New on Fox This Fall - Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares"

Who would have thought that a lewd, crude, foul-mouthed British chef would become a runaway success on American TV? Fox did, and their gamble paid huge dividends with the roaring success of "Hell's Kitchen" led by top chef Gordon Ramsay. The success of HK prompted Fox to give Ramsay another show this fall albeit one that he has already done on the other side of the Atlantic.

Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" has ran for three seasons in the UK (you can catch old episodes on BBC America) and featured the chef visiting failing restaurants for a two week period in an effort to turn around their fortunes. He changes everything from the menu, to staff, to the interior of the restaurant and offers great advice to the owners, many of whom know nothing about the restaurant industry. He returns to the restaurant 6 months later to see if they are still following his suggestions and to find out if their fortunes have turned around, which most of them have. What made the UK version of this show a success for me was that Ramsay was very different from the personality we've come to know on "Hell's Kitchen", and for the most part he was kind, caring and helpful with only small glimpses of his trademark sarcasm and temper.

From the snippets of the US version of the show that I've seen, they seem to be really focusing on arguments, yelling and blowouts between Ramsay and the restaurateurs and it's hard to tell if they are just showing that because that is what the audience is expecting or if they have asked Gordon to be more like his HK persona than showing his good side. It will be a shame if they have decided to go that route as it was nice to see him in a different light and you really felt that he wanted to help these people and had their interests at heart. Only time will tell.