In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Ruby Tate’s in Brighton, England.
Ruby Tate’s was opened a year ago by Allan Love. Allan is a former actor and musician turned restaurateur.
Allan believes people don’t only come to Ruby Tate’s to eat.
He belives that they also come for the dining experience.
There are problems at the restaurant.
They are losing £1500 a week and Allan doesn’t eat seafood.
Allan trusts his Chefs but they are lazy and Aussie Jamie is unmotivated.
Jamie is only there for the money and French Man Alex has a temper and hates everyone.
Jamie says if he were Allan, he would have fired all the staff.
He says this because he knows they do nothing.
Gordon asks two people to go undercover in the restaurant and order his food for him.
He wants to eat what gets served every day without any special efforts on his behalf.
Gordon comes in unexpectedly and is greeted by Allan.
He sits with his two undercover foodies, who had ordered a platter of fruit de mer.
The fruit de mer is served to the table.
Gordon says it is the strangest one he has seen in his entire life.
The fruit de mer is served warm instead of being served cold on ice.
Gordon describes the lobster as gritty and as no one is buying the oysters.
As they don't sell they have gone stale and smell bad.
The menu is too expensive for the area and the odd artwork doesn’t look good at all.
The sea bass is served and the server says the sea bass is from Greece and comes in frozen.
Gordon tells the server that if the fish is not available locally, it should be taken off the menu.
Overall, Gordon describes the meal that would have cost £175 disgusting.
Gordon meets with Allan.
Gordon believes the reason people aren’t coming is because of the expensive bad food.
Allan breaks into tears with Gordons feedback about the food.
He tells him that they won’t make it through the summer as all he has left is the £30000 he borrowed.
He has tried to overlook it but it has been impossible.
Everything he has ever earned has been put into the business.
They both go into the kitchen to meet the chefs.
Jamie, who has been sitting outside comes in to meet them.
Gordon tells Jamie his attitude stinks and he asked him why he is still there.
Jamie says he’s not trying to be a hero.
All he’s there for is to get a bit of money and travel.
Gordon says all he needs is some passion and he doesn’t have to be a hero.
Gordon criticizes the food and when he speaks about the imported seabass from Greece.
Alex says it is hard to get fish in Brighton, a seaside town...
Gordon finds out that sixty year old Allan doesn’t eat seafood because of an incident that occurred when he was five.
He had a bone stuck in his teeth for three days and the thought of fish makes him sick.
Gordon goes into the town to speak to the locals and they can't tell what the restaurant is from the name, most think it's a curry house.
Gordon observes a dinner service and the customers tell him that the food in particular the lobster is tasteless and not warm.
He finds out the lobsters are already precooked, which is wasteful and ruins the taste.
Gordon finds out the mussels, which they planned to serve that night were bad and dangerous to eat as they had opened.
He asks Alex to throw them away immediately.
Gordon meets with Allan and tells him he is in denial.
Allan says he is not in denial as he didn’t know about the situation in the kitchen.
He said he puts his trust in the departments he felt needed trusting.
Gordon meets with Allan in his house, where he finds out things are bad for Allan as he has put his house up for sale to raise capital for the restaurant.
He finds out that Allan has put in £140,000 into the restaurant and that if he can’t save his business, he would lose everything.
They both go through the restaurants accounts and find out the turnover is very low.
Gordon comes up with a plan to get more customers eating at Ruby Tate’s.
He plans to serve sustainable fish in a different way with the customers choosing how they want it served, fried, grilled or poached.
Instead of the expensive sea bass, he plans to get fish that is cheap and sustainable.
Gordon comes up the idea of a simple fish and chips using fresh fish and he takes the staff to the fish market to buy fresh fish.
Gordon shows them Pollock, that is cheap, sustainable and in food supply and can make a good fish and chips.
Gordon speaks the staff and tells them to show some passion with the new dish.
He shows them how to make fish and chips. They taste it and think it is great.
Surprisingly, for the first time after 40 years, Allan tasted fish and enjoyed it.
The fish and chips is made the special for the evening service and it is sold at a reasonable price.
The evening service is fully booked and the customers love the new fish and chip special.
Alex says the feeling that he has doing something different makes him proud of himself.
For the service, Allan made over £2000 when he normally makes just £200.
The customers are critical of the decor and really don’t like it.
Gordon tries to convince Allan to change the decor of the restaurant but he gets defensive and doesn’t want anything changed.
Gordon later meets with Allan in an attempt at reconciliation.
He takes Allan to a rival fish restaurant and he asks him how he feels about the decor.
Alan describes the decor as clinical and cold.
Gordon tells him the place makes £20,000 a week and that Ruby Tate’s needs to change.
Alan tells Gordon he wants the restaurant to have personality but Gordon tells him that he is the personality at the restaurant.
Gordon takes them on a fishing boat for a team building exercise and Alan is to decide who is to walk the plank, he chooses Alex, Jamie as well as a waiter.
Gordon decides they need to pick a head chef so there would be some discipline in the kitchen.
On that evening service Gordon observes the kitchen to see how the two chefs handle themselves under pressure.
Jamie struggles with the orders at first but pulls it together and Alex is flustered and a meal is dropped on the floor.
Gordon meets with Allan again to talk about the decor and Allan finally agrees to let him change it.
Gordon redesigns the restaurant and Allan describes it as austere.
He says he feels insignificant now but Gordon explains to him that what he is trying to do is make business and he agrees.
He takes him to the front of the restaurant and shows him the new name of the restaurant, Loves.
Gordon then introduces the new menu with sustainable fish and customers having the choice on how it is prepared.
For the relaunch evening, Gordon has invited local Brighton celebrities.
The kitchen is already confused as a lemon sole has gone missing.
There are local celeb guests in the restaurant including Zoe Ball. The lemon sole is a hit with Zoe and the other fish dishes are a hit.
Actor Chris Ellison had visited in the past and enjoys his visit this time.
After the evening service, they count the takings and the restaurant made £2500.
What Happened Next at Ruby Tates / Loves Fish Restaurant?
Gordon revisits and orders a takeaway fish and chips incognito putting on a Scottish accent and pretending to be Jimmy.
He comes in the kitchen to collect his food and finds that they are busy.
Chef Alex was fired just two days after Gordon left as he couldn't change.
Loves is successful and making £14,000 a week.
Loves Fish Restaurant closed in January 2009.
It closed due to the credit crunch leading to a lack of bookings.
In its place now is Pavel, an Indian restaurant and Yelp reviews are very positive.
What Happened Before?
Allan Love was in a variety of movies and musicals but also in a band called Opal Butterfly as a vocalist.
Ruby Tates / Loves Fish Restaurant aired on October 30 2007, the episode was filmed in July 2007 and is Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares UK season 5 episode 1.
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