"Kitchen Nightmares" Debuts Amid Controversy

Fox's newest reality show "Kitchen Nightmares" has suffered negative publicity almost from the outset. Claims were made and lawsuits filed that insisted Chef Ramsey staged some, if not all, of the pre-taped episodes. Controversy aside for the moment, the show finally premiered on Wednesday, September 19, 2007.

Ramsey's first stop was to a family owned Italian eatery in Babylon, New York. "Peter's Italian Restaurant" is managed by daughter Dina with the supposed assistance of her brother Peter. Mom and dad had tried to gracefully bow out of the business, but got involved once again when it started to fail.

Italian families, just like Irish families, sometimes tend to be rather demonstrative in their internal battles. Coming from a traditional Irish family, I got use to mom and dad yelling their way through an argument only to kiss and make up in the end. In some ways, that appeared to be the case with the Pelligrino family, with one major exception - - Peter himself.

A man who clearly had anger issues, Peter had no problem calling his staff names in front of the customers or cussing out vendors or bill collectors at the top of his lungs while customers attempted to dine quietly in the next room. Clearly, this situation was having a major negative impact upon the restaurant's business.

If the show wasn't staged in any way, the problems with the restaurant were actually quite clear-cut. Brother Peter was bleeding off the profits to live an extravagant lifestyle that his family really couldn't afford. Although, I'll admit that he looked great in his well cut designer suits, diamond wrist watch, and sold gold chains, the money spent on those items was much more needed in the restaurant.

Head Chef Robert was becoming increasingly frustrated with kitchen equipment that didn't work, a walk-in refrigerator that wasn't cooling to the proper temperature, the lack of proper cooking utensils, and no family support of any kind. Sous Chef, John, was also tired of being blamed by Peter for everything that went wrong in the kitchen.