Kitchen Nightmares’ Chappy’s restaurant closed just weeks after the intervention by Gordon Ramsay and his team, as the owner returned to his former hostile behaviour and menu.
Kitchen Nightmares aspired to help failing restaurants through the intervention of culinary expert and television personality, Gordon Ramsay.
However, throughout its seven-season run, viewers of the show learnt that this was not always possible. Mostly as a result of the behaviour of the restaurateurs.
An important lesson taught by the series and the lack of success of most of the restaurants profiled after Ramsay and his team’s intervention, was the fact that as much as Ramsay could work on improving the quality of the restaurant, he could not fix the attitudes of the owners and staff of restaurants like Chappy’s.
What was Kitchen Nightmares?
Kitchen Nightmares was a slight departure from the usual reality show formats that Gordon Ramsay was popular for like Hell’s Kitchen, which focused on propelling the careers of professional chefs.
Kitchen Nightmares’ premise on the other hand was, “Gordon Ramsay visits struggling restaurants across America and spends one week trying to help them become successful.”
It ended up being this exact premise that affected the show’s longevity, as most of the restaurants went out of business following Ramsay and his team’s visits.
Therefore, for viewers, Kitchen Nightmares became more about the drama that took place than the happy ending suggested at the end.
Is Chappy’s from Kitchen Nightmares still open?
One of the most memorable episodes from Kitchen Nightmares was from the sixth season, featuring Chappy’s restaurant. The Cajun inspired restaurant was owned by John “Chappy” Chapman and his wife Sheri.
Chappy also served as the head chef, but he had a volatile personality towards his staff, and food that was subpar as Ramsay would later discover, as well as an unhygienic kitchen.
He was seemingly in denial about the quality of his food, and blamed not only the customers for their lack of understanding of Cajun cuisine, but also the fact that they relocated to a new location following Hurricane Katrina, for the state of his restaurant.
Chappy was regarded as egotistical by those that watched the episode, and his staff affirmed this sentiment.
Despite this fact, Chappy did take Ramsay’s renovations, but after the team left, Chappy returned to his old form and brought back his original menu.
The restaurant closed down in the months that followed, as they could not afford to pay the lease of their premises.
What is Chappy doing now?
Following the failure of Chappy’s, according to Reality Tv Updates, Chappy took to Facebook in light of the closure to in part write, “I love Nashville. Nashville’s been great to us and we love all our customers!” Going on to add, “This is a very sad day since we have worked so hard. We shouldn’t have done Kitchen Nightmares.”
However, Chappy was not discouraged, and in 2016, he opened a new food venture called Rum Kitchen. The reviews of the new restaurant have been favourable.
In 2021, Chef John Chapman opened a new venture in Orange Beach, Alabama. The Pier House Restaurant & Bar focuses on “the food, the experience, and the service”.
The menu features a variety of coastal delights such as seafood pasta, redfish, swordfish, tuna, Cajun popcorn crawfish, crab cakes, calamari, shrimp, as well as his Cahppy’s signature 2-2-2 baked oysters.
Why did Kitchen Nightmares end?
Kitchen Nightmares ended abruptly during season seven. The series was already six episodes into the new season when Gordon Ramsay decided to end it.
His reasons for ending the show were not due to a drop in ratings as is usually the case in the first reason for a show’s cancellation.
Instead, the decision was made wholly by Ramsay, as he grew exasperated by the public’s continuous highlighting of the series’ lack of effectiveness in helping restaurants become successful, and even more so since Ramsay was believed to have exploited the failing businesses in order to create “good reality television.”
Will Kitchen Nightmares return?
In the years that followed the end of Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay stated that he regretted cancelling the show.
He confirmed that the decision was impulsive, and that while he might regret ending the series on impulse, the chances of Kitchen Nightmares returning are slim.
Ramsay and his production team are already working on cooking show reality formats, the latest of which is Next Level Chef, which premiered on 2 January 2022 with its first season.
Final thoughts
Throughout its seven seasons, Kitchen Nightmares profiled over 77 restaurants. The series as a whole has a success rate of 22 percent, as over 60 of the restaurants have since closed after being on the series.
While many would agree that their interpersonal issues that permeated into the running of the business was the reason for most of the closures, owners like John “Chappy” Chapman have blamed Gordon Ramsay and their appearance on the show for their restaurants closing down in the years that followed.
