In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visit's Bazzini in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Bazzini is owned by Paul Bazzini and his wife Leslie Bazzini.
The restaurant has been open for five years.
Paul had worked up in the restaurant to becoming an Executive chef.
Since buying the restaurant he has been overwhelmed.
According to Leslie, Paul has been recognized many times throughout his career.
He has featured in several magazines with very positive reviews.
When they opened she believed the restaurant would be successful.
The pressure of owning a restaurant has definitely beaten Paul down.
His passion for food is not burning as brightly as it once was.
The staff say that Paul isn’t good at dealing with criticism.
He gets frustrated a lot and yells at the chefs and waiters.
They also say that Paul believes what he is doing is right and doesn’t need to be changed.
The restaurant is being financed by Paul's wife Leslie.
The restaurant is open for just a few hours in the evening.
Leslie says that there are no college funds for their children.
She is scared that their bills won't get paid.
Gordon arrives and takes a walk about in the area.
He notices that there are many other restaurants close to the restaurant.
He arrives and finds that the restaurant is shut and the doors are locked.
Gordon sees a sign at the side of the door, stating that the restaurant only opens at evening.
Paul turns up at the restaurant and invites Gordon to come inside.
Gordon tells Paul to cook him something special rather than him picking something to try.
The dining room is cramped and very narrow.
Gordon thinks the decor in the small dining room is depressing.
The food is brought to him by head waiter Alex.
Gordon does not like the food.
The fettuccini is bland and cold and the chicken is dry and hard.
Alex tells Gordon that Paul doesn’t like when his food is criticized.
He reacted the same way he reacts to a lot of the guests criticisms.
He acts like they’re not necessarily important as he is right.
Gordon meets with Leslie, who came in and gave him a hug for the help he came to do.
Gordon tries the mushroom Risotto, which was is sticky and is stuck onto the plate.
Gordon actually twirls the plate and the rice was still stuck to the plate.
He comments that it is mushy and disgusting.
Finally, Gordon tries a Tilapia dish, crusted with almonds and served with rice.
It is mushy, greasy and tastes bland.
Gordon asks if there is dessert.
He is served a slice of carrot cake and cheesecake.
Gordon loves the desserts, branding them delicious.
He comments that the cake is clearly made with passion.
They were both made by Sharyn, the pastry chef.
Gordon meets with Paul and Leslie after the meal.
He praises the desert but was not impressed with everything else.
Paul claims the mushiness and blandness is due to most customers being of old age.
Gordon decides to observe the evening’s dinner service.
Sharyn flirts outragiously with Gordon.
Gordon finds out the Crab Cakes are precooked and were made the previous day.
A customer sends one back as it has been burnt.
Gordon reports the crab cake situation to Leslie.
She claims she wasn’t aware of it as she thought everything was fresh and homemade.
The food is slow, taking over an hour to reach the customers.
Gordon times the amount of time that foods sit on the pass.
Paul orders the food to be taken out.
11 minutes after it has been sitting on the pass, getting cold.
After the long wait, the frustrated customers aren’t satisfied.
The dishes were either overcooked or were cold.
During the service, an argument breaks out between Paul and Sharyn.
The argument is over a chicken dish and the staff are frustrated.
With the intense frustration in the dining room, Gordon is forced to stop the service.
He wants to avoid further damage to the restaurant’s reputation.
Leslie breaks into tears as she has never experienced a worse dinner service than that.
Paul continues making excuses as to why the service was a disaster.
Gordon meets with Paul after service.
Leslie is frustrated that Paul can't see the problems in the restaurant.
Gordon realizes he has no fire and tries to reignite his passion.
He tells Paul that he has noticed Paul’s passion for food has gone and that he has given up.
Paul confesses that he isn’t happy with the way things are.
He says that he is ashamed of the restaurant.
The next morning, Gordon wants to rekindle Paul’s passion.
He gives Paul a challenge of cooking a pasta dish with homemade pasta in 15 minutes.
Gordon likes it and the positive comment he gave lifted Paul as he passionately talked about pasta.
Gordon decides to try a small experiment.
He takes advantage of the foot traffic in the neighborhood to test Paul’s speed in the kitchen.
He then reveals that they will open the restaurant for a simple 2 course lunch.
Sharyn and Leslie will work the front and Gordon and Paul will cook in the kitchen.
Sharyn and Leslie have no experience in the dining room.
They make a lot of mistakes including forgetting to give a customer a spoon for soup.
With Paul and Gordon working together, beautiful fresh pasta was flying out of the kitchen.
The lunch is a success and the customers are pleased with the food.
With many saying that the pasta was the best they had ever tasted and Paul is beaming.
Gordon's team worked overnight to renovate the restaurant to a contemporary, modern theme.
The makeover is dramatic and when it is revealed Paul beams with joy and Leslie cries tears of joy.
The menu has been significantly reduced.
It now features fresh pasta and Sharon will expand the dessert menu.
For relaunch night, Paul falls apart again and does not communicate leading to long waits for food.
Sous Chef Al does a runner and everyone steps up to help.
Sharyn steps up in the role as his sous chef.
Although the food is delayed, the customers are pleased with the food when they receive it.
The relaunch is success.
Gordon tells Paul he hasn't convinced him that he can turn the restaurant around.
However, he wants him to prove him wrong.
What Happened Next at Bazinni?
Paul hired another Sous chef to replace Al.
There was a boost in business.
Sharyn left to focus on her dessert business, Simply Homemade Desserts .
Gordon returns in a Kitchen Nightmares revisited episode.
He arrives to a dark and abandoned restaurant.
Gordon assumes that Bazzini is closed for lunch.
After phoning the Pastry chef Sharyn he discovers they are actually closed permanently.
Gordon goes to visit Sharyn in her kitchen.
She is baking her cakes full time and she is doing well.
The single Yelp review after Gordon visited is negative.
It complains of poor service from the hostess.
A review on Patch rates the service as acceptable and the atmosphere as not welcoming.
Paul and Leslie were critical of the show.
They told a local news site that they were naive of the process.
They claim they did not see much of Gordon except for filming.
They also claim there were attempts to stir up tension.
Bazzini closed in June 2010.
Paul became chef at Jersey Boys Grill.
He is currently chef at Hearth and Tap Co. with his son Andrew, who is also a chef.
Sharyn runs a successful bakery business, The Cake Lady.
Lisa's Turkish Kitchen opened in the space.
This closed in 2022.
Lula later opened in the space.
Reviews are mostly good.
Bazzini aired on 5th February 2010 and the episode was filmed in July 2009.
It is Kitchen Nightmares season 3 episode 3.
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