Find out what happened to Gordon Ramsay when he visited Burger Kitchen on Kitchen Nightmares. You can also read about why Burger Kitchen closed. As an owner of a hood cleaning company, I am amazed at each episode.
Burger Kitchen was a Los Angeles-based restaurant that featured on Season 5’s Kitchen Nightmares. Stay tuned for the next developments.
Burger Kitchen Episode Recap
Burger Kitchen has been open only 16 months. However, it already has serious issues due to a family at war.
Alan Saffron did not have enough money to open his restaurant, so Daniel Saffron used $250,000 of his inheritance money.
The money was part his Grandfather’s million-dollar inheritance and was used by his father to fulfill his dream of owning a restaurant.
Alan doesn’t view Daniel as a partner in business. He makes important decision without telling Daniel, and he doesn’t reveal details about the restaurant’s finances to him.
Gordon arrives at the restaurant, impressed by the central LA location of trendy 3rd Street.
He sits down to discuss the situation with Jen, Alan, and Jen. They reveal that they have been open for 16months and that they are losing about $6000 per month.
Gordon questions why Burger Kitchen employees are so inconsistent with their chefs and servers. He also asks about multiple menu changes, Yelp conspiracies and how they can blame Burger Kitchen.
Alan believes Yelp is ruining the restaurant. Yelp deleted all his 5-star reviews, and left only negative reviews.
Alan confesses to his son’s resentment and tells Gordon he believes the food is a 4/5.
Gordon orders a variety burgers, including the California & Cowboy Burgers. The burgers are medium rare. Gordon also gets an Australian meat pie.
Both the burgers fail to impress as they are uncooked, tasteless, made with disappointing buns, and the Australian Meat Pie tasteless and akin to cat food.
David challenges Alan to make a Redemption Burger, while David cooks a fresh burger.
Gordon pays a visit at his home to Daniel while they’re preparing the hamburgers. Gordon is informed by Daniel that Wendy was in a dispute with his family and they don’t respect each other.
Gordon asks Alan if he thought Wagyu beef would taste better, and he replies that he wrote about his father.
Daniel is called to work at the front of the house for the evening services. He quickly prepares the food and returns it to the kitchen if they’re not cooked properly.
David looks like a deer at the headlights. He is unable to keep pace. He explodes at the ticket drama and threatens Daniel.
David arrives at the end of the service and greets the guests as they leave. David is owed $1000. David doesn’t want a second cheque that will bounce.
Jen and Alan believe that they don’t have $1000 and offer to pay him tomorrow, but he refuses to say so.
Wendy, Daniel’s wife, tells him he’s not putting more money into the business. Then another argument breaks out.
Gordon invites everyone to a theatre to see his conspiracy theories and then brings out the Yelpers.
Yelp has a community manager and diners who have posted Yelp Reviews. Alan isn’t convinced that these reviews are real.
Alan is being told by Yelpers they are providing constructive feedback. A poster states that he received a response and was met with a barrage emails from Alan.
Alan threatened Yelp reviewers by threatening to report them to the LAPD Hate Crime Division.
Ramsay hears from a fellow restaurant owner how Yelp can be handled. Finally, Ramsay tells him that he has to accept the criticisms and take the positives to heart.
Gordon now needs to address his family relationships. Daniel revealed that there is mistrust in the relationship between the parents and children because they took his money.
Alan said that Daniel paid $250,000 and Daniel $250,000 respectively. However Daniel reminds Alan of the fact that Daniel did not put the money in, that he was not authorized to use the money, and that the money was his.
Gordon creates a new burger recipe with fresh ground beef and not the Wagyu beef that they used previously.
Also, the menu has been revised and shortened. The new menu will feature new burgers like a lamb-burger as well as side dishes such as vodka battered onion ring and parmesan fries.
They will also be making homemade barbecue sauce. The new menu was well-received by the staff, who were impressed by it.
Relaunch of Burger Kitchen
Gordon is planning a surprise for the relaunch: the restaurant will be packed by writers from Yelp. Urban Spoon. Chow.
Daniel is off to a great start, but Alan cannot stay out the kitchen. This distracts Daniel.
This causes food from the Chow table to be sent back because it was undercooked. Gordon ends up losing the food. Alan is urged to get out there and let Daniel take care of it.
Gordon says Daniel did a great relaunch job and Alan says Daniel is doing a great job managing the restaurant.
Jen and Alan have made it clear that Daniel will run the restaurant.
Burger Kitchen Keep Up to Date
In August 2011, it was said that the restaurant had changed ownership. By October 2011, a rebranding, a smaller menu and new chefs were in place.
The Yelp reviews were negative, and customers reported that Gordon did not have any burgers on the menu.
In January, a sign for lease was posted at the restaurant. The restaurant was shut down in February.
Section Comment
This episode becomes a lot easier to understand if the story of the grandfathers and the fathers book tours is included.
The sequel is even worse. While the grandfather gave Alan money, Danny took Danny’s money. Who is the greater SATAN
I felt awful for the boy. It’s not like some children who feel pressured into giving their money to their families. His dad took his money.
I wish Daniel had filed charges regarding the theft of his cash. His father was a straight-up thief.
Everybody should know that the mother, however spiteful or petty she was, has a problem with prescription drugs. Pay attention to her eyes. This is what made David so insistent on the hole Prozac thing. It’s also why she was defensive. Also, you can see the way she inspects the remodel looking to sell what she can to make a quick sale. It was the fact the parents didn’t have enough money, but expected the son would pay all expenses that really bothered my. Pay close attention the conversation at the restaurant about the finances. They knew that he held $160,000 in bank accounts. The parents are manipulating thieves who want the inheritance money. They are the most horrible people. If my son sees this, I hope he will listen to me …..
…. and get out of their way. You have your life and your family to begin. Good luck.
At this point, it was obvious that he had been through a lot. Narcissists will often make the sane do things they wouldn’t. He was like the 20th Chef since they opened 18 month prior. This is what law enforcement terms a clue. It had nothing to his credit as it did for them.
I watched the entire episode. I hope the father goes to prison. The job of managing someone’s trust funds doesn’t involve taking all the money you want and investing in your own pet projects. The father and mother couldn’t get along because the son’s girlfriend knew how much they were using the son. Not to mention that the son was not a part owner. I liked how they stated that the son didn’t need to be paid because he owned 160 grand. Also, they wanted the chef to pay his wages. After their child was robbed, Chef Ramsey didn’t show any respect for the parents.
It is amazing that that place has lasted this long. I have never witnessed people so out of touch with reality. Gen and Alan both seem to require mental health professionals. For the quarter of million dollars that he robbed from his father, the son should have sued him. The chef was the only one to seem to have any idea of what they were doing.
