Let me ask you, pseudo-seriously, what makes people think they can just buy and run a restaurant? Do people honestly just kind of look around, realize that there's a restaurant to be bought, and decide "sure, that'll be a good business." Last night we got back-to-back episodes of Kitchen Nightmares that featured owners who seemed to have done just that, and it wasn't the first time we'd witnessed such things this season.
One of the best news articles I ever read (and it kills me that I don't currently have a copy of it framed on my wall) was in, I believe, The New York Times, and it focused on why people failed at certain tasks and yet seemed oblivious to their failures. The article explained that oftentimes when people fail at doing something it is because they don't really understand what's required in the task, that sometimes people are simply incapable of understanding what's required. Consequently when they failed they didn't even recognize the failure because they didn't "get" the task to begin with.
I feel like that's what occurred in last night's Kitchen Nightmares, and, if we're being honest, oh-so-many of the episodes. Chefs, owners, and managers at the various restaurants on the show constantly look at the camera and say something like, "Well, I don't really think it was as bad as Chef Ramsay made it seem." Or, they yell at Ramsay when he explains to them that as their restaurant is failing they're going to have to change something. For these owners, the restaurant is failing not because the owner has failed at some part of the business (food, service, or even simply attracting customers via publicity), but because people simply aren't showing up. These people Gordon Ramsay goes to try to help often seem to want him to just stand their on a street corner holding a big sign that says "Come eat at Joe's!"
Article comments
1 - Sterfish
I have had the same reaction watching Kitchen Nightmares as well. Part of me wonders if some of the stuff on the show is staged like so much reality TV. Then, I realize that people really act like that.
2 - Lisa Solod Warren
That is part of the show's charm, I guess. Sort of like watching a train wreck:). I liken it those old shows when people invited those decluterers in. And then wondered why they were shocked that the decluttering guys were shocked when two whole rooms of the house were taken over for storage! Like that wasn't normal or something!!!