Midtown Kitchen Nightmare
Dillons got a Ramsay makeover, and business seems worse than ever
Martin Hyde has his own recurring nightmares about Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, the popular BBC reality TV show starring the famously silver-tongued Scottish chef Gordon Ramsay, which is being adapted for American audiences to air this fall on Fox.
“I’m in my restaurant and Gordon Ramsay is attacking me, and there’s all these cameras and lights,” he described the disturbing dream sequence. “Then I wake up and realize it wasn’t a dream.”
This past April, Mr. Hyde, 52, sustained a severely bruised ego after enduring the potty-mouthed celebrity chef’s relentless verbal assaults firsthand.
Mr. Ramsay, camera crew in tow, had gone just down the street from his own restaurant to visit the former Dillons Restaurant & Lounge on West 54th Street where Mr. Hyde recently worked, with the purported goal of revitalizing the struggling theater-district eatery into a successful dining destination.
Instead, Mr. Hyde has charged, the week-long videotaped makeover attempt left the business in its “absolute worst financial condition” in years, according to a $29 million lawsuit filed in June against Mr. Ramsay and the show’s producers.
(Owner Muhammad Islam has disputed Mr. Hyde’s accounting, telling Reuters that business has actually improved since the show’s filming. Things must’ve been pretty dire, then. “Customers?” The Observer overheard one off-duty employee remark on Sunday night, as two patrons unexpectedly bellied up to the restaurant’s bar. “What we do now?”)
The Ramsay experience also cost Mr. Hyde his job. Having unwittingly filled the role as the star chef’s whipping boy during the filming—once even being forced to crawl along the 54th Street sidewalk, according to his formal complaint—Mr. Hyde either quit or got sacked at the star chef’s request, depending on who you ask.
With his reputation at stake, Mr. Hyde is asking the court to block the allegedly libelous hour-long episode’s future broadcast.
He’s also aiming to expose the show’s sense of reality as anything but—paid actors portraying actual customers, rotten meat planted in the refrigerator, a faulty chair set up for a staged seating disaster. Even the advertised premise of the show is fraudulent, according to Mr. Hyde: “It’s not about aiding young aspiring chefs. It’s about degrading and humiliating people.”
“I think this is a turning point for reality TV,” Mr. Hyde told The Observer. “I believe Gordon Ramsay’s biggest enemy is not me, it’s himself. He has the potential to achieve so much. Just screaming and shouting and degrading people, he’s going to blow his credibility.”
On Friday night, The Observer surveyed the alleged Ramsay-wrought carnage at Dillons—recently renamed Purnima—ushered inside by an all-too-eager hostess. She suggested that the place had just opened.
A total of six patrons, no more than four at one time, including this reporter and his date, sat down during the peak pre-theater dining hour from 7 to 8 p.m., amid a seating area for approximately 75.
At least six different staffers attended to our table. The lopsided employee-to-patron ratio seemed all too evident, as bored wait and kitchen staff tended to loiter toward the back of the yellow-painted room. Next Page >
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Amazingly, everyone knows being on Gordon's Show and getting fired is not a BIG DEAL. Everyone gets fired on his show, but if they want money like this guy.....Gordon would have not gotten anywhere.
This guy is looking for a Job??????? Now, that is a question, who would hire him. Maybe Gordon
LOL
R U Kidding......... that place has the most tintillating food in Indian Food history
Our whole group of people was left licking our fingers asking for more, we are craving to go back for another .....
What a believable lawsuit comig from the manager who was dumped by the restaurant.
Gud way to git ur picture ut in every freakin newspaper and all over the internet andgoogle
Any other reason why any one would publish this mug Martin hyde's photograph
No no, he just wants free publicity courtesy Gordon Ramsey
I went to Dillon's for a friend who was performing there. I noticed the regular dining room was empty both on the way in and on the way out.
The fare was standard and prices were fairly reasonable but when the bill came, they tried to charge EVERY SINGLE TABLE for not meeting the per customer requirement despite the fact that everyone had already done so. People were quite angry. They didn't even apologize. It was pathetic.
I'm not surprised that they're not doing well...
Mr. Hyde clearly needs to find a new line of work. If you can't take the heat...
you are right, if martin hyde could'nt take the heat then..... does'nt seem very smart, seems to be proving to everybody what a pain he is and why Ramsey picked on him in the first place,
I read the press release for Kitchen Nightmares on the Fox website. This is what it says
"There’s no time for polite small talk as Ramsay embarks on his mission to turn things around. If the wine waiter’s service isn’t up to par, he’ll be out the door before he can say “merlot.” If the head chef doesn’t match up to Ramsay’s expectations, Ramsay will hammer him into shape, and if he can’t stand the heat, he may quit the kitchen."
Gordon hosts my fav show on tv Hells Kitchen so when I
started reading about this lawsuit I just could'nt
resist checking out this place tfor myself,. Am I
glad I did'nt listen to all this Baloney.
Have you seen the before and after pictures.This place
is gorgeous now.
There were some old pics on the net and oh boy, you
should have seen the decor before the show filming. It
gave me "nightmares" just looking at the old pictures.
Actaully, you know what, just eat the food. If that
does'nt shut you up, nothing will
Take my advice, don't let this EX-manager ruin your
chances of having some incredible Lamb chops (is it a
surprise that he has a grudge, i betya he would'nt
have been screaming murder and then he would have been
singing a different tune if the restaurant had still
kept him)
On the upside, we should be thankful to martin hyde
for bringing on this lawsuit, because if he had'nt,
people, like me for instance would never have known
about it
I was at there just the other night, there was a special tasting event where the chef had prepared every dish in combiation with mangoes, I went in and tried a few things,
the restaurant was jam packed and WOW, that was some good tasting food,
Dillons must have been the pits. Gordon just taped an episode here in the U.S. and the place still sucks. Sometimes there's just no helping people that don't wanna' listen.
Hmmm, I could swear i've seen Mr Hyde on TV before?
You might want to check the court documentation for this case.
It's interesting to note that Mr. Hyde is just as competent at choosing a lawyer as he is running a restaurant. Here's an exerpt from page 8 of the document:
24. Ramsay is physically coercive (about 6'3" and 220 pounds); a Captain in the British Special Forces (23rd SAS unit); a skilled practitioner of martial arts; and quite capable of defending himself against physical attacks... commonly regarded as the hardest man Britain since he became the UK's bare-knuckle champion after beating the current gypsy champion in a twenty two round marathon in a freight container yard in Hull.
Yes, that is in the official court document for a multi-million dollar lawsuit. That information was gleaned from a HUMOUR site- the full "news article" here. As if Mr. Hyde wasn't enough of a laughstock BEFORE the lawsuit...
I watched the show last night and I absolutely loved it. Chef Ramsey is the best and if you've ever watched his show "Hells' Kitchen" then you should know that he will not settle for anything but the best. Who would'nt? Why would you give less when you know that you can give more, why do ok when you know that you can do better. The new Head Chef is an awesome cook. I love his food.If I'm not mistaken he has/ had a restaurant in Lower Manhattan where I would often go to eat on my lunch break, sometimes three times for the week, he can really cook, the place was always packed. I had a delicious Chicken Tikka there and I asked what were the ingredients because it taste so good. I often make that for my family now and they really love it. I was born in London, England with West Indian background, so coming from an English west Indian the new chef can really cook his ass off. Bigg ups to Chef Ramsay. Luv Ya
I watched the show and I think Martin has a point.
Where is the New York and New Jersey Health Departments? That should be a story for an investigative reporter after seeing the filthy conditions in the two restaurants featured so far.
If Martin admits he is the one who arranged for Gordon to consult, then he must be familiar with Gordon's methods. No use crying now.
Read part C of the agreement he signed:
"You understand that, in and in connection with the Series, you may reveal and/or relate, and other parties may reveal and/or relate, information about the restaurant or you of a personal, surprising, defamatory, disparaging, embarrassing, or unfavorable nature. Participant further understands that your appearance, depiction and/or portrayal of you in and in connection with the Series and your actions and of other displayed in and in connection with Series, may be disparaging, defamatory, embarrassing or of an otherwise unfavorable nature, may expose you to public ridicule, humiliation or condemnation and may portray you in a false light".
In other words, he has no case. So he can take those 189 points of his in the complaint and go home. :)
Bullshit! Bullshit! i respect you however, did you see martin lying on the couch table letting the women employees touch his hair??
Martin kneeds a job where he can sell shoes as a salesan and do nothing in th way as work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares was originally a UK show, as I'm sure many already know. In the original season, a restaurant owner tried to sue and the case was obviously thrown out because of the waivers signed prior to filming. It's the same deal over here - how could Hyde even hope to win? He's useless!
And what's with the Observer's distinct leaning toward Hyde? It's not like Hyde's a New Yorker, both he and Ramsey are Brits!
Martin lost the case and we are glad he did, his cell phone, least interested in working, pathetic attitude was killing me. I was truly shocked that they let those burgers sit in the lowboy when Gordon was coming with the crew. Martin is right that it was all STAGED, by the team to managers to insult the restaurant not by Gordon. Martin is a total SHAME to any human race to ride on someone's money like this. Anyway lost my appetite when watched those bugs, but was hungry again when saw Chef Vikas Khanna take charge of everything. Last word.......Loved the show
Remember that this is a tv show. Not everything you see on TV reflects the reality.
many of these comments are obviously fake and planted by the restaurant staff.
Have seen this episode 2 x.
With restaurants all over the world and clearly a gift, Chef Ramsay clearly knows what he's talking about.
Martin deserved to be humiliated. If Ramsay couldn't teach him a thing or two, no one could.
Good luck Purnima!
I saw this episode. He had a right to be fired. There were roaches and bugs, he didnt know how to clean the place let alone be a manager. Afyer they fired him they reopened and it was a whole new place that was being ran by a man that knows how. This guy is obviously the idiot he looked like on the show. Not anyone's fault that all he thought about was his cell phone and the waitresses.
This place is now an excellent eating establishment. Everyone should try it.
Hey, Do you know Gordon Ramsay, He's NOT Accused of Fraud! Since everybody that he's showing is looking for anyone owner restaurants who needs their help to rid of f*** rotten foods. I do believe Gorden Ramsay is doing right! He's doing right to encourage for the best food service improvement in health environment for all restaurants that if they necessary. Martin Hyde tried to sued him because he decide to return his own s*** rotten foods and old menu back. That's his problem, Not for Gorden's choice. Mr. Ramsay is the right one to be help reinforce against rotten foods. Rotten foods is a deadly bacterial scattered to the human being. That's why, Gorden is the #1 helping with your own special fancy meal, keep stay health restaurant and business is going to fast grewing, if you have a chance from Gorden. Kitchen Nightmare is the BEST recommend in the world to help fight against rotten foods. We support him is the only one famous Chef who help you everybody owns restaurant to change to be successful health meal foods. You of all restaurant own would be appreciate and satisfying with Mr. Ramsay.
Mr. Martin Hyde, I don't think you have a hard time with Gorden for bring accused of fraud. I don't believe it. Hyde is being disrespectful with all of customers due to errands his problem with Kitchen Nightmare! We and I are going to Honor Mr. Gorden Ramsay is only one best chef in the history! Mr. Hyde better to give him an apologize for good reason. Thank You
Tous les resturants qui ont besoin de son aide traiter nos affaires mieux pour changer le repas et les affaires croissantes obtiennent rapidement. Je suis le chef sur mon propre restaurant, je ne pense pas à Hyde jugé au travail dessus contre Ramsay pour la fraude. Hyde veut à est " ; Lucre" ;. Évidemment, il est une bouche criminelle contre lui devant tout le monde en monde.Ce n'est pas le problème de Ramsay. Je soutiens le cauchemar de cuisine ! Je ne m'inquiète pas de ce qui Hyde lui disant pour quelque chose encore.
I am the Chef on my own restaurant, I don't think of Hyde tried to working on against Ramsay for fraud. Hyde wants to is "Lucre". Obviously, He's a criminal mouth against him in front of everybody in world.
I'm embarrassed that a fellow Englishman could behave in such a way. That it took a Scot to point it out is even more embarrassing.
Martin Hyde was clearly an incompetent manager looking for an easy ride. Ramsay doesn't mince his words, which is what appeals to his fans; there's top much pussy-footing around these days and no one wants to tell the truth at the risk of offending someone. Gordon Ramsay calls it likes he sees it; and in world of woolley liberals who believe you should only say nice things, he's a breath of fresh air.
Actually, Sue Ray(the ownder of Bonaparte's in Silsden, Yorkshire) did not try to sue Ramsay - she made some remarks in an interview with a newspaper. Ramsay sued the newspaper - successfully. She was never involved with the courtcase; not even as a witness.
I agrees 100% with this comment.. Ramsay isn't crazy , tourette ,bi-polar or something because he knew what is the right way.. I used to work on resturant for 14 years and my co-boss fired me for being acting like Ramsay for long times because they cannot stand of my way...My boss believes that I have a bi-polor and tourette because I were so stress out that thier foods were so horrible and waste lot of money..
They never listen whatever I say so I need Ramsay to nail them..