very high reviews on Yelp.
- In the Season 1 episode "Campania", at the beginning of the reboot service, the new food is receiving praise... until one customer complains that her dish is terrible and that she wouldn't feed it to her dog. Usually this means the gradual fall of the service and food quality, with the chef being pressured, right? Well, that does happen, but not there. When the dish is sent back, Ramsay himself inspects it and finds nothing wrong with it. When the woman continues to spout out insults on the food, he promptly tells her to stop talking out of her rear, stop trying to make trouble, and then apologizes to the other customers for the "old bag."
- And later, in that same episode, one table waits two hours and receives no food. Now, one customer reasonably gets upset, until she goes to the front of the restaurant and complains to another customer of the food tasting terrible, despite the other customer insisting that it was great. A drunk but satisfied customer comes and tells her to stop complaining if she kept eating her food, only leaving her alone when a police car arrives.
- PJ's Steakhouse had a Smug Snake chef named Eric that tries to blow over every complaint his way. Ramsay basically puts him in his place 9 times out of 10.
- The fact that Capri stayed open until September 2019 (source), almost eight and a half years after the episode first aired, counts. When Gordon arrived, the twin brother owners were immature, inexperienced and would start crying over little things such as being told the food was rotten. By the end of the episode, he's forced them to grow up in a short span of three days and the lesson clearly held.
- In a rare case of an awesome verbal Get A Hold Of Yourself Man being delivered by someone who is not Gordon Ramsay: in the "Runaway Girl" episode, Richie, the beleaguered head chef and the long-time best friend of Justin the restaurant owner, calls him out on all of his bullshit and unloads years of pent-up rage in an explosive, Cluster F-Bomb-laden admonishment. The event leaves even Gordon himself utterly slack-jawed and speechless in awe as the chef gives him an apologetic pat on the arm and steps out—Richie: Jus... this is what I'm talking about, kid. You've got to cut the fucking bullshit. Why the fuck are you still trying to make out you've fucking got something? When, when the fucking —
Justin: (tries to cut him off) When I—
Richie: — when the damage has been done, we already look like a couple of fucking tits, yeah? You're already looking like a twat, yeah? And this guy's too fucking clever for you. So shut your fucking mouth, and fucking listen!
Justin: But I can't —
Richie: If you do not turn it round today, two O'clock — me and him are fucking off! Yeah?!
Justin: Today —
Richie: I ain't fucking staying here, Jus! (Justin tries to protest) CUT THE FUCKING CRAP, TO TURN THINGS ROUND! HE'S HERE TO FUCKING TURN IT ROUND! You can do it without me, or fucking with me. Cause I've had enough of this fucking charade. Cause I don't need this fucking shit, and I've got to stand next to him and show him fucking tubs of fucking shit, that's our fucking cooking! So fucking — (Justin cuts in again) don't say nothing!
Justin: I'm saying to tell me where to go from here, Rich! Because what —
Richie: YOU'RE NOT FUCKING LISTENING TO HIM! HE'S TRYING TO FUCKING TELL YOU! I'VE TRIED TO TELL YOU FOR TWO YEARS, ABOUT EVERY-FUCKING-THING! Food, bands — and I told you that! BUT YOU DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND! SO SHOW HIM SOME FUCKING RESPECT, OR ELSE I'M FUCKING GOING AT TWO O' CLOCK, AND THAT'S FUCKING IT! (Beat) That is it, no fucking bullshit.
Justin: (blankly) Okay.
Richie: Fucking dangle me like a fucking puppet! (turns around to leave so he can calm down, but reassuringly pats Gordon on the shoulder as he walks off) Sorry.
Gordon: (quietly) ...go get some fresh air.
Richie: (starts to walk out, yells back to Justin) So don't take the fucking piss out of me any more! (as he leaves) Fuck this shit, bruv.- Listen to what Ramsay said immediately after: he's clearly taken aback by this man's rage.This has been festering long before I got here. The relationship is broken down, that's pretty obvious. And so what I'm trying to say the dynamics of the top tier in your business is fucked.
- Listen to what Ramsay said immediately after: he's clearly taken aback by this man's rage.
- The Mama Maria's episode deserves some mention due to the fact John is one of the few owners of Kitchen Nightmares who does change for the better and keeps his restaurant afloat, finally becoming the owner he has to be. Also adds a moment of Heartwarming as he's finally able to move on from his parent's passing.
- In the "Greek at the Harbor" episode, Aris, the owner's son, holds a table between his teeth. Even Gordon is impressed. Then, he acknowledges a dish that was sent back was "dry as hell" when he can't even cook. Pretty amazing for a son that was trying to redeem himself after publicly declaring he didn't want to inherit the business.Gordon: (with an impressed smile as Aris spins around with the table) Finally, something edible!
- In the "Zeke's" episode, Gordon discovers that the owners are deliberately serving lasagna that is a week old to the customers, something they attempt to justify every step of the way. Gordon confronts the owner's wife about this, and says he's gonna "stand up and shout" to the customers what kind of food they're being served. She tries to laugh this threat off, only for Gordon to follow through with it — going to the dining room and and telling the customers that the lasagna they ordered was old, much to the disgust of everyone in the room. Gordon then returns to the kitchen, capping off his speech with "Bon Appetit". Unsurprisingly, several of the diners clear out when they get this news.
- The restaurant's two chefs have their own Moment of Awesome when Gordon tasks them both with creating a few simple seafood dishes of their own design with local produce without the interference or input of the restaurant's arrogant owners. The two men are able to put together a series of entrees that Gordon then serves to the husband and wife duo under the impression that he cooked them; the two shower the food with nothing short of glowing praise. Gordon then reveals that he didn't cook them and credits the two young chefs, making the owners realize the talent they had overlooked in their own kitchen.
- The restaurant's two chefs have their own Moment of Awesome when Gordon tasks them both
- Jack's by the Waterfront suffered from the confused leadership shared between the restaurant's three owners, one of them, Scott, saw his part in the dining room scaled back for intimidating his customers (albeit unintentionally), and he hoped to play his part again with Gordon's arrival. On relaunch night, when the line cooks fail to deliver for their head chef, who'd been working like hell to make the changes he and Gordon both knew needed to be implemented, Scott storms into the kitchen and demands that the cooks stop neglecting their duties and start respecting their head chef. To everyone's amazement, his words stuck and service quickly got back on track.
- After the relaunch, the three owners also agree that their general manager, the father of the third partner Tammer, had not lived up to the high standard he boasted with forty years of experience and scaled back his hours before seeking out a new manager altogether. Tammer agreed that for the sake of the business, it was necessary to take this drastic step, while still handling the situation cordially. Their head chef also laid off two workers who had failed to perform their duties as expected and found two much more experienced chefs to take their place.
- Panteleone's as well - they were never quite as bad as many others, showing mostly an obstinate chef who was too busy clinging to the past glory. But when Ramsay pointed out the flaws in his business plan, as well as getting the rest of the staff to stick up? They did - they maintained fairly consistently good reviews until the Covid-19 Pandemic when they shut down their dining area until further notice and swapped to pickup and delivery. Fortunately, they still maintain good reviews into 2021, showing that they managed to Covid-proof their business and adapted very well in an environment where thousands of other restaurants were unable to do so and as a result closed their doors — permanently.
- Some members of the kitchen teams manage to impress Gordon Ramsay enough to hire them himself! The biggest "get" for him was India from Piccolo Teatro, but also two cooks at The Glass House from UK series 1 ended up working for Ramsay as well.
