Professor Gordon Ramsay?!

Even though "angelic" is not a word people seem to associate with the expletive-driven vocabulary and aggressiveness of British chef and legend, Gordon Ramsay, he most definitely has been a blessing to many. I am of course referring to "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares", a show that is transmitted over here on BBC Canada. While this show can be tough to watch due to his overt abrasiveness and the usual resistance or downright mutiny of the owners he is forcing to face the writing on the wall, there are lessons to be learnt from it. It's a form of culinary intervention, but  rather than forcing an addict to face their addiction and commit to rehab, it is more of a forcing of a business owner to acknowledge all of their mistakes, and their willingness to then hand over control to their biggest critic. The thing that is most interesting is how much psychology is actually involved, because invariably almost all of the problems arise out of an owner who has slid down the slippery slope from passion to inaction. Some points of note:

• Restaurant customers are not that  fickle; in fact they can be quite loyal to a place which treats them well and serves them great food, time after time.  When business suddenly slips, and then begins to fade away completely, there is usually a problem, or combination of problems, as the root cause.

• In almost every single episode that I have seen, Gordon's biggest challenge is getting the owner to firstly even admit that there is a problem with this or that, and further, persuading them to face change and drop the rigorous resistance to it. 

• In many cases, Gordon deals with nonsense and abuse from the owner, who refuses to face things, and given how wealthy GR is, I often wonder why he doesn't just let out some of his famous expletives, walk out, and go back to his own much healthier business and life. But the guy genuinely wants to help people, and he has forgotten more about passion and drive than some people ever had. So he sticks it out. Hence the "angel" reference. 

• Somewhere along the line, the owner lost all of their passion for the business, and due to losing clientele, along came a massive drop in confidence, which simply further hinders any kind of positive response. 

• A lot of the time , the staff sort of fall into alignment with their example from management, and they cease to care anymore, and everyone's just coasting until the ship begins to go under and they can all bail. 

• Even though there are often problems with the menu and food management which vary from one restaurant to another, the five points above basically apply in every case. 

What is most fascinating to me is that the bulk of the work that Gordon does is not cooking in their kitchens, but rather lies in the psychology of cuisine. Which of course, to a large extent, is not restricted to cuisine at all, because the bulk of what he lectures them on could apply to a hundred different business types. He basically forces them to look long and hard into their very own mirror, face and admit to what they really see, and resolve to get off their "arses" and do something about it. He breaks them down, shows them how far they have fallen, then provides some tools for them to build themselves back up again, and he is the first to say "well done!" when they do. The take-home point, in my opinion, is that in 90% of the cases, 90% of the problem is not inside someone's kitchen, but inside their head. The very fact that things can be totally turned around by just looking within, recognizing what stopped one caring, and what sucked one's passion out of the bones, and dealing with it, is testament to a power that lies within each and every one of us.

Instead of just plodding along and things not really working for us, or worse, being physically unhappy with our jobs and lives, we simply must "get off our bloody arses" and do something about it. If all the passion, drive and lust for one's own life has been similarly eroded, we are duty bound to face that, get down to some real hard personal work, and turn it around, for ourselves. We all don't get the luxury of a filmed intervention by Gordon, but we can learn some of the lessons he lives by every day, quite clearly, and use them for our very own "intervention". 

As talented as the big guy is, he sure ain't God. He doesn't wave a magic wand and suddenly a dying restaurant is back in business. While he does provide expert input into all things cuisine, it is the psychological aspect of what he shares that has the biggest impact on all of the individuals involved. By getting off the sofa, and doing instead of moaning, and not being afraid of hard work, and actually injecting some previously lost but new-found passion back into that work - well, it rarely doesn't get better. It just goes to show, channel hopping can occasionally be both inspirational and educational at the same time! Even though I'm now suddenly hungry again! ;)  - Kevin Mc