So South Africa, have you fallen in love with the new bachelor yet? Marc Buckner will be steaming up the screens every Thursday.
If you haven’t caught The Bachelor South Africa on M-Net, yet, be sure to make a date with him next week. From turning up the heat in the love department to the kitchen, Gordon Ramsay is back and restaurateurs should be afraid, very afraid.
Gordon Ramsay’s "24 Hours to Hell and Back" is on BBC Lifestyle for a second season. The concept is very similar to that of Kitchen Nightmares, where he visits failing restaurants and helps turn things around, but with one difference this time around – he does so within a tight time-frame.
I’ve always been a fan of this celebrity TV chef and author, who has a wealth of knowledge as a restaurateur and has suffered failures, too.
Yes, he is also famous for dropping those F-bombs in his shows but there’s so much more to him. Although he doesn’t pull back any punches and he calls a spade a spade, he genuinely wants to help the owners of failing restaurants.
At first, his approach hits them like Hurricane Dorian. Once it passes, the damage (to the business) is assessed and a plan of action is put into place.
I caught a recent episode, where Ramsay took on the responsibility of turning things around at Vasi’s Restaurant and Bar in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Boy oh boy, did he have his work cut out for him. Amid exposing the disasters in the kitchen, from terrible hygiene practices to serious code
violations with the food they were serving, he came up against a proud owner, who flat-out refused to accept any blame.
In the show, Ramsay vents, “I’m getting nowhere with this stubborn owner, he listens about as well as he runs a restaurant: terribly!”
But tough love is what Ramsay does best and the owner gets his just desserts.
Within 24 hours, the restaurant gets a trendy Mediterranean look and the owner, having eaten humble pie, steps up and ensures his establishment is on the road to success. Aside from being an immensely entertaining reality show, there is a cautionary tale in every episode.
Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back airs on BBC Lifestyle (DStv channel 174) at 8pm on Tuesdays.